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reestblishing login permissions too often

reestblishing login permissions too often

by Joel Trussell -
Number of replies: 1
here at NCSU, we often have the problem when we're editing problems and problem sets that Webwork seems to drop our permissions and we have to re-login to continue. This is not related to the Timeout limit, since it occurs very quickly after login and seems to be related to some operations on problems sets. For example, I get the same error simply by adding a blank problem to a problem set and then trying to copy a filename of the pg file and clicking on "save changes" The error message is
ECE220_master [class name] uses an external authentication system (e.g., Oncourse, CAS, Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, etc.). Please return to system you used and try again.
When I logon again, I can see the change has been done and I can continue.
This is particularly annoying when trying to edit problems and debug them, since it requires many logins.
Any ideas of the problem or similar experiences?
In reply to Joel Trussell

Re: reestblishing login permissions too often

by Danny Glin -
Are you using LTI for logins to WeBWorK? That "external authentication system" message should only be triggered when you have one of the external authentication plugins enabled. Also, what version of WeBWorK are you running?

The scenarios where I've seen this type of behaviour are when a new session is created for a user, invalidating the existing session. There are a few ways I've seen this happen:
  • If you were to be working in WeBWorK, and then click the LTI link in your LMS again. Any of the existing WeBWorK windows would be associated with the old session, so they would be logged out, and would kick you out as soon as you clicked on a link.
  • If two different people try to log in to the same WeBWorK account, the most recent one wins. For example if you had a shared professor account which prof A is logged into. As soon as prof B logs into the account, prof A would start getting the behaviour you describe.
Since the issue you're describing seems to happen consistently when you perform certain actions, it sounds like it won't be one of the above scenarios, though they may give you a clue as to what's going on in your case.

I do have a couple of shots in the dark that may apply to you:
  1. Have you tried with a different browser? It's possible that your browser is somehow restricting access to the WeBWorK session cookie, which is kicking you out in certain circumstances.
  2. Do you have SSL enabled? If so, check that $server_root_url in site.conf includes https and not http. If you are redirecting http requests to https, it could be that this works in most circumstances, but fails with some of the AJAX calls in the Library Browser.