Changing Authentication Model (what happens to existing content?)

Reply

eamonroche Posted: Mon, Apr 14 2008 10:44 AM

rated by 0 users

I want to change my authentication model from Forms based to Single Sign On with Windows Active Directory.

Is there an easy way to keep existing content (blogs, forum posts, resources) associated with each user?

I presume that users will have to re-upload?

Thanks in advance 

Reply

Ken Robertson replied on Mon, Apr 14 2008 2:09 PM

rated by 0 users

Your content will stay there, but if usernames change, you will run into issues.  The SSO modules match users based on the username, if they sign in via Windows/AD and the given username is not found matching an existing user, then it will try and create a new user for them.  Additionally, if the email address is already taken by another user (such as the user with the old username) it will fail to create the new user and not let them into the site.

Generally, we don't recommend changing authentication schemes once a site goes live because of issues like these.  You can change it, though should take care in planning the migration and should try to create a sort of migration plan, where maybe you could find which users will have their usernames change and rename them before flipping the switch.