apache basic authentication without the ugly popup?

I like using .htaccess to 开发者_如何学运维password protect a directory, especially since it recursively protects all subdirectories as well. However, I despise the ugly login popup you get everytime. Instead of using basic auth I'd like to use mod_rewrite (or similar) to password protect a directory (and all subdirectories) but have a simple html login for powered by php instead.

Ideas?

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no... there is no way to use "basic authentication" with custom forms since this is done completely by the browser.

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There is a workaround by sending an AJAX request (which works JS-internally and does not popup a window) from a form:

  $.ajax({
     type: 'POST',
     url: 'login.php'
     username: $('input#user').value,    // form fields
     password: $('input#pw').value,
  });

The browser keeps the credentials cached for subsequent, normal GET requests.

(Logging out from a HTTP auth is significantly more complex.)