Source code template for External Web Portal (Controller 4.1.5 or above)

Suitable for Omada Controller V4.1.5 or above.

For Omada Controller V3.1.4 or above, please refer to FAQ2390

For Omada Controller V3.0.5 or below, please refer to FAQ916

This document outlines the requirements when establishing an external web portal server. In Omada Controller, External Web Portal can only be used when the portal authentication type is External Radius Server.

The below picture depicts the workflow among the wireless client, EAP, Omada Controller, External Web Portal and the Radius Server. It will help you better understand the requirements of establishing an External Web Portal server.

1. For wireless clients & wired clients, when they are connected to the SSID of the wireless network or wired LAN network and try to access the internet, EAP or gateway will intercepts client’s HTTP request and then redirects it to the Omada Controller. (Step 1 and Step 2)

2. The Omada Controller then redirects the client’s request to the external portal page by replying a HTTP response with status code 302 Found to the client. (Step 3 and Step 4)

3. Client sends HTTP/HTTPS GET request to external web portal with parameter “?target=target_controller_ip&targetPort=target_controller_port&clientMac=client_mac&clientIp=client_ip&raidusServerIp=radius_server_ip&apMac=ap_mac&gatewayMac=gateway_mac&scheme=scheme&ssidName==ssid_name&radioId=radio_id(0 for 2.4G radio, 1 for 5G radio)&vid=vid&originUrl=redirecturl(if you did not set the redirect URL after wireless/wired clients passing the portal authentication, the default redirect URL depends on the wireless clients)”.
For example: “https://www.externalportal.com/?target=172.30.30.113&targetPort=8088&clientMac=F8-1E-DF-AA-AA-AA&clientIP=172.30.30.103&raidusServerIp=172.30.30.120&apMac=AC-84-C6-BB-BB-BB&GatewayMac=172.30.0.1&scheme=https&ssidName=eap_test&radioId=1&originalUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tp-link.com” (Step 5)

4. External web portal server should be able to get the value of the clientMac, clientIp, apMac, gatewayMac, ssidName, radioId, vid, scheme, originUrl parameters. Then external web portal server should redirect the client to Controller with the information of username, password, clientMac, clientIp, apMac, gatewayMac, ssidName, scheme, vid, radioId, originUrl. (Step 6)

5. Client sends HTTP/HTTPS POST packets to (http) https://target_controller_ip:targetport/portal/radius/auth (or radius/browserauth) with JSON format (or HTML form) in the HTTP message body after submitting.The default “targetport” of portal is 8843 (Step7). For the difference between radius/auth and radius/browserauth, please refer to Demo and api part.

Note: From Controller 5.0, if the API “radius/auth” is used, the “Access-Control-Allow-Origin:URL” field should be submitted in the HTTP header to enhance security during Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS). For example, if the domain name of your External Web Portal is “www.tplinkportal.com”, you need to add “Access-Control-Allow-Origin:https://www.tplinkportal.com”. Please download the demo at the end of the article for reference.

6. Omada Controller communicates with the radius server to verify the username and password. (Step 8 and Step 9)form

7. If the authentication is passed, i.e., Access-Accept is received from radius server, Omada Controller will redirect a built-in success page or a predefined webpage according to the configuration of clients. (Step 10)

Demo and api:

From 4.1.5 to 5.1.0, we provide api: target_controller_ip:targetport/portal/radius/auth with JSON format submitting,

The below html template is a simple demo for you to develop your External Web Portal working with Omada Controller using JSON format:

External Web Server Demo (JSON)

When HTTPS is used on the web portal side and HTTP is used on the omada conroller side, AJAX access will cause cross domain access problems of CORS and be intercepted by the browser, so we provide HTML form submitting api since Omada Controller 5.3.1: target_controller_ip:targetport/portal/radius/browserauth , and it realizes the page jump on the back end

The below html template is another demo using HTML form:

External Web Server Demo (HTML form)

Note:

1. If your Controller (4.1.5 or above) is upgraded from Controller 3. x.x, please attention that we have changed some “Name“ of the parameters.

Note that apMac and gatewayMac connot exist in the same request，when the wired clients authenticate，please left blank the apMac

2. In step7, if your form has non-ASCII characters (such as the SSID name is Chinese or other languages), UTF-8 encoding must be used when sending the HTTP/HTTPS POST to the Controller.

3. If you choose ajax access, please note the “Access-Control-Allow-Origin:URL” field for Controller 5.0 and above.

4. HTML form demo and radius/browserauth api is recommended.

Appendix: API document of auth and browserauth