Extranet / Client Site Map -- looking for ideas
We are in the process of rolling out a new publishing site as well as client extranet (using ECTS) on MOSS. On the home page of the publishing site, they'd like a button for clients to hit to get to their extranet sites / client logon. So, I was hoping someone could give me a push in the right direction as to how to accomplish this without each client seeing the other clients. My first thought was to build a site map of sorts that the home page button would like to, but then obviously the client list would be right there. So, I'm not sure how to direct folks automatically. I figure I'll have to set that button to the FBA site, but the users won't get directed to their site and thus will receive access denied.
So, has anyone crossed this bridge that could either give me some advice, point me at a good blog or white paper or case study? Something, just not sure where to start with this one.
Many Thanks,
-Bill
All Replies
- Hi Whadden,
My understanding is as follows:
1) You have two web applications, one for publishing and the other for extranet users
2) In the Publishing web application in some page you want to give links there by clients can be re-directed to the extranet URL
I have few questions:
1) Do you have any authentication in the Publishing site? I assume it would be anonymous, then how would you get to know which client is accessing your publishing page
2) Can you brief me more about "without each client seeing the other clients"
Some Suggestions:
1) If the number of clients is less, can't you maintain it in a Publishing Web - SharePoint list
2) Use a content query web part / custom web part to provide the links in the Publishing Web page?
Raghavan- Marked As Answer byLambert QinMSFT, ModeratorTuesday, June 09, 2009 7:43 AM
- Unmarked As Answer bywhadden Wednesday, June 10, 2009 6:44 PM
Hi Raghavan,
Sorry for the delay in responding, unfortunately some tragic events sidelined me for the past week.
Your understanding is mostly correct. We do have an anonymous publishing site that will serve as the company’s corporate website. On it, they would like 1 button for clients to be able to hit and log into their respective client collaboration site.
The question of “how would you get to know which client is accessing your publishing page” is kind of my question or at least along the same lines. We can’t really determine which client is accessing the publishing site until they click the button to log into the extranet site using Forms-based Authentication. But, each client will only be able to get to their respective site/site collection.
Regarding the request to clarify, “without each client seeing the other clients”, what I mean by that is I can’t have a list or site map that shows the client list. We can’t let someone from Client1 know that we also do work for Client2. So the idea of having a master list for them to choose which client they’re from is out.
So, a user from client1 can log into – https://clients.company.com/sites/client1 At this time, and this is what may have to change, they can not access https://clients.company.com. Nor can that person access https://clients.company.com/sites/client2.
So far I’ve considered using audiences to help with this. In that case, everyone from client1 would be added to an audience “client1”. Then, we would give all of the clients access to https://clients.company.com and tailor the landing page to contain audience driven web parts linking to their respective client site. But I can see (a) a lot of places that could go wrong (from a human process perspective) (b) becoming a Burden to maintain (c) potentially causing performance issues when loading that page.
Thanks for the help,
-Bill- Hi whadden,
My suggestion would be the following:
1) Provide a link in the landing page called "Clients Login here".
2) Re-Direct them to the login screen [FBA authentication]
3) After they are authenticated redirect them to the appropriate Site Colection based on the Client. You can handle this in the code behind of the login screen
Better to avoid unnecessary webparts in the landing page as it will be mostly hit. If all the Users accessing the site would be clients, then you can think about having the web part.
Hope this helps
Raghavan Thanks Raghavan,
I believe what you’re recommending would be the most elegant way to do it. Any idea about the level of complexity to make that happen or references that could help me learn how to make those changes behind the FBA form?
