topic Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework in ArcGIS API for Flex Questions

Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

ionarawilson1 — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 17:15:53 GMT

Does anybody have any article, tutorial or link to instructions on how to integrate FLEX in a .NET environment, specially with respect to authentication? How do we create user logins (which the user could create his own login and password) with Flex in a .NET environment? I looked all over the web and can't find anything on this topic.

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

AaronNash1 — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:00:15 GMT

There was some code posted in the old forum that showed people how to handle a simple log in screen, but it was pulled because to many people were having issues implementing the .net webservice and modifying the index.mxml in the flexivewer.

All you would need to do it compile the .net webservice in visual studios and place it in a web directory in IIS. Then edit the index.mxml in the flexviewer (or whatever application you are using) to include the code from the attached file. In line 89 of the attached index.mxml you will need to change the URL to your newly compiled webservice. I take no credit for this code, I downloaded it and was able to implement it in my environment. This will get you started with securing flex applications, but the administrator will need to create the usernames and password.

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

ionarawilson1 — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:57:35 GMT

This is awesome!!! Thank you so much for this! I am starting to learn how to use VS so this is perfect!

I am not using flex viewer so if I want to allow users to view my application do I just deleted the code to get access to flexviewer ( lines 135 forward) and include the code for my web application ?
Also, the login would just to get to the web application and not to edit any feature layers, right? Is there a way to implement editing of the feature layers so the logged users can edit it?

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

grahamcooke — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 08:46:05 GMT

What I did was a create a .NET wrapper application and simply host the flex application in one of the aspx pages. There is another thread about flex login here:http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/25899-Login-Screen-for-the-Flexviewer?p=168298#post168298

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

AaronNash1 — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 10:50:58 GMT

This is awesome!!! Thank you so much for this! I am starting to learn how to use VS so this is perfect!

I am not using flex viewer so if I want to allow users to view my application do I just deleted the code to get access to flexviewer ( lines 135 forward) and include the code for my web application ?
Also, the login would just to get to the web application and not to edit any feature layers, right? Is there a way to implement editing of the feature layers so the logged users can edit it?

If you want to implement this into your own application copy lines 24 through 137, add line 21 into your application tag (to set the current state to login) and within your code for your map add "includeIn="Viewer" That will set the default state of the application to Log in and then when the user logs in the state will change to viewer which is your map.

The login would just allow users to get into your application, whatever you enable in your application is what they would have access to. If you want to enable editing of a feature layer there are some nice samples available, like this one, if you are using ArcServer 10.1 there is also some new security features like this one

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

ionarawilson1 — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 12:21:25 GMT

What I did was a create a .NET wrapper application and simply host the flex application in one of the aspx pages. There is another thread about flex login here:http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/25899-Login-Screen-for-the-Flexviewer?p=168298#post168298

Hi Graham,
I am very interested to see how you did it.
You say in your previous thread: "If anyone is interested I can make the .NET code available together with the stored procedures for creating the authorisation tables in SQLServer,". Could you make it available to me? Thanks!!!

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

ionarawilson1 — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 12:22:17 GMT

Thank you again Aaron. I will try that and see how it goes! Cheers!

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

JustinNettleton — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:25:17 GMT

If you want to implement this into your own application copy lines 24 through 137, add line 21 into your application tag (to set the current state to login) and within your code for your map add "includeIn="Viewer" That will set the default state of the application to Log in and then when the user logs in the state will change to viewer which is your map.

The login would just allow users to get into your application, whatever you enable in your application is what they would have access to. If you want to enable editing of a feature layer there are some nice samples available, like this one, if you are using ArcServer 10.1 there is also some new security features like this one

I took this approach and got the log in screen to pop-up but if goes away real quick and the map I am trying to secure pops up. So the login screen loads, but is bypassed very quickly. I tried to change "includeIn="Viewer" but that just error-ed out when I tried to compile.

Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:28:15 GMT

Justin,

See this thread:

http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/25899-Login-Screen-for-the-Flexviewer?p=139178&viewfull=1#post139178

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

JustinNettleton — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:18:04 GMT

Thanks Robert, actually fixed my problem but this thread answers some other questions I had.

