More on Userplane Desktop Authentication

Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months. - Clifford Stoll

This week I wanted to give a plug to my Userplane Desktop article that was just published, and talk just a bit more about how easy it really is to integrate Userplane Desktop authentication with your community. Userplane Desktop allows web communities to extend their presence beyond just their web site, pushing updates to user when they're made available.

Authentication Integration

Userplane integration with your we site comes from the DPXML file that is deployed on your site. The DPXML interface can utilize ASP, PHP, and Coldfusion APIs. My article shows developers how to integrate Userplane Desktop authentication with WordPress. Wordpress stores username and passwords in a MySQL database. Usernames and passwords are stored in the wp_users table. I simply wrote an authenticate function in PHP which accepts a username and password, and returns true if there's a match in the wp_users table. That's it!

Following the template I've outlined, it should be easy integrate authentication with your web community. You'll need to determine how your site implements authentication. The DPXML interface is called during the Userplane Desktop authentication process, passing the username and password as parameters. You can check this information against the your communities database.