Dnn.platform: Allow users to log into other portals on same CE instance with same profile account information.

[thabaum]

## Description of problem
Unique Email and Unique Username settings TRUE wont allow users to log into or register the same username/email on multiple or different portals on the same DNN instance. A user has to create an account on each portal using a new email address and username for each portal. So if you want a user to be able to register/login on more than one site they need to use new emails and usernames along with common profile information each time. Not everyone has multiple emails... and who would even have a clue to registering on a site if it could be related to a DNN instance thus limiting or creating confusion to a potential new user trying to connect to content on a second portal.

Description of solution

I would like to allow users to log into multiple portals on the same instance regardless of parent/child. I know DNN Evoq can "Group" sites together and create multiple groups I believe. Can DNN CE be able to act like a single group of sites as one instance to allow users to register and manage a profile for multiple portals (websites) that are created on the same instance of DNN CE?

Possibly an option to group the DNN instance portals users. Can't obvously setup multiple groups as this might be something for the EVOQ paid features... however maybe grouping all the sites on one instance could be an option for CE?

Super users can log in on multiple portals, maybe a server setting can allow the DNN CE instance to group all users with all portals created so you can create one account on one portal and be able to switch between other portals staying logged in as the same user and user profile settings follow the user as well.

Description of alternatives considered

Provide a clear and concise description of any alternative solutions or features you have considered.

Affected version

• [x] 9.3.2
• [x] 9.3.1
• [x] 9.2.2
• [x] 9.2.1
• [x] 9.2
• [x] 9.1.1
• [ ] 9.1
• [ ] 9.0

[mitchelsellers]

I am adding the RFC tag to this issue. The concern here is very valid, but the solution to the problem is for sure something that warrants more discussion around the best method to handle.

Workarounds do exist for this, in some capacity today, by simply adding database records to the User Portals table to grant the user access to multiple portals, however, their profile is still different per-portal.

[sleupold]

Site Groups is a DNN Platform feature, though DNN Platform does not include the UI for it, please use https://github.com/SCullman/Connect.Sitegroups/releases to manage site groups.

[sleupold]

A user can register to multiple sites within one instance using the same user name and password. Membership shares a couple of properties (Username, email address, fist, last and and display name), all others are site specific.

[OllyHodgson]

https://github.com/SCullman/Connect.Sitegroups/releases

Given that that code doesn't seem to have been touched for a couple of years, I guess it's safe to assume it will have broken with the 9.3.x PersonaBar upgrades?

Is Stefan Cullmann still active around DNN? If this is a problem that's already been solved satisfactorily, is it worth exploring whether their code could be upgraded and integrated into Platform?

[OllyHodgson]

A user can register to multiple sites within one instance using the same user name and password. Membership shares a couple of properties (Username, email address, fist, last and and display name), all others are site specific.

This is how Stack Overflow works with the other Stack Exchange sites. You can use one account to access several of the sites, but most of the profile data isn't shared between them. IIRC they have a button to copy your profile information to all of the other Stack Exchange sites you're registered with. I quite like how it works, but it might be a bit confusing for a less "technical" audience.

[purtonb]

I have addressed this in earlier versions using the database trigger approach on the userportals table, and found this as I looked for a more robust solution as it has been raised with me again.
Being able to group sites for the purposes of allowing users to login to all sites within the same group with the same credentials would be amazing! (We don't care much about the profile properties as we update them from a CRM on login.)

[valadas]

@OllyHodgson that module does work in 9.3.x but it is not integrated into the persona bar, but it works.

Now I see this problem 2 fold:

1. If the site are kinda related, you can create a portalgroup and allow that user to login to any site into that group.
2. The sites are not related you then the problem is different since you don't want to share those users and you want to allow the same username with a different password, the other user might be a totally different person and not even know about the other sites. For installations with a lot of portals, it might even become difficult to find an unused username...

[sleupold]

@valadas there is a PB extension version of the Sitegroup Editor as well, but it might need to be updated to support DNN 9.3.0+ as well.

