[MKWS Target Selection](library-configuration.html)
+MKWS Target Selection
+---------------------
+
+MKWS accesses targets using the Pazpar2 metasearching engine. Although
+Pazpar2 can be used directly, using a statically configured set of
+targets, this usage is unusual. More often, Pazpar2 is fronted by the
+Service Proxy (SP), which manages authentication, sessions, target
+selection, etc.
+
+This document assumes the SP is used, and explains how to go about
+making a set of targets (a "library") available, how to connect your
+MKWS application to that library, and how to choose which of the
+available targets to use.
+
+
+### Maintaining the library
+
+The service proxy accesses sets of targets that are known as
+"libraries". In general, each customer will have their own library,
+though some standard libraries may be shared between many customers --
+for example, a library containing all open-access academic journals.
+A library can also contain other configuration information, including
+the set of categories by which targets are classified for the library.
+
+Libraries are maintained using MKAdmin (MasterKey
+Admin). Specifically, those used by MKWS are generally maintained on
+the "MKX Admin" installation at
+<http://mkx-admin.indexdata.com/console/>
+
+In general, Index Data will create a library for each customer, then
+give the customer a username/password pair that they can use to enter
+MKAdmin and administrate that library.
+
+Once logged in, customers can select which targets to include (from
+the list of several thousand that MKAdmin knows about), and make
+customer-specific modifications -- e.g. overriding the titles of the
+targets.
+
+Most importantly, customers' administrators can add authentication
+credentials that the Service Proxy will used on their behalf when
+accessing subscription resources -- username/password pairs or proxies
+to use for IP-based authentication. Note that **it is then crucial to
+secure the library from use by unauthorised clients**, otherwise the
+customer's paid subscriptions will be exploited.
+
+Access to libraries is managed by creating one or more "User Access"
+records in MKAdmin, under the tab of that name. Each of these records
+provides a combination of credentials and other data that allow an
+incoming MKWS client to be identified as having legitimate access to
+the library. The authentication process, described below, works by
+searching for a matching User Access record.
+
+
+### Authenticating your MWKS application onto the library
+
+Some MKWS applications will be content to use the default library with
+its selection of targets. Most, though, will want to define their own
+library providing a different range of available targets. An important
+case is that of applications that authenticate onto subscription
+resources by means of backe-end site credentials stored in MKAdmin:
+precautions must be taken so that such library accounts do not allow
+unauthorised access.
+
+Setting up such a library is a process of several stages.
+
+#### Create the User Access account
+
+Log in to MKAdmin administrate your library:
+
+* Go to <http://mkx-admin.indexdata.com/console/>
+* Enter the adminstrative username/password
+* Go to the User Access tab
+* Create an end-user account
+* Depending on what authentication method it be used, set the
+ User Access account's username and password, or IP-address range, or
+ referring URL, or hostname.
+
+If your MWKS application runs at a well-known, permanent address --
+<http://yourname.com/app.html>, say -- you can set the User Access
+record so that this originating URL is recognised by setting it into
+the "Referring URL" field.
+
+If your application accesses the Service Proxy by a unique virtual
+hostname -- yourname.sp-mkws.indexdata.com, say -- you can tie the use
+of this hostname to your library by setting the User Access record's
+"Host Name" field to name of the host where the SP is accessed. **Note
+that this is not secure, as other applications can use this virtual
+hostname to gain access to your library.**
+
+> TODO Authentication by IP address does not yet work correctly -- see
+> bug MKWS-234 ("Improve SP configuration/proxying for better
+> authentication").
+
+Alternatively, your application can authenticate by username and
+password credentials. This is a useful approach in several situations,
+including when you need to specify the use of a different library from
+usual one. To arrange for this, set the username and password as a
+single string separated by a slash -- e.g. "mike/swordfish" -- into
+the User Access record's Authentication field.
+
+You can create multiple User Access records: for example, one that
+uses Referring URL, and another that uses a username/password pair to
+be used when running an application from a different URL.
