Customizing the Default Login Page to Prompt for Different Credentials

Figure 4-1 A Default Login Page with the Username Prompt

This section explains the following tasks:

  • How to modify the content of the login_latest.jsp file. If you want to modify other aspects of this page, you need to select other methods.

  • How to create a method that sets up the appropriate query so that the user can be found in the user store with an identifier other than the username (the cn attribute).

  • How to create a contract that uses this method and how to modify the login_latest.jsp page so that it prompts for the appropriate identifier such as an email address instead of a username.

Perform the following steps to customize the default login page to prompt for different credentials:

  1. Create a method with the appropriate query:

    1. On the Home page, click Identity Servers > [cluster name] > Authentication > Methods > Plus icon.

    2. Specify a Name.

    3. In Class, select a username/password class.

    4. Turn on Identifies User, and configure the user store according to your needs.

    5. Click Advanced Settings > Plus icon, and specify the following properties:

      Property Name

      Property Value

      Query

      (&(objectclass=person)(mail=%Ecom_User_ID%))

      This property queries the user store for the attribute you want to use rather than the cn attribute (in this case, the mail attribute of the person class). The %Ecom_User_ID% variable is the default variable name on the login page. You can change this to %EMail_Address% if you also change the value in your custom login page.

      For information about how to use this property, see Query Property.

      JSP

      <filename>

      Replace <filename> with the name of the custom login_latest.jsp page you are going to create so that the page prompts the user for an email address rather than a username. This must be the filename without the JSP extension. For example, if you name your file email_login.jsp, then you would specify email_login for the property value.

    6. Click Done > Save.

  2. Create a contract that uses this method:

    1. On the Home page, click Identity Servers > [cluster name] > Authentication > Contract > Plus icon.

    2. Select the method you just created.

    3. Configure other options to fit your requirements.

      See Section 6.1.4, Configuring Authentication Contracts.

    4. Click Save.

  3. Update Identity Server.

  4. Download the login_latest.jsp file from /opt/novell/nids/lib/webapp/jsp and rename it to match the value of the JSP property configured in Step 1. For example, email_login.jsp. For information about how to download a file, see Downloading Files from a Server.

    Add this file to the Identity Server cluster. For information about how to add a file, see Adding Configurations to a Cluster.

  5. (Conditional) If you modified the %Ecom_User_ID% variable, find the string in the file and replace it with your variable.

  6. (Conditional) If you need to support only one language, modify the prompt in the login_latest.jsp file. For information about how to modify a file, see Modifying Configurations.

    1. Find the following string in the file:

      placeholder="<%=handler.getResource(JSPResDesc.USERNAME_UNDER_LABEL)%>"

    2. Replace it with the string you want. For example:

      placeholder="Email Address"

  7. (Conditional) If you need to localize the prompt for multiple languages, create a custom message properties file for the login prompt. See To Customize Identity Server Messages.

    1. Add the following definition to your custom properties file to prompt the user for an email address:

      JSP.50=Email Address:

    2. Translate the value and add this entry to your localized custom properties files.

    3. Add the custom properties file to the /opt/novell/nam/idp/webapps/nidp/WEB-INF/classes folder of the appropriate Identity Server cluster using Advanced File Configurator. For more information, see Adding Configurations to a Cluster.