Error while trying to authorize your account with Patreon

[Crocodilus_CZ]

Hi,

I’m using the Discourse Patreon plugin and have run into an issue. The integration works perfectly for users who have the same email address on both Discourse and Patreon – they can link their accounts and get the correct group/benefits.

However, for users who have a different email on Patreon and Discourse, when they try to link their Patreon account via the “Connect” button in their Discourse profile, they get this error after authorizing on Patreon:

Sorry, there was an error while trying to authorize your account with Patreon. Please try again.

This happens regardless of device or browser.

Important: The plugin is otherwise working – users with matching emails are paired and get their benefits, so Client ID, Secret, and Redirect URI are all set up correctly.

What I’ve tried:

• Manual group assignment (gets removed by sync)
• Rechecking all plugin and Patreon app settings
• Testing on multiple devices and browsers

Is there a way to allow users with different emails to link their Patreon account to their existing Discourse account, or at least to avoid this error?

Any advice or best practices would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[Watson]

For the longest time we have been using the patreon plugin with API V1 for Discourse to signin with Patreon. This is the recommended setup according to the official Discourse patreon plugin documentation: Configure Patreon integration with Discourse

However, Patreon has not supported V1 for years now. It constantly breaks, it doesn’t sync fully, and recently, it just wouldn’t work for us anymore.

The problem is when we switch to API V2 which is supported by patreon, it fails to authorize users. When users try to click on the log in with Patreon and they allow API v2 to connect to their Patreon account, they get this error:

Sorry, there was an error while trying to authorize your account with Patreon. Please try again.

And according to the official patreon plugin discourse documentation specifically states that API v2 may cause these authentications errors. Which makes v2 unusable.

Thankfully, we found a work around to get API v2 working. This solution should be added to the official documentation because right now API v1, which is what’s recommended, is completely broken.

Solution

The solution is to create a custom OAuth2. Instead of users using the login with patreon button from the patreon plugin, they will use a custom login button that we created will auth with patreon using our own oauth.

Step 1: Add these redirect URIs to Patreon.

• https://<your_discourse_server_link>/auth/oauth2_basic/callback

• https://<your_discourse_server_link>/auth/patreon/callback

Step 2: In Discourse go to Admin > Login & Authentication > OAuth2 and configure the following:

• oauth2_enabled: true

• oauth2_client_id: <your Patreon client id>

• oauth2_client_secret: <your Patreon client secret>

• oauth2_authorize_url: https://www.patreon.com/oauth2/authorize

• oauth2_authorize_signup_url: (leave blank)

• oauth2_token_url: https://www.patreon.com/api/oauth2/token

• oauth2_callback_user_id_path: (leave blank)

• oauth2_callback_user_info_paths: email

• oauth2_token_url_method: POST

• oauth2_callback_user_info_paths: email

• oauth2_fetch_user_details: true

• oauth2_user_json_url: https://www.patreon.com/api/oauth2/v2/identity?include=memberships&fields[user]=email,full_name,vanity

• oauth2_json_user_id_path: data.id

• oauth2_json_name_path: data.attributes.full_name

• oauth2_json_username_path: data.attributes.vanity

• oauth2_json_email_path: data.attributes.email

• oauth2_json_email_verified_path: (leave blank)

• oauth2_email_verified: true (trust provider to reduce prompts) If some patrons lack email, set this to false and expect a signup prompt.

• oauth2_email_verified: true

• oauth2_send_auth_header: true

• oauth2_send_auth_body: true

• oauth2_debug_auth: true

• oauth2_authorize_options: scope

• oauth2_scope: identity identity[email] campaigns campaigns.members

• oauth2_button_title: Login with with Patreon

• oauth2_allow_association_change: false (recommended)

Step 3: In Discourse core login controls configure the following:

• enable sso: false

• patreon login enabled: false (prevents two Patreon buttons; keep plugin only for sync)

• allow new registrations: choose:

  • true to let new patrons create accounts

  • false to allow only existing Discourse users to log in

• invite only: false while testing

• must approve users: false while testing

• session_cookie_domain: (blank)

Step 4: In your Discourse yml file configure the following for networking and hosts.

• DISCOURSE_HOSTNAME in app.yml: <your_discourse_server_link>

• force_https: true

Step 5: Rebuild your app to implement the changes:

cd /var/discourse
./launcher rebuild app

Result:

Now you should have your own working OAuth2 Login with Patreon Button that actually works on API v2 which properly syncs your user groups with Patreon.

[tobiaseigen]

Nice job, @watson! I moved your solution into this topic for now, and moved it to Feature because it’s about an improvement/fix to how the official patreon plugin works. If one or two others are able to replicate and confirm that your steps work, then I think an update is going to be needed to the official patreon instructions.