ALTec Passport

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ALTec Passport
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Overview
At ALTec we hosted a variety of web sites (15)
used by teachers, students, and general public to
enhance the use of technology in the teaching and
learning processes. Some of these sites require
registration and login to provide a more
personalized service. Currently, each of these
sites has its own login system, which is not
shared with the other ALTec sites. In this
environment if a user wants to use two or more of
our sites, he/she needs to register and login in
each of those sites, and she/he needs to memorize
each of the usernames and passwords. Another
implication of our current environment is that if
a user logs in any ALTec site and he/she wants to
link to any other ALTec site, she/he would have
to login again in the other site.
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Introduction

• ALTec Passport is a system that attempts to
  overcome these inconveniences. It provides a
  universal login system within ALTec, in which
  users register ONE time and login to any of the
  ALTec sites. It also allows users to login to any
  ALTec site and link to other sites without having
  to login again.

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Advantages / Disadvantages

• Advantages
• Users have a unique username/password for all
  ALTec sites.
• Users can move among ALTec sites without multiple
  logins.
• Disadvantages
• Each of the ALTec sites to be integrated to the
  new system needs to be modified to accommodate to
  the new environment. The degree of these changes
  depends on the level of complexity of the
  registration and login process in each of the
  sites (amount of information requested, steps
  needed for registration, user is allow to update
  profile, use of sessions, cookies, etc).

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Design approaches

• Having a unique location for ALTec users to
  register and login. When a user wants to register
  or login to any of our sites, he/she will be
  redirected to this location to perform the task
  and then redirected back to the site he/she came
  from.
• Advantages
•         Unique registration/login interface for
  all ALTec sites.
•         Single copy of user profile.
•         No need for synchronization of multiple
  databases.

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Design approaches (cont).

• Disadvantages
•         The amount of user information needed in
  each site is different, some sites required only
  a username and password, and others require
  username, password, name, address, telephone, zip
  code, etc. Having a unique registration site
  would require to request all the information than
  any ALTec site could need, even if the user wants
  to use a site that only requires a username and
  password.
•         The registration/login process for some
  sites is unique. For instance, Think Tank
  requests username/password until the last step of
  the process of developing the research topic,
  which means that until that last step the user
  would be link to the unique login page and then
  return back to Think Tank.LAN has a 6-step
  registration

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Design approaches (cont).

• Each site maintains its current registration and
  login system, but its data is shared with the
  other ALTec sites. In this scenario each project
  maintains its own copy of the users profiles,
  and we create a new global database that is
  shared by all the ALTec sites and contains a copy
  of all the profiles. Advantages        Each
  site keeps its regular login/registration
  process.        All the changes are transparent
  to the users.Disadvantages       
  Duplication of profiles.        Increase on the
  complexity of the system due to the fact that
  data has to be synchronized in different
  databases What happen if a user update his/her
  profile in one site?

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Two levels of functionality

• A web site can support the use of a unique
  username and password, but not support an
  automatic login across all the ALTec
  sites.AdvantagesEasier to implementDisadvant
  ageMultiple logins required.

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Two levels of functionality (cont)

• A web site supports the use of a unique username
  and password, and also the automatic login across
  ALTec sites.AdvantagesFull support of the
  system.DisadvantageMore complex integration.

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Final Thoughts

• Design and implement a system that is scalable
  and would allow all the current and future ALTec
  sites to be integrated to it, but start the
  integration of one project at the time, and
  probably one level of functionality at the time
  (first support of unique usernames and later
  support of automatic login).
• Analyze each of our sites and decide which of
  them would actually benefit from this system, and
  if the benefit if worth it the implementation
  effort.