Authentication problem if not running on localhost

[kosirm]

Hi, it would be great if we could use/develop NetlifyCMS sites on some Web IDE (Cloud 9, Codenvy, etc),
Currently, it is possible to use NetlifyCMS admin only on localhost, but it would be nice to show some love for Chromebook/Tablet/Convertible/etc. users...
The main problem is authentication.
I personally run NetlifyCMS on Cloud 9 with GitLab backend like described in docs, but can't access admin - there is always the same message in the popup: Failed to load settings from /.netlify/identity, and 404 error in console: GET http://my-site.c9users.io:8080/.netlify/identity/settings 404 (Not Found).
I use latest NetlifyCMS (1.9.2), latest Chrome on Windows.
If somebody knows for a working workarround I would be grateful for any info.

[tech4him1]

@kosirm Have you tried using GitLab implicit grant for login? You can see our docs here: https://www.netlifycms.org/docs/authentication-backends/#gitlab-backend.

[kosirm]

Thanks, @tech4him1 that's exactly the document I was following, maybe I'm doing something wrong, I don't know. I tried this and that... (Web Application Flow, Client-Side Implicit Grant)

[tech4him1]

Do you have the identity widget script left on your CMS page? It needs to be removed if you use implicit grant.

[kosirm]

I don't know how to do this. Any detailed information highly appreciated.

[tech4him1]

What is the output of your admin HTML?

[kosirm]

Thanks, @tech4him1 for an intelligent answer 😄 I commented¸out Netlify identity widget in site/static/admin/index.html and in site/static/partials/head.html . Now I get a login screen (username, password, login). If I try to log in with my Gitlab username/password, I get an error response in the console: POST http://my-site.c9users.io:8080/.netlify/identity/token 404 (Not Found). It's a step forward, but I still have no idea, what to do.

[tech4him1]

Alright, what is the backend section in your CMS config.yml? Make sure it matches the docs for implicit authentication. The backend name should be gitlab, not git-gateway.

[kosirm]

According to documentation, I added gitlab to my site/config.toml.
So this is content of my config.toml:
baseurl = "/"
languageCode = "en-us"
title = "Homepage"
[backend]
name = "gitlab"
repo = "kosirm/rehobot-hugo-cms"
auth_type = "implicit"
app_id ="asdfadsfasdfasdfasdfasdfdsafaf3424522452352345234523452345324532"

Should I do something else?

[tech4him1]

@kosirm Your Hugo config.toml is completly seperate from your CMS admin. They are seperate files in separate locations:

+--- archetypes/
+--- content/
+--- static/
|      +--- admin/
|       |      +--- index.html <======== This is the CMS admin page.
|       |      +--- config.yml <======== This is the CMS config.
+--- layouts/
+--- themes/
+--- config.toml <============== This is your Hugo config.toml.

Your CMS settings should go in your CMS config.yml, which sits beside your CMS admin HTML page, and your Hugo settings should go in your Hugo config.toml, in the root of your repository. The GitLab authentication is part of the CMS, not Hugo, so it goes in your CMS configuration file.

Does that make sense? 😄

[kosirm]

Thank you so much for your time @tech4him1 !!! Stupid me. Ok, I found config.yml 😄 Finally I get gitlab login screen, I get gitlab login redirect, I login, but I don't get redirect back. Instead, I finish on Gitlab User settings page with error message:
An error has occurred
Client authentication failed due to unknown client, no client authentication included, or unsupported authentication method.
This can be seen also in address bar: https://gitlab.com/oauth/authorize?client_id=undefined&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Frehofly-infocube.c9users.io%3A8080%2Fadmin%2F&response_type=token&scope=api&state=5a80344a81a2d794eb37abacb94ee2554d2282ef03c095e3c50844ee521acf02
According to documentation I created Gitlab application with my cloud 9 address as redirect address.

[Benaiah]

@kosirm have you set the app_id referenced here: https://www.netlifycms.org/docs/authentication-backends/#client-side-implicit-grant? It's undefined in the URL you pasted - if that is in the config.yml, it's probably a bug with the CMS.

[kosirm]

Thanks @Benaiah, yes I referenced it like described. So client_id for Gitlab is the same as app_id? If so, I don't know...
This is on the beginning of my site/static/admin/config.yml:
backend:
name: gitlab
repo: kosirm/rehobot-hugo-cms
auth_type: implicit
app_id: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx....

App id is what I get from Gitlab when I created application:

Application Id | xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx....
Secret: | yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy....
Callback url | https://rehofly-infocube.c9users.io:8080
Scopes | api (Access the authenticated user's API)

[tech4him1]

@kosirm The app_id setting is the correct location. However, it looks like you are running Netlify CMS v1.8.0 -- it will need updated to at least v1.9.1 to work with GitLab implicit authentication (that's where the bug was fixed).

[kosirm]

Thank you much for help again @tech4him1
You are right... I just used one-click installation assumed that it is the latest build. In my package json I changed "netlify-cms": "netlify/netlify-cms#gitlab-build" to "netlify-cms": "1.9.3"
Now I get Gitlab error The redirect URI included is not valid.
My Gitlab redirect URI is https://rehofly-infocube.c9users.io:8080/admin
Is this outside of netlifycms scope?

[tech4him1]

I believe I've had that problem before -- the Callback URL in GitLab must be the exact admin URL. It should include the /admin part at the end.