Dual Authentication

Requirement

There may be some circumstances where you need XLCubedWeb reports to be available via 2 different authentication methods, for example Windows Authentication for internal users and Basic Authentication for external users. Please note this would require an additional server license.

Solution

The approach to solve this is to create 2 copies of the XLCubedWeb website and create a shared repository. With this approach the reports can be published to 1 website, but be immediately available on both.

Create copy of website

The first step is to create a copy of the website, for example assuming the default website (set as windows authentication) is installed in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\xlcubedweb. Copy the entire XLCubedWeb folder to a new folder (e.g. XLCubed).

Update IIS

The copy website needs to be set up as an application:

1. Open Internet Information Services Manager (inetmgr.exe)
2. Under the Sites node, open the website in which XLCubed Web Edition should be made available (usually the Default Web Site).
3. Right-click on the new folder (XLCubed) and select Convert to Application.
4. In the Convert to Application dialog, ensure that the XLCubed application pool is selected and, if necessary, choose the correct path.
5. Change the website authentication method to "Basic" (either using IIS on the XLCubedWeb configuration application). If using IIS to switch to Basic, ensure the web.config on the new website is udpated to reflect that: Web.config

You can test the website is working at this stage (although the repository will currently be a static copy)

Share repository

Note this step is not necessary if you are using the SQL repository.

To share the repository between the 2 websites you need to replace the Repository folder with a "Symbolic Link" using MKLink [1]. To do this:

1. Delete the new repository folder: c:\inetpub\wwwroot\xlcubed\Repository
2. In a Command prompt (with administrative access) navigate to the website: c:\inetpub\wwwroot\xlcubed
3. Run the following command to create the link:
   1. MKLink /D Repository c:\inetpub\wwwroot\xlcubedweb\repository