website access manager question #2

User 1101646 Photo


Registered User
3 posts

I downloaded the trial version of this, but in reading the directions I noticed that any work done in the trial would be lost with the paid version. So I decided to buy the 34 dollar program. I set it up and passed the tests and connected up to the site. I uploaded three pages called testpass1.html and 2 and 3. Problem is I can not find them in the directory tree in WAM. No matter what I do I cannot see my files. If I go to the site from filezillza I can see the test pages and the index.html and every other page that I have. Not with WAM. I thought I could pick out certain pages and password protect them?

If this helps I am putting a forum (phpbb3)on my site and don't want anyone who doesn't have a password to access the forum. Not only to post but to view. They need to buy my instructional video first and receive a password from me.

I hope this was not a waste of money for what I want to do. Doug
User 1101646 Photo


Registered User
3 posts

Well, I have been trying this out some more and have more questions.

1. I don't quite understand the language that is there when you add new user. In the bottom right hand box it says folders the user has access to. It seems a little like the wording is funny. The user is going to have access to your website. He comes and browses the site. Now he clicks a link and he should be restricted from entering certain portion of the site, unless he supplies password. It does not seem intuitive the way it is set up. It looks like the person I entered into new user now has access to the whole site, when really he had access to one part of site and now he has access to the restricted part.

But anyway forgetting the semantics, I set up a test user and tried restricting the folder marked php3. First problem is I can still go to the php3 forum on the site with out entering any password. The second larger problem is this. When I close the program, WAW, it says you have a modified folder do you want to upload it. I click yes and it uploads it. Then I try to close the program and it says I have a modified folder and it asks do I want to up load it. I say yes and it does. Then I try to close the program and is says I have a modified folder and do I want to up load it. I say yes. It up loads it. Well what I can not understand is why it does not upload it all at once and so far I have not found an end to this it just keeps doing it on an on. I have to just say no don't upload.
User 355448 Photo


Ambassador
3,144 posts

doug200567,

WAM is designed to protect everything inside a folder. If you want to protect a complete site, you need to place all the files inside that folder. I would suggest you have an index.html in your root folder, and give directions on where to purchase your instructional video.

I have a form in a non-password area so if someone gets a 403 error, they are able to request access.

As for the access restriction, GoDaddy is one host that may take up to an hour for the first upload to be recognized by the host. Maybe your host is also one that needs a little time to find the .htaccess file.

Also, if you have used the correct password, there is no log-out, and you may need to close your browser to get logged out and test again.

If you are still having a problem with WAM wanting to conduct an upload, you may want to open a ticket with CoffeeCup. Just look at the top of this page and click on "Get Support" then look for the link to "Your Support Room" and open a ticket in there.
User 103173 Photo


VP of Software Development
0 posts

doug200567 wrote:
I downloaded the trial version of this, but in reading the directions I noticed that any work done in the trial would be lost with the paid version. So I decided to buy the 34 dollar program. I set it up and passed the tests and connected up to the site. I uploaded three pages called testpass1.html and 2 and 3. Problem is I can not find them in the directory tree in WAM. No matter what I do I cannot see my files. If I go to the site from filezillza I can see the test pages and the index.html and every other page that I have. Not with WAM. I thought I could pick out certain pages and password protect them?

If this helps I am putting a forum (phpbb3)on my site and don't want anyone who doesn't have a password to access the forum. Not only to post but to view. They need to buy my instructional video first and receive a password from me.

I hope this was not a waste of money for what I want to do. Doug


"but in reading the directions I noticed that any work done in the trial would be lost with the paid version" Where did you see that? This is not the case at all.

Access Manager only protects folders, not files a this time.
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User 1101646 Photo


Registered User
3 posts

Hi Scott,

Your are right about the trial. I went back and reread the directions. It does say; if you purchase the software to uninstall the trial. I was concerned as not all files are on my computer, some are on the web server. Most of all the software I have purchase from a trial, just needs an unlock code. This is the first one with a uninstall and download a different one. Being we are messing with a live website that has google adwords tied to it I just felt that 34 dollars was reasonable enough not to take a chance so I bought it. I had also heard about Coffee Cup software for years so wanted to try it.

