Authentication Modules - a guide 

SurgeNews supports external authentication modules which are simple command line based programs that understand a small set of commands to add, remove and look up user details in your user database.

You can not only choose from one of the dozen or so we supply, you can also write your own, or use a 'meta' module which actually runs one or more real modules underneath.

See our 'authent' module pages for more info.

Database fields

SurgeNews uses the authentication module to access certain fields in your user database. The names of these fields are non-negotiable as far as SurgeNews is concerned, but, the authentication module can be instructed to translate existing field names to the values SurgeNews requires.

Here is a list of the fields SurgeNews makes use of (more will be added as features require them)

Field	Visibility	Use
groups	admin	Selects the users groups as defined in the domain setting 'usergroup'.
created	none	Records the time at which the user was created.