Adding external authentication
The VIF application stores the member information in a database table which is set up during application installation. This member table not only contains member information (as the member's name and email address) but the member's password too. Thus, this member tabel is used for the member authentication by default.
If an organisation uses VIF for internal discussions, this setup might lead to information duplication. Moreover, the members of this organisation might have to administer multiple passwords, one for participating in a VIF discussion and others to use log into the organisations infrastructure.
To overcome this problem, the VIF application offers the possibility to authenticate against an existing infrastructure.
User management with external authentication
Having set up the VIF forum (according to the installation instructions) with external authentication, the first thing you have to do (after logging into the forum's administration part) is to search for members (in the external store) and assign them administration and/or group administration roles (see Forum Roles). Thereafter, the forum administration is ready for productive work, i.e. forum and group administrators can create groups and set up the group's starting questions.