Imported From: http://groups.google.com/group/in-portal-dev/browse_thread/thread/7e0d1bd9d9613cb6#
Hi everyone,
Often these days we need to have an ability to access a disabled Section or
Category Item on the Front-end without having it shown in the list among
other Enabled Sections or Category Items.
There is a beautiful solution that Google Picasa has for this - Direct URL
which contains some "key" for authenticating the user and showing him hidden
by default content.
Example:
https://picasaweb.google.com/dandrejev/MaksikGitara?authkey=Gv1sRgCJeZqfiPxL271<https://picasaweb.google.com/dandrejev/MaksikGitara?authkey=Gv1sRgCJeZqfiPxL27mwE>
I propose we implement the same for Section (later for Category Items).
*Interface:*
1. If Status is Pending or Disabled we show a new "Access with Link" field
right after (below) that Status field
2. New "Access with Link" field will have a Check-box (enabled by default)
and a Label field (which can be copied) with full URL to that Section.
*Functionality:*
1. We would need to have 2 new DB fields ( in Categories table (and later
for Category Items) to store the Status and the Authentication Key. I
suggest calling them as AllowAccessWithLink and AuthKey, but I am insisting
on these names.
2. Let's use some random Alpha-numeric (case sensitive) algorithms (nothing
fancy) to generate (automatically) and save this keys. Keys will NOT change!
Suggested length 15-20 chars.
3. One of hard questions is - which of the URLs to show:
a. with ModRewrite or without - I believe it should be based on current
website settings
b. which language - default one for Front-end
4. Need to make sure if In-Portal performs a URL redirect due to forcing the
HTML URL when user visits without one we need to keep AuthKey in URL as
well.
I know we might need todo some changes in the ModRewrite and Caching part,
but I strongly believe it's a MUST for us to have this.
Cheers!
DA