Allowing people to login using accounts from other websites

AI-generated summary

In a discussion about enabling login via external websites (not social platforms like Facebook), misterms asks if Discourse can recognize users already logged into a non-forum website. rorycb suggests this is achievable via Single Sign-On (SSO), pointing to the official SSO guide. misterms then asks whether SSO works with any website or requires specific setup. rorycb clarifies that SSO requires the external site to support the protocol — for example, WordPress can integrate with Discourse via SSO once configured. He emphasizes that no “magic” solution exists without backend support on the external site and encourages misterms to share details about their current site (e.g., platform, authentication method) so the community can offer more targeted advice. The key takeaway is that seamless cross-site login is possible only if both sites are configured to support the same SSO system.

Is there a way to allow people to login when they are already logged in on another website? Something like a logging in with a Facebook account, except it isn’t FB, just a normal website(Not a forum). Thanks in advance!

Are you talking about using a SSO login? If so, this thread should help you Setup DiscourseConnect - Official Single-Sign-On for Discourse (sso)

If not, please provide more details of what you mean by a normal website and maybe someone can provide you with more guidance :slight_smile:

Is the SSO feature available for any website? Or are there specific requirements for the website that supports this feature?

It’s a specific system for logging users in that the website needs to support. For example Wordpress supports SSO as well so you could use SSO between a Wordpress site you control and a Discourse instance once they are properly setup to allow you to seamlessly move between the sites after logging into one.

I don’t have a ton of knowledge in this area, I am just trying to point you in the correct direction if I can.

No matter what, your website is going to have to support whatever login system you want to use. There is no magic solution that will require no work on your website to allow seamless movement between sites, unless your website already has support.

As I said above, maybe let people know more about your current website setup (does it use Wordpress?) how do users currently authenticate with your current website? People may be able to steer you in the right direction if they have more details.