How to Create a Default Login Page

Question

This request is a little difficult to explain.

I have a page the requests a login to access the page. I have created a default username and password that potential customers can use to access the page. However, I think people aren't even bothered to enter the default username and password. Therefore, I would like to users to be able to click on the link to the page and automatically be logged in to access the page.

I thought that one solution might be to somehow configuring Joomla so the username and password is already entered so that when a user clicks on the link they're automatically taken to the page, but I dont know how to do that.

If someone could show me, or have any other suggestions, that would be great.

Answer 1

You can use a few lines of jQuery to fill out the form. Just make sure the username/password you provide only gives limited access to your site.

(function($) { 
    $("#username").val("Guest");
    $("#password").val("guest123");
})(jQuery);

By adding this code to your page, the fields will be filled in with your login data. The user will still have to click the login button, though. If you also want to submit the form automatically, you can do something like this after line #3:

$(".login form").submit();

(In order to add the script to your page, you can use an extension like Sourcerer or similar).

Answer 2

Joomla Autologin Extension

There are free plugins available to do this at textarea.it but the link is currently broken. Direct links to the plugins still seem to be working:

• download plg_autologin.2.5.2.zip Joomla! 2.5, 3.0 and 3.1 native
• download plg_autologin.1.3.zip Joomla! 1.5 native

Allow Logins from customer IP Addresses

Another option may be to install Auto Login IP or Regular Labs IP Login (both free) or similar so authorised customers can login without entering credentials.

This is probably only practical for customers with static IP addresses so may not be suitable in your situation.

Develop your own login page

You can probably implement your own login page along the lines of https://stackoverflow.com/a/4195116/1983389 to achieve similar functionality to the Joomla Autologin Extension above.

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Security Considerations

Note: As per the Stack Overflow post, some of these methods are not a good idea from a security point of view and you should think carefully about the security implications before proceeding.