Virtual Host Mapping

Sometimes a connectDaily installation will have many calendars and you will want to limit what calendars are visible. For example, a city has a Parks Department with many calendars and also an Information Department with many calendars.

By default, the calendar selection list will show all calendars the public can see. The system administrator would like to limit the calendar list so that people coming from the Parks Department see one set of calendars, while people coming from the Civic Information site will see a different set of calendars.

connectDaily handles this need by letting you establish a relationship or mapping between a website name and a GUEST User. People who are not logged in see the list of calendars controlled by the permissions of the GUEST User. Creating these mappings gives you one set of GUEST calendars for one website and a different set of calendars for another website.

If you are not sure how GUEST Users work in connectDaily, please read the help topic on Permissions for Anonymous Users (Permissions for Anonymous Users, User Preferences).

To configure Virtual Host Mapping, perform these steps:

1. For each virtual host name you want to use, e.g. calendar.yourdomain.com, configure the DNS entries. The host names must resolve to work. You should do this by creating a CNAME entry that points to <yourhostname>.mhsoftware.com. If you don't understand what this means, talk to the person that handles DNS entries for your domain.

   When you use a web browser on the internet, you type in the name of the site you want to visit. For example, www.mhsoftware.com. DNS converts the computer name into an address that your request can be delivered to. In order for a computer name to resolve, the DNS administrator must create a mapping entry that contains the host name of the computer and the address of this computer.

   If the host name is not configured by a DNS administrator, then attempts to view pages on that computer with a browser will return a Server Not Found error.

   See Also: Virtual Host

   In Internet terminology, host is just another word for a computer. For example, if I refer to the host name for our website, I would refer to www.mhsoftware.com.

   When a web browser sends a request for a web page to a server, it tells the web server the name of the web host that it wants to get the page from. The web server then directs the request to the proper files and sends them to the client.

   Sometimes system administrators will run many tens or hundreds of websites on the same computer. The computer that hosts these sites has one internet address. Using DNS, the names for these tens or hundreds of computers is configured to be the address of the host computer. This process is called virtual hosting.

   Virtual hosts require a two part configuration, the DNS resolution and the application server. Each part must be properly configured for virtual hosting to work.

   See Also: Creating a CNAME or Alias for Your Calendar

   In Internet terminology, host is just another word for a computer. For example, if I refer to the host name for our website, I would refer to www.mhsoftware.com.

   When a web browser sends a request for a web page to a server, it tells the web server the name of the web host that it wants to get the page from. The web server then directs the request to the proper files and sends them to the client.

   Sometimes system administrators will run many tens or hundreds of websites on the same computer. The computer that hosts these sites has one internet address. Using DNS, the names for these tens or hundreds of computers is configured to be the address of the host computer. This process is called virtual hosting.

   Virtual hosts require a two part configuration, the DNS resolution and the application server. Each part must be properly configured for virtual hosting to work.

   See Also: Creating a CNAME or Alias for Your Calendar

2. If you are using the hosted calendar service, tell us each of the virtual host names you want to use. If you are self-hosting, your servlet container or web server must forward requests for the virtual host into connectDaily.
3. Create a different GUEST user for each virtual host mapping. Try to make the name associated with the virtual host name. Remember, GUEST users must have Enabled unchecked on the edit user screen. We recommend that you assign permissions to the user specifically. In other words, don't make the user a member of any groups.
4. From the menu, choose System | Virtual Host Mapping. Configure the virtual host names using the Virtual Host Mapping screen to associate the appropriate GUEST User with the virtual host names.
5. Use the manage security wizard to assign the user permission to view the appropriate calendars, resources, and event types.

Other Notes

• Only User accounts that are NOT ENABLED can be used as a GUEST account. If the account you created is not displayed, ensure it is not enabled.
• The host names are not tested in any particular order.
• You can use regular expressions in the expression box or the actual host name. All of the following are valid:
  • calendar.your_department.yourdomain.org - matches calendar.your_department.yourdomain.org
  • *.yourdomain.org - matches any host name ending in .yourdomain.org
  • calendar\.[a-z]+\.yourdomain\.org - matches host names in the form calendar.aaa.yourdomain.org.

For licensing information on the Virtual Host Mapping Module, please contact MH Software, Inc.