Authentication FAQ: Difference between revisions

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== What's going on here? ==
== What do I need this for? ==


iDigBio is trying out an authentication scheme we call "Social Authentication", this means that instead of requiring a username and password to log in, you can use one of the accounts you probably already have to sign in.
Registering with idigbio.org will provide you with accounts to three iDigBio web services.


== How does all this work? ==
1. idigbio.org home page blog managed with Drupal CMS.
2  idigbio.org/wiki for wiki content
3. idigbio.org/portal : our specimen portal which at the moment provides limited account services but will be expanded upon.


When you click the sign in link, we redirect your browser to a special URL for each provider. This URL asks the provider to sign you into your account if you're not signed in already. Your provider then looks to see if you've previously indicated that you trust iDigBio, and if you haven't the provider asks you if you want to trust us. Once you've agreed to the trust relationship, the provider sends you back to our website with a unique identifier that we can use to associate your provider account with your iDigBio account
== Does this mean I have three logins? ==


== Is this safe? ==
No, you actually have one login which is managed by a private openID service used to manage authentication with all three services.


Yes. iDigBio never sees your provider username and password, and all communication with the provider is done via standards compliant communication channels. The communities developing these standards have put a lot of effort into them to make sure that they are both secure, and pass only the minimum amount of information necessary to complete the transaction. The providers are also supposed to provide you the ability to cancel a trust relationship at any time, so you could in theory disassociate your provider account with iDigBio without even visiting our site.
== How does this work? ==


== I was asked to provide you access to X, what do you need that for? ==
Go to www.idigbio.org/login/accounts/new to register with idigbio.org. Once your account is created you will be sent an email to activate it.
This login will be all you need to access all our services (Drupal, Wiki and Portal).


Many of the provider interfaces we're using were designed to allow developers to create applications that interact with your provider account for you. iDigBio requests the minimum permissions possible when connecting to your account, but sometimes this can still seem like a lot of access. Rest assured, iDigBio values its relationships with the community and the only thing we use this access for is authentication. The standards we're using for communication also require the user to be currently logged in for any account access, so if you're not currently logged in to iDigBio its impossible for us to do anything.  
Note:
Each service has its own account management interface and should be used accordingly to manage those service's features.  


Different providers give us different levels of default access, so if you're still uncomfortable with the level of access we'd get from a specific provider, you can use a different provider, or simply use a username and password to sign in instead. The whole idea behind Social Authentication is to allow you flexibility with the way you identify yourself to us so that you can do whatever is most comfortable for you.  
== How do I reset my password? ==
Go to www.idigbio.org/login/sessions/reset


== How are you doing all this? ==
== How do I view my account info? ==
 
Go to www.idigbio.org/login/account
The provider authentication logic is provided by a php library called HybridAuth (http://hybridauth.sourceforge.net/). At its core, HybridAuth is a wrapper around the OpenID (http://openid.net/) and OAuth (http://oauth.net/) protocols.
 
Other notable technologies that we're employing are Twitter's Bootstrap (http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/) CSS framework and the Less (http://lesscss.org/) CSS pre-processor.

Revision as of 21:45, 30 December 2013

What do I need this for?

Registering with idigbio.org will provide you with accounts to three iDigBio web services.

1. idigbio.org home page blog managed with Drupal CMS. 2 idigbio.org/wiki for wiki content 3. idigbio.org/portal : our specimen portal which at the moment provides limited account services but will be expanded upon.

Does this mean I have three logins?

No, you actually have one login which is managed by a private openID service used to manage authentication with all three services.

How does this work?

Go to www.idigbio.org/login/accounts/new to register with idigbio.org. Once your account is created you will be sent an email to activate it. This login will be all you need to access all our services (Drupal, Wiki and Portal).

Note: Each service has its own account management interface and should be used accordingly to manage those service's features.

How do I reset my password?

Go to www.idigbio.org/login/sessions/reset

How do I view my account info?

Go to www.idigbio.org/login/account

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