How do I Embed Login Credentials in a URL?
Why Would You Want to Do This?
This lesson will show you how to embed login credentials into a url. Why would you want to do this? Here is an example scenario:
Say that you have a user area on your own website, not on ScreenSteps Live. You create a space on ScreenSteps Live that you want those users to have access to but you don't want to go through the hassle of setting up user accounts for everyone on ScreenSteps Live. You can use this method to provide a link in the user area that will take them to your space on ScreenSteps Live and automatically log them in.
What to Do
1. First you will want to create a new API Access account. This account will be the login for everyone from your own site. In this example we will say that the username is "myusers" and the password is "mypassword".
2. Then add this user to a protected space on your account. They will now have permission to view the space.
3. Copy the url for the space and add on the authentication parameters.
IMPORTANT: Don't copy the url the admin area of your account. API Access users cannot access the admin area. Make sure you copy the public url.
If the url for your space was https://myaccount.screenstepslive.com/spaces/2345 then you would want to add ?login=myusers&password=mypassword to the end. The result would look like this:
https://myaccount.screenstepslive.com/spaces/2345?login=myusers&password=mypassword
4. Put this link on your own website.
When a user clicks on this url they will be taken to space 2345 and automatically logged in. Anybody just going to https://myaccount.screenstepslive.com/spaces/2345 will be asked for a username and password.
Security Considerations
A few things that you should be aware of:
1. Anybody who has this url can login to the site. You may want to update the password periodically.
2. If you use http instead of https for the url then the url will be sent unencrypted. If someone is sniffing your traffic they would be able to see the username and password in the url.
IMPORTANT: SSL is not enabled on basic accounts so your url will need to be http. In order to use https you need to have at least a Plus account.
Conclusion
If you need lock tight security for your content then you should create reader accounts for each person that is going to access that content. But if you just need something simple that will keep unauthorized people out of the space while at the same time make it easy for your authorized users to get access to the content then this can be a good solution.
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