Question

I have recently upgraded to beta release 2004x07x03, using PatternSkin. I have tried to set up the site for partial authentication, which worked well with the previous version. Now, ALL page views force authentication. I think it has something to do with a viewauth request for a user layout page, related to PatternSkin. I get this ssl_access_log entry:

64.n.n.n - - [28/Aug/2004:14:52:34 -0500]"GET/playspot/bin/viewauth/Main/%25USERSTYLEURL%25 HTTP/1.1" 401 59

Am I understanding correctly, that this is causing unwanted authentication? Can I turn this off so that unauthenticated users can view the site?

Environment

-- AndyWiese - 28 Aug 2004

Answer

The user style layout is not fully worked out yet. You should be able to disable it to avoid the authentication: Remove the following from twiki/templates/twiki.pattern.tmpl:

   /* Custom overriding layout per web or per topic */
   @import url("%USERLAYOUTURL%");
   /* Custom overriding style per web or per topic */
   @import url("%USERSTYLEURL%");

-- PeterThoeny - 03 Sep 2004

I also ran into this problem.

When working on my TWiki (Cairo, Apache 2.0.52, Perl 5.8.3) on my home network I got the strange error log in the Apache log but things worked. But when accessing my own TWiki site from work through the company firewall my browser wanted to authenticate all the time. This is a really nasty bug.

I found an altertive work around which does not require changing the perl code and may be more attractive quick fix for the occational newbie user because it can be done from a browser.

I edit the TWikiPreferences and add these two lines (just below Set TWIKISTYLEURL)

• • Set USERLAYOUTURL =
  • Set USERSTYLEURL =

The solution to this bug should really be added to the TWiki.org installation documentation because a Cairo based TWiki site is impossible to use for many users depending on firewalls and other factors. Maybe it should be added under the known problems for Cairo. Maybe both the real solution (remove the code lines) and the work around.

-- KennethLavrsen - 06 Oct 2004

You should avoid @import url("");, because the latest Firefox (since 1.0.1? 1.0.2?) tries to read the topic itself as CSS. It results in two HTTP accesses per topic view.

-- KaoruMaeda - 31 Mar 2005