Vanilla Connect

Vanilla Connect is no longer supported. jsConnect is Vanilla’s current single-signon solution.

What is Vanilla Connect?

Vanilla Connect is a single sign-on feature that allows companies to send
their existing users into their Vanilla Forum without registering or signing
in again.

How does Vanilla Connect work?

We use some pretty neat technical magic to make this integration happen.
The long-and-short of it for the customer (you) is that you add a small piece
of code to your application, and then your users get immediate access to your
Vanilla Forum when they visit it. There is a frighteningly
technical description of this process below.

How can I get Vanilla Connect?

In order to use Vanilla Connect, you must purchase the plan.

How would I implement Vanilla Connect? (TECHNICAL)

Vanilla Connect has two main components. The first is the software that runs
inside the Vanilla Forum itself, and the second is the piece of code that you
insert into your existing software. These two component communicate with each
other (or rather, your software sends messages to Vanilla) to keep the users in
sync.
In order to allow users to be logged in securely and automatically, these two
components need to agree on a secret handshake so that they can be sure that they
are communicating securely. For that reason, there are a couple of configuration
steps involved in the setup of Vanilla Connect in your software.

• Enable the Vanilla Connect feature on your forum’s dashboard.
• Get the VanillaConnect Key and “Secret Code” values from the Vanilla Connect screen.
• Unzip and place the code library on your server in your PHP .
• Modify VanillaConnect.php and fill in the 6 values at the top of the file.In WordPress, this looks like:

  $VanillaConnect = VanillaConnect::Authenticate(
     $VanillaConnectDomain,
     $VanillaConnectKey,
     $VanillaConnectSecret,
     $current_user->user_email,
     $current_user->nickname,
     $current_user->ID
  );

• Add require_once(‘VanillaConnect.php’); so that it is available when your users are logged in.
• There are several methods for sending your user’s information to Vanilla:
  1. Using Javascript
     Add the following call to your page so that it is executed when the user is already logged in.

     <?php echo $VanillaConnect->Script(); ?>

     This will write a small piece of javascript to the page that sends the user’s information across to Vanilla in a secure manner.

  2. Using a Redirect
     Immediately after the user logs in, calling this method sends then directly to the forum, where they will find themselves already logged in.

     <?php $VanillaConnect->Redirect() ?>

  3. Using Links
     Write all links from your software to your Vanilla Forum in the following way:

     <a onclick="VanillaConnect.go()" href="#">Discussion Forum</a>

  4. Using an Image
     Add an image to your page as follows:

     <?php echo $VanillaConnect->Image(); ?>

     
     This will place a VanillaConnect logo on the page. When the user’s browser loads the image, it will simultaneously log them in to Vanilla.

• The user signs into your application and either loads the page with our code on it, or clicks one of the links to your forum.
• The first time a user visits the forum, they are prompted to choose a username for the forum. Any subsequent time they visit the forum, they are simply signed in automagically.