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ollie123ollie123 

Sites authentication?

Is it possible to creates a public-facing web site with Force.com Sites where some pages require authentication, and authentication can be done using information in Salesforce (Contacts, perhaps?). I've previously looked at the Customer Portal but the licensing was designed by a blind man in a black hole (entirely inappropriate for small businesses, at £3 per LOGIN!), so very much hoping that there's a way to allow a visitor to be authenticated in a Sites application, so private data can be viewed/edited.

 

The requirement is that a customer can sign in, and view all the objects I want them to view/edit, including their own contact, the related account, cases, custom objects, and some information from objects in AppExchange apps.

 

Can anyone confirm either way, or point me to resources that cover this? Should I be using the Customer Portal, the Partner Portal, or can Sites do all this itself?

 

Thanks

 

O.

Best Answer chosen by Admin (Salesforce Developers) 
BulentBulent
you might want to check the customer portal implementation guide.

All Answers

ollie123ollie123

Since posting I found the section in the Developer Guide that discusses login, but it is rather short and doesn't clearly state whether the Customer Portal is REQUIRED in order to authenticate users in a "Sites" application. I've no problem implementing pages in the Sites application to show the relevant data (from standard and custom objects), but not sure whether the authentication can be done with the CP.

 

 
RyanGuestRyanGuest

If you want to authenicate users, you'll need to setup some kind of Portal (either Customer or Partner).
ollie123ollie123

Hi Ryan, thanks for your reply. Is this definately true? The wording in the Developer Guide seems to suggest login can be enabled without use of the CP:

 

"Force Platform Sites provides seamless integration with the Customer Portal product, as well as built-in login and registration logic"

 
BulentBulent
Yes, Ryan is correct. Login and registration visualforce pages are provided by force.com sites, however these pages are there to provide seamless integration with CSP and PRM portals 
ollie123ollie123

Hi Bulent,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

In a scenario where I am looking for customers to sign in, and view/edit information in both standard and custom objects, am I right in thinking that the Partner Portal is inappropriate and should instead be using the Customer Portal?

 

Do you know if the licensing has been changed? Late last year when I last investigated the pricing it was something like GBP3 per sign-in (US$5) every time someone signs in, which is ludicrous (it would be ceaper to staff a call-centre to handle customers than have them sign in).

 

Thanks

 

Ollie

 
BulentBulent
It's best if you contact your sales rep on pricing. there are several different options user based or login based pricing
DK_1DK_1
My company has a similar requirement to the OP. We wish to enable users to make a purchase on our public website. The catch is we offer two levels of pricing, depending on a status field in Salesforce. Could we use Sites to authenticate a user during the registration process by referencing a field on the Account object in order to receive a discounted rate? If this is not possible, what is the best option to achieve this outcome (preferably without signing up for the overpriced Customer Portals).
BulentBulent
Authentication only works with customer portal or prm portal products
ollie123ollie123

OK, so Bulent what you're saying combined with the information from my account manager is that I need the Customer Portal "Custom" service, so I can provide acess to my customers to custom objects via the Sites, authenticated.

 

So if I have a structure like this:

 

Account->Service->SubService

 

... and I want to let a customer (NOT account owner, but the actual customer, i.e. one of the contacts on the Account) to sign in and edit the Service and SubService objects within their account, can I do this with the Customer Portal, or do we need to develop a load of VF pages to do stuff like this?

 

I've read through all the docs on setting up the Customer Portal, and it didn't help at all. I can't see how to specify how customers are granted access to custom objects - both which objects they can access, and what they can do with them (CRUD).

 

Would greatly appreciate some help if you are able to offer any.

 

Thanks

 

Ollie

 

 
BulentBulent
you might want to check the customer portal implementation guide.
This was selected as the best answer