So I came up with two possible solutions to my sessions problem, I’m sure there are others as well.
1) I could store all the xqueries that build my metadata admin interface in eXist with restricted read permissions so that uses would be presented with a login from the server when they arrive at the page, this would initiate the REST session, which would presumably perpetuate as long as the window was active (and thus hopefully by-pass the random logout issue.)
I haven’t actually tried this one, I just assume it would work. I don’t particularly like the solution because I don’t store most of my xqueries in eXist. However, I haven’t ruled it out.
2) Solution 2 is the one I worked on all day yesterday. First I’ve gone back to submitting the data via a POST which sends the data to an xquery, this query then uses the xmldb:store() function to save the data to eXist. This xquery also checks to see if there is a current session using session:exists(), if not it will send back “Not logged in!” if there is a current session the xquery will attempt to save the record to the database, if successful the xmldb:store() function returns the path to the resource, if it fails it returns an empty string.
My XForm now uses an event observer to check if the submit action was successful, if not it will warn the user that they are either not logged in, or have insufficient privileges to edit the resource and toggles them to a login form located at the top of their current page. Users can then login, a separate event is fired that changes or creates a new session and the user can save the data in the form, all without refreshing or leaving the form.
After much tweaking this seems to work. The nice thing is that having the login on the form saves the user from losing the data that they have been working on.
Here are what the additions the form look like:
Two new instances, the first to check what sort of error the xquery sends back if it is not successful:
<xforms:instance id="submitError">
<dummy xmlns="">
<submit/>
</dummy>
</xforms:instance>
The second to hold the login information:
<xforms:instance id="login">
<dummy xmlns="">
<user/>
<pass/>
</dummy>
</xforms:instance>
Additions to the submission action:
<xforms:submission id="submit" method="post" ref="instance('metadata')"
replace="text" instance="submitError" action="xqueryGoesHere.xql">
<xforms:action ev:event="xforms-submit-done" ev:observer="submit">
<xforms:message level="modal">Item Saved!</xforms:message>
<xforms:refresh/>
</xforms:action>
<xforms:action ev:event="xforms-submit-error" ev:observer="submit">
<xforms:message level="modal"
ref="instance('submitError')/child::*[. = '']“>You do not have permission
to edit this resource! Please log in.</xforms:message>
<xforms:message level=”modal”
ref=”instance(’submitError’)/child::*[. = 'Not logged in!']“>You are no longer
logged in! Please log in.</xforms:message>
<xforms:toggle case=”case-login”/>
<xforms:refresh/>
</xforms:action>
</xforms:submission>
I’ve then added a xforms:switch to the top of the MODS form that toggles between a login form and summary information about the resource. As you can see in the submission, if there is an error, the top part of the form will toggle to display a login form for the users, case-login. Once the user logs in with the new name and password, they click login which fires this submission action:
<xforms:submission id="do-login" method="get" replace="instance"
instance="login" separator="&" ref="instance('login')" action="login.xql">
<xforms:action ev:event="xforms-submit-done" ev:observer="do-login">
<xforms:message level="modal">You are now logged in. Please re-save your data.
</xforms:message>
<xforms:toggle case="ready"/>
<xforms:refresh/>
</xforms:action>
<xforms:action ev:event="xforms-submit-error" ev:observer="do-login">
<xforms:message level="modal">Incorrect login information</xforms:message>
<xforms:toggle case="case-login"/>
<xforms:refresh/>
</xforms:action>
</xforms:submission>
The login.xql looks very similar to this example from the eXist website. If the login is successful the form toggles from the login info to the MODS form info. The user is then prompted to re-save their data as the new user.
I’m still a little nervous putting the catalogers back to work with these forms because I haven’t been able to replicate some of the problems they had reported, but I’m hoping even if they do get logged out this new form will allow them to log back in without losing any data. I’ve also finally made it possible to page from one record to the next in the queue, maybe that will buy me a little extra goodwill.