[valadas]

Nice, I did not know, just tried it in 9.4.0 and it loads and you can kinda create a sitegroup but then if you try to edit it the module resets. @SCullman would you be willing to submit the module to Dnn and we can fix it together and maintain it as part of AdminExperience ?

[thabaum]

https://github.com/SCullman/Connect.Sitegroups/issues/2
@valadas
@SCullman has agreed to allow it to be included. He also gives help on doctoring it up for the current version. Please take this to the next step when possible it would be a great addition to help manage portals. Thanks again everyone!

[SCullman]

I suggest that Site Groups will be upgraded to the current Persona Bar API before any further integration into Admin experience. @valadas, do you agree, or do I miss something obvious?

[SCullman]

I followed the instructions for upgrading, and, well, it starts in DNN94rc1:

However, it throws minified errors after creating a new group:

I have no idea how to switch to "development mode", as this seems to be caused within AdminExperience.

[valadas]

If it uses the common bundle, there have been a lot of breaking changes to it due to the dependencies being really really old. This is simple module I would have like to reimplement as a PersonaBar module but without the react dependency. But that wont happen until quite some time from my part. But if we need to just fix it for recent versions, the first step would be to publish the 3.0.0 common bundle npm packages (as part of the Dnn 9.4.0 final release), we are looking into automating this process... Then it would need to be built in dev mode to see what errors are left and what needs to be done to fix them.

[SCullman]

The current PersonaBar modules within AdminExperience are not using @dnnsoftware/dnn-react-common? No dog fooding? Sigh.
Couldn't we have also prereleases of common bundle in npm?

[SCullman]

we are looking into automating this process...

Ok. We are not there yet.

[valadas]

Yes they do but the repositories got merged so now they use the local copies and the build pipeline was not updated to keep on publishing that to nuget. I am super busy right now but it is on my todo list for very soon to fix that, like next week I hope.

[SCullman]

Any news on an updated release of @dnnsoftware/dnn-react-common?

[valadas]

@mitchelsellers can you publish the nuget packages for dnn-react-common ? Ping me up if you need my help on that...

[SCullman]

@valadas , @mitchelsellers, and the npm package, please.

[mitchelsellers]

@SCullman Will do for NuGet - Might need to dig a bit before I can get NPM

[thabaum]

Looking forward to this feature let me know if you need any testing support.

[valadas]

@mitchelsellers can we get those npm packages published? Ping me up if you need me on that front...

[thabaum]

@SCullman @mitchelsellers @valadas
Any luck moving forward here with Site Group settings in the persona bar?

Thank you.

[valadas]

We should get back to this after the 9.5.0 release where we will re-publish the npm packages fresh...

[ortomind]

see if this apply here too https://github.com/dnnsoftware/Dnn.Platform/issues/3565
Site Groups activated: in PortalA the user remain Unverified User role when the user was created and verified with link form PortalB.

[kurtwilbies]

Folks. Any news. And where can I find the code (dev in progress or developed).

[mitchelsellers]

To my knowledge no one has started work on this yet.

[valadas]

Basically we need to get 9.5.0 official release out, publish it's npm packages and then rewrite part of https://github.com/SCullman/Connect.Sitegroups It will probably be after Summit before I have any time to dedicate on this, my best estimate would be end of march or some such...

[stale[bot]]

We have detected this issue has not had any activity during the last 90 days. That could mean this issue is no longer relevant and/or nobody has found the necessary time to address the issue. We are trying to keep the list of open issues limited to those issues that are relevant to the majority and to close the ones that have become 'stale' (inactive). If no further activity is detected within the next 14 days, the issue will be closed automatically.
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[stale[bot]]

This issue has been closed automatically due to inactivity (as mentioned 14 days ago). Feel free to re-open the issue if you believe it is still relevant.

[valadas]

This is now possible (since 9.6.0 I think) with the integration of SiteGroups support thanks to @SCullman and @donker