How do I...Enable SSL at Login Time Only?

Setup Instructions

First, if you haven't done so already, setup SSL support according to the following instructions:
How do I...Provide HTTPS Access to Deki Wiki?

Also of use is this 'outdated' page, but it shows an Apache configuration where both the non-SSL and SSL are active at the same time:
User:PeteE/Etch SSL Configuration

Once you have SSL working, proceed with the following instructions. First, you'll need to add some rewrite rules (the highlighted text below) to the non-SSL site in your Apache configuration. Order is important, so add these rewrite rules before the Deki Wiki-provided rewrite rules:
 

<VirtualHost *:80>
...

RewriteEngine On

# Enable rule to force all traffic to go to https.
#RewriteRule (.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}$1 [L,R,NE]

#Redirect login page to https
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^title\=Special\:Userlogin.*
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}$1 [L,R,NE]

# Rewrite rules provided by Dekiwiki
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$
RewriteRule ^/$ /index.php?title= [L,NE]

...
</VirtualHost>

Next, add a new rewrite rule to the SSL site that will redirect back to the non-SSL site after the login process:
 

<VirtualHost *:443>
...

RewriteEngine On

# When we are going from the login page back to the home page,
# redirect back to the non-SSL site.  Disable this rewrite rule when
# you want all traffic to go to the SSL site.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^https.*title\=Special\:Userlogin\&returntotitle\=$
RewriteRule (.*) http://%{SERVER_NAME}$1 [L,R,NE]

# Rewrite rules provided by Dekiwiki
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$
RewriteRule ^/$ /index.php?title= [L,NE]

...
</VirtualHost>

Keep in mind that I haven't fully tested this, but I do know that this works properly for the following sequence:
 

1. Go to home page of your non-SSL wiki site
2. Login from the home page (you will then be redirected to the SSL site)
3. Enter your credentials on the SSL-enabled page
4. You will then be redirected back to the non-SSL home page

This works, but I wonder if there would ever be a situation where you would be sent to another page besides the home page after logging in. If there are situations where this could happen, then the rewrite rules will need to be modified. To explain further, the rewrite rules (for the SSL site) check to see if you are headed to the homepage. But only if you were leaving the login page and going to the homepage will it redirect back to the non-SSL site. If the login page ALWAYS redirects back to the home page, then the rewrite rules should not need to be modified. We will have problems otherwise.
 

Problems

One known problem is that of mixed content warnings from a browser on the SSL login page (you get these warnings when you have elements on the page from both HTTP and HTTPS...just look at page source or 'page info' in your browser to verify what I'm talking about when you run into these warnings). The following two items are ones that I have found that cause these warnings (one is fixable, one I think is a bug in Dream but I'm not sure):
 

• Google Analytics ID - The google analytics support in Deki Wiki causes mixed content warnings on the SSL login page. To fix this, go to Control Panel --> Site Settings --> Google Analytic and erase the default ID that is provided.
   
• Dekiwiki site logo - This is one that I think could be a bug in Dream. With the rewrite rules above, every element (pictures, graphics, etc) on the SSL login page is an HTTPS element except for the site logo for some reason. See notes on this behavior in the next section.