What it does say in the pdf help instructions is this, Its easy‐to‐use interface allows you to password‐protect as many pages as you want, My assumption here, was I would be able to select out one page, and protect it, through the easy to use interface. But I don't see that, as I can not see any pages in the folder view. This means that I would have to download my site and then change the structure of it, and redo links. Also in working from the interface, as I cannot see pages, I really don't know what I am protecting. None of the folders open up. I will see if I can attach a picture so you can see the dilemma. I only have eight options to protect anything and I would figure that it is not - backups, or aspnet client, or cgi, or php uploads, or resources, or ssfm, or stats. So where do you go from there? Where are the pages or page I want to protect?

http://www.unique3phase.com/folderview.jpg

On a different note:

Yes, it must take go daddy some time to recognize the files. Because after fooling around with this for a while I later went to my website and it was completely locked down. You needed a password to enter the home page.

I opened your program and went to the option of removing all files from the website. It did it's stuff, and the site was opened up, but the forum, which is what I wanted to protect is now password only. What I don't know is why would the forum be password protected if all the files are removed. Can I be confident of using this if the all files removed button does not really remove all the files? I have waited over night and the forum is still password protected.

The next problem is every time I close the program it keeps saying you have folders that need to be uploaded. This appears to be a never ending loop. Maybe what I am missing, is again my assumption would be that, when it says you have modified folders I would say yes it would up load them and that would be that, but it doesn't stop. I went through that loop yesterday about 4or 5 times each time being told I have folders that are modified. After four or five times I became concerned that something was wrong. I don't want to break the site. Is this normal behavior? Sometimes it would say two folders and sometimes one but every time after I did the upload and tried to close program it would come back with more folders have been modified and needing to be uploaded. I made no changes to the program except trying to close it.

Doug
User 103173 Photo


VP of Software Development
0 posts

You cannot password protect an individual page, but you can protect a folder. The next version due out this summer will have that feature. For now, each page you would want to protect needs to be in its own folder.

Not sure why it did not remove the files it uploaded, but it also takes hours for Godaddy to uncache them as well. If after a few hours it is still protected, use an FTP program and go to that folder and remove the .htaccess file.

I am not too sure I follow the steps you are describing with the "loop" issue. But it sounds like you are skipping a step. An change made in the software will flag that files need to be uploaded.
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User 475419 Photo


Registered User
9 posts

I also have the looping problem described by doug567. I think he described it about as best as possible. It's pretty clear if you have seen the problem. I'll try to add to what he has already said.

I have double checked my changes and everything I want to get done in the current Uload to Server just before Exit.

Example:

I have five active passworded folders, each with seperate users. I add a new user (#6). Click Upload to Server and the next screen offers a "Check" with a "Plus" for my new user. Additionally, the previous five current users are also "Checked" and have a red "Minus" symbol. The message for each refers to deleting each htaccess file for each user. (I did nothing to any of those accounts [view or change] to indicate I wanted any change at all). It just does not make any sense why they show up in the list if no change or revmove was indicated. Very confusing. Shouldn't the software "assume" no access/change requested would mean I want to keep [the first 5] the way they are/were and not list them?

If I leave the screen alone and Upload to Server, WAM will in fact Add my new user correctly and remove the htaccess file for all the other accounts. What a MESS!!!!!

If I UnCheck the users I want no change at all, the new user is added and the others are left untouched..... BUT on Exit it tells me that there are 5 folders that need to be updated. No matter how many times I click OK, then try to exit it returns to the message regarding updating these [5] users/folders. Sometimes it deletes them sometimes not.

When I launch WAM, it "remembers" something needed to be done. When I Exot the [same] message returns until I delete the users and rebuilds the account. Now the reverse happens - Add 5 new delete one old (#6)

Not too big of a problem with 15 users as I can pretty much remember each user and their settings. I purchased the software to handle a couple of hundred users, some sites a thousand or more.

