Customising login and database authentication

The Community Portal has three main methods of allowing authentication:

• Database authentication (default)
• SAML authentication (recommended)
• Windows/Trusted IIS authentication

Also see Security settings.

Windows authentication

To use Windows Authentication in the Community Portal:

1. Disable anonymous authentication and enable Windows Authentication in IIS. See IIS server registry settings.
2. Create a group (for example, ParentPortal) in Active Directory containing all the parent logins.
3. Locate the portal folder. For example, C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SynergeticCommunityPortal.
4. Add the group that you have created to the portal folder so that the group has READ and EXECUTE rights.
5. In the SynCommPortal.xml file, define the login type:
   
   • 1 - Windows Authentication using network login name. This is located on the Other tab of Community Maintenance. For example, DOMAIN\UserName (no password required).
   • 2 - Windows Authentication using Synergetic ID. For example, DOMAIN\12455 (no password required).
   
   See Editing the SynCommPortal.xml configuration file.
6. Ensure the portal default page is intro.asp. For example, http://SynergeticCommunityPortal/Intro.aspx.

Trusted authentication

Trusted authentication can be from active directory or Novell if integrating with e-directory. The IIS user name can then be validated against the user's:

• Community ID
• Network Login Name (on the Other tab in Community Maintenance).

See Single sign on authentication settings.

To allow community member accounts to use trusted authentication:

1. Set the IIS server to use trusted authentication. See IIS server registry settings.
2. Open the Other tab of Community Maintenance. See Community Maintenance - Other tab in the Synergetic Community manual.
   
3. Click  to add a network login name and password to allow the community member to access the portal. See Managing Community Portal accounts.
4. Click to import network login information from a file.

Database authentication

This stores the user login name and password inside the Synergetic database. The passwords are encrypted within the database.

• The login can be:
• shared by the spouse of the community member
• unique to the person.
• These logins can be loaded in bulk using a comma-delimited text file of the form:
• ID,Password,Joint indicator (J).

For example: 1001,Pa$$w0rd,J

See Creating Community Portal accounts in a batch.

To allow community member accounts to use database authentication, set the IIS server to use database authentication. See IIS server registry settings.

You can also configure the Community Portal to run multiple databases at once. See Running the Community Portal against multiple database servers.