aspace_remote_user

Allow login via environment variable for ArchivesSpace.

Overview

ArchivesSpace normally handles all auth on the backend, the frontend simply passes the user password to the backend to handle this. This obviously won't work for web hosting stacks that use frontend auth middleware such as CoSign. This plugin allows ASpace to authenticate in such cases using an environment variable (set by your web hosting stack) containing the user name.

Usage

First:

cd $YOUR_ASPACE_INSTALL/plugins
git clone https://github.com/mlibrary/aspace_remote_user.git

Then review the content of sample_config.rb and copy its content as appropriate to your config.rb.

Users may be created in the usual manner. A password is still required to create the user but will no longer be used for frontend requests. If the user will not be using the API you may simply set the password to a random string.

Implimentation details

We create a new backend API endpoint that does not require a user password, but instead a configured app level password, for creating a new user session. The frontend automatically calls this endpoint if it finds the expected environment variable. If the user name from the environment exists a new session is created just like if we used the normal login endpoint.

Testing

rspec tests for backend are included. Unit tests just require a working ruby installation w/ the rspec. Integration tests require a running dev copy of ASpace and the curb gem. To set up the development ASpace:

git clone https://github.com/archivesspace/archivesspace.git
cd archivesspace/plugins
git clone https://github.com/mlibrary/aspace_remote_user.git
cp aspace_remote_user/sample_config.rb ../common/config/config.rb
build/run bootstrap
build/run backend:devserver

Also see the ArchivesSpace build system documentation.