I think I've mentioned this before but I have had some new thoughts on the matter.

We have an issue whereby if a user tries to log on to the web interface using the AD auto logon and their session has not terminated since they last logged on to the web interface, they cannot log on. We are using a 20 minute timeout for the web interface.

This is an issue for us because many of our users have had their accounts created by the AD tool meaning they don't know their passwords, so they wouldn't be able to enter their username and password when they are prompted for them. Being prompted for them at all is not exactly a desirable scenario anyway because it defeats the purpose of using the AD auto logon for the web interface.

What I suggest is possibly one or both of the following to remedy the issue:

1) If the user is already logged on to the web interface of helpmaster and they log on again without having logged off, helpmaster would need to either A) Allow the user to commence using their existing session B) Kill the old session and start a new one C) Allow concurrent logins to the web interface by the same user. I like option C the most, my rationale would be that in our business for example, more than one user might use an account at the same time (we use helpmaster in retail stores with multiple PC's)

2)

I think you could insert some code into the all of the asp pages to the effect of something like this (not tested):

 [script removed]

This would hopefully terminate the user’s session. The code above is the JavaScript onUnload Event onUnload=" ….. “ in combination with the javascript that the “Log Off” button uses to terminate the session in the helpmaster web interface: ="javascript:__doPostBack('lnkHeadLogOff',''.

The onUnload function is simply something that is supposed to run whatever javascript you specify when the user closes their browser session.

If it is possible to terminate the user’s session when they close the browser, it should prevent them from not being able to log on within the 20 minute window unless their lack of log off is caused by some other factor.

This option would only fix the problem when it occurs because users did not use the log off button but simply closed the helpmaster web interface browser window and then try logging on again before the timeout period has elapsed.

If you went for option 1 it would negate the need for option 2, I see option 2 as more of a quick fix that could maybe be implemented without as much hard recoding. Perhaps there are even some settings in IIS that you could change to implement option 1, although I've played around a bit with a few settings in my test environment without result. I'm assuming this is because helpmaster does other things in the background in terms of keeping sessions active for web users.

The latest release of HelpMaster Pro v9 already caters for suggestion 1B. If the user is already logged into the database, the AD login in v8 just fails and the user is taken to the sign in page without any feedback. In v9, users will be provided with the option to continue on and close the previous sessions - much like the way it's handled for normal logins.

We will investigate the possibility for 1C (ie. concurrent AD login sessions) and terminating user sessions when the browser is closed.