[development] authentication hooks - PLEASE HELP

[Sheryl (Permutations Software)]

The only way I know to turn on output buffering it to create the buffer at
the top of the page and write it at the bottom with these calls:

ob_start();
...
ob_end_flush();

But with Drupal - who knows where the top of the page is, or the bottom.
Hmmm... Actually, I wrote a custom template in PHP (no engine). Maybe I can
put it in my template file.

>> An alternative hack is to write debugging output to the  
watchdog table (works only for debugging sections of code where common.inc
is available)

Thanks for the watchdog tip... I don't know where common.inc is used or when
it would "be available". I'm a strong PHP programmer, but not very familiar
with Drupal's architecture.

I did write to the author of the Webserver Auth mod and he wrote back -
hopefully he can help.


-----Original Message-----
From: development-bounces at drupal.org [mailto:development-bounces at drupal.org]
On Behalf Of puregin
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2005 3:45 PM
To: development at drupal.org
Subject: Re: [development] authentication hooks - PLEASE HELP

Hi Sheryl,

      I believe that output buffering is a PHP option - you can  
enable it in your
php.ini file, or .htaccess, or in your settings.php file.

      An alternative hack is to write debugging output to the  
watchdog table
(works only for debugging sections of code where common.inc is  
available):

     watchdog('debug', "var = $var");

It's ugly but hey, what people will do in times of desperation...

I've not looked at Webserver authentication.  Have you tried  
contacting the
maintainer?  You might also try hanging out in #drupal at  
irc.freenode.net.

Have a look at drupaldocs.org for the developer documentation, including
overviews of the hook system.   The Drupal handbooks may also be of
help, especially the Developer handbook (http://drupal.org/handbooks)

Cheers, Djun


On 18-Dec-2005, at 12:26 PM, Sheryl (Permutations Software) wrote:

> I downloaded the Webserver Authentication module because it's very  
> similar to the module that I need to write for my own site. It's a  
> simple module, but I can't get it to work and I've hit a brick  
> wall. Nothing works - Drupal doesn't recognize when I'm logged into  
> my other authentication system, let alone create Drupal  
> registrations on the fly. It doesn't even appear that the hook_auth  
> module is being called, but I can't trace through the execution  
> because Drupal doesn't use output buffers so inserting echo  
> statements causes errors.
>
> I have tested my login and authentication functions in a separate  
> test program, so I know that they work. I don't know why my module  
> doesn't work. It's probably something simple, but there is  
> virtually no documentation on authentication modules, and I can't  
> figure it out for myself because I can't trace through execution  
> with echo statements. I need information on these basic questions:
>
> - Which hook functions are called when (and not just from within  
> the Drupal code, but from what user action)? I thought that  
> hook_auth() might be called when the user logged in (that was a  
> wild guess), but I can't get Drupal to call this function no matter  
> what I do.
>
> - Exactly how the returns of each function are used - in what other  
> parts of Drupal. Without knowing this, I don't know what's  
> required. In particular for hook_auth, but also for hook_info. When/ 
> how are the hook_info functions used? By what part of Drupal? What  
> might call these, and why?
>
> - What values are set in the database to control authentication,  
> and what does each value mean? In particular, what is the meaning  
> of the different values for "status" in the user table?
>
> - How can I echo values while the script is executing to I can  
> debug my modules???????????????
>
> Please, someone help. I've posted message after message, and no one  
> helps. Thanks in advance.
>
>
>
>