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Linking to iTunes U After Session Timeout

When a user clicks a link to return to a page, group, or track, if iTunes U determines that advanced access controls are in use and that the user is not currently logged in to an iTunes U session, the following steps occur:

1. iTunes U redirects the request to your institution’s web authentication and authorization server, based on the Site login URL you provided in the Edit Site Settings page.

2. Your institution’s web server re-authenticates the user and sends the necessary authorization token to iTunes U.

   In order to display the exact page, group, or track the user was trying to access, iTunes U needs to send destination information during the redirect and receive the destination information back with the authorization token. Destination information is an internal set of numbers that uniquely identifies an iTunes U page, group, or track. Without the destination information, iTunes U cannot display the requested page, group, or track and, instead, displays your site’s root page.

   To send destination information during a redirect, specify the ${DESTINATION} variable at the end of your “Site login URL” in the iTunes U Edit Site Settings page. When iTunes U redirects the user’s request for a page, group, or track, iTunes U replaces the ${DESTINATION} variable with the page, group, or track destination information. If you designed your transfer script to accept the variable through an HTTP POST or GET request, the script can also generate a URL to pass to iTunes U and display the requested page, group, or track.

   For example, if a user attempts to access a track in a Course page after the session timeout has expired, iTunes U redirects the user to the Site login URL defined in the Edit Site Settings page.

   If the user logs in and is re-authenticated successfully, and the transfer script is designed to handle the destination variable, iTunes U redirects the user back to the track in the Course page instead of your site’s root page. For more information, see “Editing Site Settings.”

3. iTunes U logs the user back in and displays the requested page, group, or track.

The following diagram illustrates what happens when a user clicks a link referencing iTunes U content.

Note: After step 4 in the diagram, your server validates the user and transfers authorization data to iTunes U. For more information on the next steps, see step 3 in the previous iTunes U integration interaction diagram and “Using Authentication and Authorization Services.”