NOTE: This is a HistoricalDocument topic. It used to be distributed in an earlier TWiki release, but is no longer part of the official TWiki distribution. Post questions, error notes, and suggestions concerning the documentation of this topic in the comments section below! Use the Support web for problems you are having using TWiki.

TWiki Username vs. Login Username

This section applies only if your TWiki is installed on a server that is both authenticated and on an intranet.

TWiki internally manages two usernames: Login username and TWiki username.

• Login username: When you login to the intranet, you use your existing login username, for example pthoeny. This name is normally passed to TWiki by the REMOTE_USER environment variable. TWiki uses this name internally to log topic changes. Login usernames are maintained by your system administrator.
• TWiki username: This is your name in WikiNotation, for example PeterThoeny, recorded when you register in TWikiRegistration; doing so also generates your personal home page in the Main web of your TWiki site.

TWiki can map the intranet username to the Wiki username automatically, provided that the Login username and Wiki username pair has been entered in the TWikiUsers topic. This happens automatically when you register.

NOTE: To correctly enter a WikiName - your own or someone else's - be sure to specify the Main web in front of the Wiki username: write Main.WikiUsername or %MAINWEB%.WikiUsername. This assures that the name will be linked automatically to the Main web, where user home pages are stored, even if the text is entered in a different web.

-- Contributors: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny

Comments & Questions about this Historical Document Topic

This isn't clear to me. On the registration page I don't see any fields for username, only WikiName. AFAIK, WikiName is the username. That's the username I use when I authenticate here and on my own twiki.

-- DougAlcorn - 27 Oct 2002

This page seems redundant as the same content is on TWikiUserAuthentication#TWiki_Username_vs_Login_Username

-- DanielKabs - 23 Aug 2005

Good point. Topics will be retired, but keeping topic just on TWiki.org (for historical reasons; to keep backlinks happy; and because CoolURIsDontChange).

-- PeterThoeny - 24 Aug 2005