[Mediawiki-l] AuthPlugins and Overwriting Preferences

[Michael B Allen]

Hi,

When AuthPlugin::updateUser() is called I would think that the
preferences that have not changed would be left unchanged in the local
MW DB but that is not the case. Here's my code:

    function updateUser( &$user ) {
        if (is_array($this->acct)) {
            $user->setOption('nickname', $username);
            if (isset($this->acct['displayName']))
                $user->setRealName($this->acct['displayName']);
            if (isset($this->acct['mail']))
                $user->setEmail($this->acct['mail']);
            $user->setPassword(NULL);
            $user->saveSettings();
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

It seems that even though only the nickname, real name and email
address are updated, all other preferences are reset. How am I
supposed to update only a few fields without wrecking the prefs? From
looking at LdapAuthenticate.php it's not clear to me that it handles
this situation any differently.

Also, when trying to update preferences, if
AuthPlugin::updateExternalDB() returns false an error is displayed:

"There was either an external authentication database error or you are
not allowed to update your external account."

Why does this error occur? I do not want to store preferences
externally. Why does MW not store preferences locally regardless of
what updateExternalDB returns?

Thanks for any help,
Mike

-- 
Michael B Allen
PHP Active Directory SPNEGO SSO
http://www.ioplex.com/