Best way to go about SSO & seamless updating of user profiles between website and forum
pavsid
New
Hi all, I'm now looking at creating a SSO between my website and Vanilla Forums.
My intention is for ALL users to register/sign-in via the website, which will in turn register/sign them in to the forum.
Additionally, I would like users to be able to manage their details via one control panel (rather than on both the website, and the forum). So I am thinking of making them manage all their details via their account area on the main website, which will seamlessly update their forum profile details by making use of the Vanilla API (is this feasible and/or recommended?). I understand I will have to create custom features on the main website to make it possible for them to upload profile pictures and manage their subscriptions. If this is not all possible via the API, then can I directly update the Vanilla Forum database - and would this in fact be better than using the API?
Thank you in advance.
Comments
Also, i'm a little confused as to which docs to refer to.
From what I see, there are these ones - http://vanillaforums.org/docs - which are linked to from the main http://vanillaforums.org/ homepage, and then there are - http://docs.vanillaforums.com/ - which are linked to in the above site navigation - confused!
I've also got http://vanillawiki.homebrewforums.net/index.php/Main_Page which was provided to me in another discussion.
http://vanillaforums.org/docs - old official docs for open source
http://docs.vanillaforums.com/ - new official docs (mixed: for OS and hosted)
http://vanillawiki.homebrewforums.net - unofficial community wiki
Thanks for clearing that up @R_J
Any pointers on how I start with implementing the above?
I'm looking at jsConnect, but I'm starting to think this isn't what I need? The main (current) website is hosted on the same domain as the new forum.
I have no experience at all with SSO, sorry. But maybe that will help you: http://blog.vanillaforums.com/jsconnect-technical-documentation-for-embedded-sso/
Hmm, already been through that, I think that this plugin isn't intended for what I need. There must be a common approach to it though, will have to see if others can help. Thanks again.
@pavsid if you want vanilla to be the authenticator then you need to look at how the other framework wants to connect, then provide that secure entry point for it. This a SSO solution for the other framework unless you are using a middle-ware solution.
grep is your friend.
@x00 Not sure I understand - I want to authenticate and register users on the existing website (which has it's own user database) and keep using that to register or sign these users into the forum automatically, so they don't need to do it again in Vanilla.
I was hoping the built-in API has a way to register users on the forum, but I guess I can query the forum database directly for that. The issue which remains is then how to create a seamless login (SSO) between the two.
You said you want to use Vanilla as the authority but by the sounds of you want to use the existing site as the authority.
In that case follow the link for jsConnect.
There is some config options if you have users on both already, to prevent friction.
grep is your friend.
Profiles updates are not provided by jsConnect, but role syncing can be.
grep is your friend.