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

BenjaminMercier — Tue, 25 Jun 2013 13:37:52 GMT

Hi everybody,

I download the folder Aaron gently shared.
I follow indications here and on this thread: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/25899-Login-Screen-for-the-Flexviewer?p=134959&viewfull=1#post134959, especially what Phillip gave as install instructions:

Modify my index.mxml as explained (add the part of code to display the login form, validate functions and replace the localhost by my server name...)

Paste the ArcGIS_Security folder on my wwwroot

Give IIS_IUSRS read/write permissions in IIS Manager

Convert this folder in application (still in IIS Manager)

But I still have 'Internal Database Error'. I don't really know what I did wrong, if anybody could help me, it would be great.

FYI I'm working on ArcGIS Viewer for Flex 3.2 on source code.

Thanks in advance,

Ben

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

AaronNash1 — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 10:42:09 GMT

try copying the flex and security site to your webserver, I had similar issues when trying it on my local machine.

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

BenjaminMercier — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 10:58:31 GMT

Hello Aaron,

Thanks for your answer.
Indeed, my project is, for now, deployed on my local IIS machine and not in the IIS server of the entreprise. I hoped that it wasn't the problem because I have to finish to develop the application before deploying it on the webserver...
I'll come back on this threads in few weeks, when I'll be able to try it on the general web server.
Thanks you for the advise.

Last question, does anybody managed to mix this authentification with the security by tokens from ArcGIS Server? I mean that I'd like to put this double security and in the same time have only one form for authentification. For the moment if I put token security I have one form for the .NET component authentification and then the flex form authentifiction to be able to show the secured layer. Is it possible to do both in the same form at the beginning?

Benjamin

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

AaronNash1 — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 14:23:01 GMT

I have not done the anything with using OAuth, but I did change the way a user authenticates in the flexviewer by using pop-up manager for the login form. Does not use a webservice and allows me to have specific users for every website. Attached is a modified index.mxml file, the code for the popup, and an xml file for usernames and passwords.

Just replace the index.mxml file (or modify yours), add the data.xml file in the same location as the index.mxml, and copy the PasswordMode.mxml to the com\esri\viewer folder. A little easier than using a webservice

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

BenjaminMercier — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 07:02:11 GMT

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for this security advice. It works well, I guess I just have to create the TitleWindow_Close skinClass in com.esri.viewer to customize the opening PopUp in order to delete the close button, am I right?
This could be a great solution for authentification, but in another way, using a webservice for authentification should be better for me, it could permit me to associate a file config.xml which should be loaded with the user authentified. This can't be possible with your popup authentification except if I pass this config in URL.
But if I can 'mix' that popup with an arcgis Security token it could be enough for us, is that possible?

But indeed, for people who don't have the same needs as mine, it's a really easier way to be authentified in the application, so thanks you a lot.

Have you ever thought about SSL security??

Thanks for all your quick answers.
Ben

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

AaronNash1 — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 12:00:52 GMT

you are right, attached is the titlewindow_close skin, that removes the close button. I have never needed to do enhanced security using SSL. One of my colleagues created a new ArcServer instance and set it up on an internal port that was blocked to external traffic. That allowed him to serve up protected web services on our production webserver without having to enable security in ArcServer.

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

BenjaminMercier — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:05:59 GMT

I will manage with that, and wait to put my webservice and application on the webserver because I really would like to associate an authentified user to an specific config.xml without using URL parameters.
Thanks for your help and advises.

Ben

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

saurabhgupta2 — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 09:46:28 GMT

Hello Everyone

I have a complied version of flexviewer 3.6 . Can anyone suggest me how to put a logoin screen in that .

Regards

Saurabh

Re: Authentication, user logins and Flex in a .NET framework

RobertScheitlin__GISP — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 13:31:52 GMT

Saurabh,

Adding the login screen requires a recompile of the Viewer source code after changes have been made so you can not use the compiled viewer for this.