Integrating WSS 3.0 Document Library into an existing asp.net application. Setting up the authentication.

If you search around the net, you’ll most probably find a lot of articles discussing how to create windows sharepoint services (WSS) modules or even how to install WSS on top of existing web site. In my case, I have to create a document management system in an existing asp.net application. In order to do so, I will be using the office integration that is provided by the document library of WSS and will be writing custom forms to handle the rest of the gui.

Redirecting any unauthenticated requests to a login form located on another asp.net application

If you have configured forms authentication across multiple asp.net applications, you may want to force users to authenticate in a single signing form. To do so you may implement a simple HttpModule that will be handling the AuthenticateRequest and redirecting to the corresponding login form.

Configuring forms authentication across asp.net applications

In order to enable forms authentication across multiple asp.net application you will have to setup the forms authentication to specify the same name, protection and path among all the asp.net applications that will be collaborating.

Asp.net HTTP module to force authenticate user via Basic WWW-Authenticate dialogue

Playing around with the available authentication methods I came up with a simple Http module that forces the browser to display the build in credentials form and authenticates the user by simply adding a line in the web.config file.