+
+#### Tell the application to use the library
+
+In the HTML of the application, tell MKWS to authenticate on to the
+Service Proxy. When IP-based, referer-based or hostname-based
+authentication is used, this is very simple:
+
+ <script type="text/javascript">
+ var mkws_config = { service_proxy_auth:
+ "//sp-mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy/?command=auth&action=perconfig" };
+ </script>
+
+> TODO This should be the default setting
+
+And ensure that access to the MWKS application is from the correct
+Referrer URL or IP-range.
+
+#### (Optional): access by a different virtual hostname
+
+When hostname-based authentication is in use, it's necessary to access
+the Service Proxy as the correctly named virtual host. This can be
+done by setting the `service_proxy_auth` configuration item to a
+URL containing that hostname, such as
+<//yourname.sp-mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy/?command=auth&action=perconfig>
+
+> TODO It should be possible to change just the hostname without
+> needing to repeat the rest of the URL (protocol, path, query)
+
+> TODO When changing the SP authentication URL, the Pazpar2 URL should
+> in general change along with it.
+
+#### (Optional): embed credentials for access to the library
+
+When credential-based authentication is in use (username and
+password), it's necessary to pass these credentials into the Service
+Proxy when establishing the session. This can most simply be done just
+by setting the `service_proxy_auth` configuration item to a URL such as
+<//sp-mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy/?command=auth&action=perconfig&username=mike&password=swordfish>
+
+> TODO It should be possible to add the username and password to the
+> configuration without needing to repeat the rest of the URL.
+
+#### (Optional): conceal credentials from HTML source
+
+Using a credential-based Service-Proxy authentication URL such as the
+one above reveals the the credentials to public view -- to anyone who
+does View Source on the MKWS application. This may be acceptable for
+some libraries, but is intolerable for those which provide
+authenticated access to subscription resources.
+
+In these circumstances, a more elaborate approach is necessary. The
+idea is to make a URL local to the customer that is used for
+authentication onto the Service Proxy, hiding the credentials in a
+local rewrite rule. Then local mechanisms can be used to limit access
+to that local authentication URL. Here is one way to do it when
+Apache2 is the application's web-server, which we will call
+yourname.com:
+
+- Add a rewriting authentication alias to the configuration:
+
+ RewriteEngine on
+ RewriteRule /spauth/ http://mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy/?command=auth&action=check,login&username=U&password=PW [P]
+
+- Set the MKWS configuration item `service_proxy_auth` to
+ <http://yourname.com/spauth/>
+- Protect access to the local path <http://yourname.com/spauth/>
+ (e.g. using a .htaccess file).
+
+
+### Choosing targets from the library
+
+MKWS applications can choose what subset of the library's targets to
+use, by means of several alternative settings on individual widgets or
+in the `mkws_config` structure:
+
+* `targets` -- contains a Pazpar2 targets string, typically of the form
+ "pz:id=" or "pz:id~" followed by a pipe-separated list of low-level
+ target IDs.
+ At present, these IDs can take one of two forms, depending on the
+ configuration of the Service Proxy being used: they may be based on
+ ZURLs (so a typical value would be something like
+ `pz:id=josiah.brown.edu:210/innopac|lui.indexdata.com:8080/solr4/select?fq=database:4902`)
+ or they may be UDBs (so a typical value would be something like
+ `pz:id=brown|artstor`)
+
+* `targetfilter` -- contains a CQL query which is used to find relevant
+ targets from the relvant library. For example,
+ `udb==Google_Images`
+ or
+ `categories=news`
+
+* `target` -- contains a single UDB, that of the sole target to be
+ used. For example,
+ `Google_Images`.
+ This is merely syntactic sugar for "targetfilter" with the query
+ `udb==NAME`
+
+For example, a `Records` widget can be limited to searching only in
+targets that have been categorised as news sources by providing an
+attribute as follows:
+
+ <div class="mkwsRecords" targetfilter='categories=news'/>
+
+
Reference Guide
---------------
projects / mkws-moved-to-github.git / commitdiff