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    Patron authentication with NCIP server

    • Article Type: General
    • Product: Aleph
    • Product Version: 18.01

    Description:
    I have a question about patron authentication with the NCIP server. When making a request for an item, we need to authenticate the patron. I tried my own ID and password, but it failed. I created a new ID "WCL" (with barcode 1234567890 and password 1234567890) and it didn't work either. Since we use LDAP to authenticate web users, I tried using my LDAP login as well. It also failed. I'm out of options now. Can you help me with that? The request file I used was AuthenticateUser.xml.

    Resolution:
    I have traced the action of the Authenticate User command. There are several factors that need to be considered to get this to work.
    - The ID you use has to be a valid ID that is in the Z308 table
    - It should be in the fields that you have used (AuthenticationInputType/Value and AuthenticationDataFormatType/Value)
    - In tab_bor_id, the ID type must be marked with a "Y" in column 6 (i.e. okay for WWW)
    - The ID type code (as in tab_bor_id and Z308) must be the "match_id_type" in the Default stanza of tab_ncip.conf
    - If the type requires LDAP authentication, the IP must be okay with the LDAP server

    It may be that you had everything right for your test of the LDAP login/password except for the match_id_type in the Default stanza of tab_ncip.conf. If you're not sure whether you had that set or not, you might want to try that test again. Since the column 6 value for the ID type needs to be set to "Y" in tab_bor_id, I suspect you will want to use your LDAP credentials for this purpose. Otherwise, you will have to turn on another scheme for Web OPAC authentication.

    For testing, you may wish to change column 6 of tab_bor_id to "Y" for some other type, such as Barcode to see if you can get that working before testing with LDAP, but that's up to you.


    • Article last edited: 10/8/2013
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