Could the authenticate user function be updated to accept a username and password

[amishcode]

Hi - would it be possible to update the authenticateuser() function so that it accepts a username and password and passes those automatically to the GISAID site (I think this could be done by passing them in the GET request that's already there)? This would allow authentication to occur directly from the function call rather than by having to separately enter the credentials in a browser window that pops up - but I'm not sure if there is some other restriction/reason that would make that not allowed or undesirable.

Thanks, Amish