cannot figure out SSO jsConnect & embedded comments

santiagogp

Hello,

Im doing some PoC to check if vanilla will be good for us.

The first issue Im having is getting to work SSO using embedded comments (we have no interest in the full site).

I think I've followed the instructions, but I cant manage.

here's what I've done so far:

-installed the jsConnect addon

-Configure a new connection using using jsConnect V3

-I added the embedded code into my page (https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/49-universal-comments)

The comment box seems functional and I can comment, it's the SSO that I cannot manage

-I've added a vanilla_sso string generated as following:

a JSON string with some user information:

 {  "client_id": "5832754", (taken from the jsConnect configuration)

  "uniqueid": "1234567890",

  "name": "santiago",

  "email": "santiago@example.com",

   "photourl": "http://localhost/photo",

"roles":"member"

} 

The Java snippet I used for the quick test

#encode json in base64
base64 = new String(Base64.getEncoder().encode(json.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8)), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
#get timestamp
String timestamp = "" + new Date().getTime();
#encrypt using the jsconnect secret as key, input is <base64String= timestamp>
signature = new HmacUtils(HmacAlgorithms.HMAC_SHA_1, secret).hmacHex(base64 + " " + timestamp);
#Concatenate base64String signature timestamp hmacsha1
ssoString = base64 + " " + signature + " " + timestamp + " hmacsha1";

and added that as

var vanilla_sso = '${vanilla.ssoString}';

The comment box loads fine but the button always say "comment as.." and requests a login, so Im clearly not logged in into vanilla. Also, no user is generated.

Im a bit lost of what could I be missing.

The only thing I might have skipped is the authentication URL configuration in the jsConnect configuration, which I left with a dummy url, but AFAIK that is used only for full site integration, not embedded comments.

I've also tried hmac_sha_256 with the same results

I would appreciate any help on what I might be missing.

Thank you

EDIT-

Forgot to mention. Im using vanilla forums Version 2021.009

Kaspar

[Disclaimer: I am out of my knowledge comfort zone, so merely brain- storming]

Does it work via the backdoor

URL /entry/password to sign-in with an existing forum account.

Does it work in full-site mode

In the guides I scrolled over only "id" is used

Did you test the connection

https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/206-upgrading-jsconnect-to-version-3#test-your-connection

https://open.vanillaforums.com/discussion/comment/261531/#Comment_261531

santiagogp

the full site SSO does not work since I havent implemented the JWT part in my side. From what I can understand in the docs, this is not required for embedded comments (I have no interest in the full site, only embedded comments)

regarding the user id field, the docs say to use uniqueid ( https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/131-embedded-sso-with-jsconnect). Anyway, I 've just tried id, with no success

santiagogp

well. My only clue is that it seems that the request to /discussion/embed/ which includes the parameter sso does not return a 200 but a 302. The new location is exactly the same url, minus the SSO parameter (the parameters c, vanilla_url and vanilla_identifier are kept).

guess the sso parameter is not process correctly for some reason.

Bleistivt

Does it work when you embed the full site, not just the comments?

The embedded SSO option may only apply to general embedding since it is not mentioned anywhere in the comment docs.