Got another question for someone with more experience. I have a web app that has a subfolder (/subfolderA) requiring a login page with forms authentication and roles. Goes against a custom sql2005 database for authentication and that's working fine.

But, I have another subfolder (/subfolderB) that requires its own login that goes against a different sql2005 database for authentication - one having nothing to do with the other.

When I tried to put a separate webconfig file in /subfolderB, it required that the subfolder be a separate app. That meant that references to MasterPages, images, css files, custom-menu code, etc., be in /subfolderB. That seems terribly wasteful and not a really good design option...

Does anyone know a way in the original webconfig to have two separate login page references, or is there a better way to do this? It's really not an option to have one login since the two departments insist on having their own wording on the login page.

Could I do something like look at the referring url and if it contains /subfolderB, redirect to the other login page? Or, what would you (anyone) suggest in a situation like this.

Many thanks.
Janet

Your approach may be the best.

No, you can not have two login pages for a single application. That is configured at the application level. If you can somehow identify the users by either a start page (maybe a link to your app from an internal website), IP address (specific or a range if your have a segmented network) or some other means, then you could determine what login page they will see.

Also, you could use the same login page for the functionality by just change the text the user sees as needed.

If you expect people to bookmark the page, you might consider dropping a cookie that identifies them for future visits. You could set a precedence that there always need to be a cookie identifying the user's department in order for the login page to show the login. If the login page doesn't find a cookie, it could first prompt the user to select their department. Then your set the cookie and show the login. Department specific landing pages could do this automatically so they needn't be prompted.


-Peter
peterlanoie.blog

Peter,
Once again, thank you. It gives me a clearer understanding of what's possible. I'll consider your suggestions and go from here.
Cheers,
Janet