Authentication Migration

Viafoura is designed to be technically agnostic and work seamlessly with many authentication platforms. If your company is switching authentication providers, or moving from Viafoura’s Login to a new Authentication Provider, you will likely want to protect your end user’s experience by retaining their comment history, as well as bans on user accounts. Two key components must be considered when switching authentication providers: Viafoura User ID, and the 3rd Party Provider Type (type of authentication used to work with Viafoura)

Viafoura User IDs - Once a user is authenticated with your provider, the process is to then pass the user ID, display name and email address to Viafoura. The user ID in the new authentication provider that is passed to Viafoura, must be the same User ID from your old authentication provider. This way, Viafoura receives the User ID and recognizes the account already exists. If you are using Viafoura Login, Viafoura will need to do a user export so you can import these user IDs and provide them as your user identifier.

3rd Party Provider - The type of provider used is important in this process as Viafoura uses the 3rd Party Provider type internally when differentiating between user accounts. Therefore, a data migration is required to update the 3rd Party Provider type within the Viafoura user accounts. Updating the 3rd Party Provider type is an action taken entirely by Viafoura, it involves prepping and running a script against your user data and needs to be done BEFORE you migrate your users over to your new auth platform. This work needs to be scheduled with Viafoura so it can be prepped and prioritized against other tasks, please allow 3 weeks for scheduling.

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Note

It is a good practice to set up some accounts in your development and production environments so that we can test the process to ensure we have success. Work with your CSM to build an implementation plan for your new Authentication provider to ensure a smooth roll-out with no impact to User Experience.

FAQ:

What does the migration look like? Is there a syncing of accounts behind-the-scenes?

• Viafoura team needs to migrate (duplicate) all user data from your original auth provider to your new auth provider.

What does the cutover look like?

• We recommend pausing new registrations on your site for an agreed upon window, while we perform the migration on our end. The more users you have to migrate the longer the downtime will be.

Are there two different data sets for each of our domains?

• Yes. Migration of users can be done independently, by domain.