There is similar confusion between the three main panes
Website [website_name]
User Permissions
Folders User has Access to:

The views are not accurate regarding what my access setting were to the original account/user. If left alone, all of the unauthorized "changes" that are viewed are executed during Upload to Server. If uncheck at that time, the Exit will go into the [previous] "looping".

Checking ... "Do not show this prompt again" at Exit may solve the problem seeing the message, but at what expense, overlooking an update I may have wantes? Reporting is not clear enough to make a decission.

I maintain many sites on many different hosting companies. This happens on all of them.

Never have run into the "up to an hour wait" for first time on GoDaddy. Maybe a long five minutes. Updates, well it takes longer to close all of my open browser windows and reopen one to test the updates. Pretty much the same on the rest of the hosting sites.

Until I figure this out I'm going back to writing htpasswrd/htaccess by hand. I was just hoping to use WAM to help manage my security, Yes, I've read all 101 pages of the manual, what have I overlooked. Do I need more testing to try and describe the problem, wait for version 2? Or stop writing because I'm getting confused now-HA!




User 597929 Photo


Registered User
1,332 posts

That's weird. All I can offer is I'm using WAM to protect multiple folders with multiple user ids and it's handled adding new ones without a single hitch. My hosting is with TotalChoice. I can't see anything glaringly obvious you're omitting but really the variables are hosting behavior and user steps, since we're using the same version, right?
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User 103173 Photo


VP of Software Development
0 posts

The only thing I can think of is your process is off.

1. Add a user
2. Click the folder on the left hand side you want to protect
3. Check the appropriate user

REPEAT STEP 1-3 FOR EACH USER

4. Upload
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User 475419 Photo


Registered User
9 posts

Hi Spinny

Enjoyed your sites. Cool stuff. Thanks for the "free stuff". I agree with you in theroy about Hosting sites but as I mentioned I use many hosting companies. Scott mentioned tests on GoDaddy, and you use TCH for your things. I thought I still had a client on TCH but didn't realized we moved them (at their request). Because of client agreements I can't provide websites as examples.

May open a new account on TCH for testing and see if our problem follows. I suppect it will. (Good company to work with) That will bring our hosting companies up to 5 of the majors and a slew of the smaller ones. I think I can rule out the hosting company [for now] as our challenge is the same across many companies and servers.

That leaves two [main] possibilities--- me and/or the software. Since we all know all software is "perfect" on or before version 2, and all problems must be me, the user

I just want it to work at this level. If it something in the procedure we use, our expectations, etc, I'm willing to look for the "Un Obvious". I'm just not seeing "it". The devil is in the details. What are you "seeing" ?

Side-Bar ---------
We've handled our htaccess by "hand" till now (with a lot of other features of htaccess), so we're taking WAM out of production until (if??) we get this resolved. I just don't feel that it's ready for "robust deployment". Seems to be "OK" for one site and a dozen or so users.

We licensed all of CoffeeCup Software after doing a cursory review of the individual programs we were interested in. At that point it was cost effective to buy all of the entire CC suite rather than one at a time. Then we added WAM and Shopping Cart. We are pretty well invested in seeing CoffeeCup in our suite of software we use in production.

We don't particulary like to take time to evaluate software on full blown lab testing basis mainly because of time constraints. We are not software testers so full testing in lab enviroment usally takes longer than the demo/eval time.

Here is what we are using

Multi-Hosting Companies
Linux
All other requirements matched or exceeded

For full testing we will use
1 Vista machine - 32 Home
1 XP Pro machine -
Server2003
Fully patched and SP'ed with the exception of IE8
All program versions and utilities are current versions
The only applications that have been deployed less than two years id CCup's
Primarly MS & Adobe productsl
All drivers are current versions
Both have 4GB RAM and plenty of GB's of free drive space

I think we have successfully elimated (all?) software incompatibilities over the years with our current software mix.

So we'll start with reading the manual again and see what we missed. Any help with the (un) obovious?? or other suggestions?

(do fairies really come to you for fashion help?) HA! That's great !










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