topic Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019) in All Things Community

Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

ChrisHemedinger — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 21:26:29 GMT

Hello SAS Community Members,

I'm writing to let you know that the way that you sign in to SAS Communities -- and all SAS web site applications -- will change after this weekend.

SAS is upgrading the systems that we use for the SAS Profile -- which is what we use to identify visitors on the community, customers for e-learning, users checking SAS Tech Support tracks, SAS OnDemand for Academics, and more.

The login web page will look a little different when it's done, but you'll still sign in with your e-mail address and your password. You might be prompted to change your password the first time that you visit after the change.

One other important impact for you frequent visitors: you won't be able to log in for most of the day (Eastern time) on Saturday, March 2. The profile system will be offline, and you'll see a message to that effect. However, you'll still be able to browse information on the community -- just not reply or add new topics.

Any questions or problems? Post back here before the change, or after (if you can!). Of course I'm hoping everything goes smoothly during the change, but the SAS Customer Contact Center will be ready to help anyone who has trouble logging back in.

Chris

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

Reeza — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 22:07:24 GMT

Good thing I'm on a plane on Saturday 🙂

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

JuanS_OCS — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 10:14:48 GMT

Hi Chris,

I feel curious about the results of the new developments.

So, we won't need to signing out first, to avoid issues with the single sign on?

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

ChrisHemedinger — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 13:50:53 GMT

@JuanS_OCS No need to sign out first. We're hoping everything goes smoothly...but if you encounter any challenges logging in after the change, the usual advice about clearing browser cookies, etc. will apply.

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

ChrisHemedinger — Sun, 03 Mar 2019 16:52:05 GMT

The sign-in change is complete, and we're back online! The change took a few hours longer than anticipated but it was completed on Saturday evening.

If you have problems reconnecting or logging into your profile, feel free to send e-mail to communities@sas.com or contact us via the SAS Customer Contact Center (chat system on support.sas.com or www.sas.com).

Chris and the Communities team

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

Tom — Sun, 03 Mar 2019 17:09:44 GMT

Seems to be working. Had to change my password 😞

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

PaigeMiller — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 13:23:43 GMT

In my opinion, a poor experience.

I got a message indicating my password had expired, and I was supposed to create a new one. That much I expected, because I had read this thread.

Then, a screen appeared with three different boxes that apparently I had to fill in, but there was no text indicating what I was supposed to type into these three boxes. Just three boxes, no text. Two different browsers showed this screen with no text.

So I guessed, which I absolutely hate doing. In the first box, I typed my old password, then I typed the new password in the next two boxes. I got some check marks and some red X's appearing under the second box. What does that mean? Ohhhh ... apparently I had not met the requirements for a new password, but again, NO TEXT to indicate what was needed or what was wrong.

Eventually, I got it to work. Even now, after this whole thing works, when I try to sign in, I get two boxes, one entitled "New User?" — which I am not — and one entitled ... well it has no title or text at all, it really ought to say something like "Existing user". But it doesn't. See:

This isn't rocket science, this is really a poor way of doing things.

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

Tom — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 18:04:41 GMT

Why does it keep asking for the password? The old method remembered me and only asked for the password after about a week or so.

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

PaigeMiller — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 18:06:39 GMT

@Tom wrote:

Why does it keep asking for the password? The old method remembered me and only asked for the password after about a week or so.

I am having the same problem. If I shut down my browser, and then launch it later, I have to re-enter the password, which is different behavior than before.

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

ballardw — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 18:10:14 GMT

@PaigeMiller wrote:

@Tom wrote:

Why does it keep asking for the password? The old method remembered me and only asked for the password after about a week or so.

I am having the same problem. If I shut down my browser, and then launch it later, I have to re-enter the password, which is different behavior than before.

Me three.

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

ChrisHemedinger — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 19:57:57 GMT

All, we see that too. We'll look into it and try to re-enable the "remember me" feature that we had before.

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

JuanS_OCS — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 07:47:45 GMT

You just answered my doubt, Chris !

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

andreas_lds — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 07:24:41 GMT

Can the old login form please be restored? I am using KeePass to store credentials and the new form does not allow to use the auto-type-feature any more.

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

JuanS_OCS — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 08:26:17 GMT

@andreas_lds , and for whom else might be interested,

if you use Chrome, I would like to suggest to download and install the OKTA Secure Web Authentication Plugin. It should be able to help here.

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

PaigeMiller — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:00:14 GMT

@JuanS_OCS wrote:

@andreas_lds , and for whom else might be interested,

if you use Chrome, I would like to suggest to download and install the OKTA Secure Web Authentication Plugin. It should be able to help here.

Well, @JuanS_OCS , why is that necessary, given that Andreas already had a method that works?

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

JuanS_OCS — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:15:18 GMT

Hmm @PaigeMiller , I think nobody said it is necessary, you just did. I am a "simple" user trying to support another user's challenge, with a suggestion based on my own experience with third party tools, nothing more, nothing less. Same goes for my opinions.

In other hand, "a method that already works" is always to think of. It is always necessary, and the challenge is interesting, to find the balance between progressive and convervative things, isn't it?

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

ChrisHemedinger — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 13:08:53 GMT

We can't restore the old form -- SAS has adopted use of an enterprise authentication service (Okta, as @JuanS_OCS noted) and it's in place for all SAS services that require login. Communities is just one system in the larger ecosystem.

We will look into what can be done to improve the experience with this service though. We understand that it's an inconvenience to have to supply your credentials with each visit, especially for those of you who visit multiple times per day.

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

CJac73 — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 23:02:28 GMT

Looks like y'all got it fixed.

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

ChrisHemedinger — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 11:28:24 GMT

There was a fix applied to the signin system to help with the form interface, and we also tweaked a setting on the community to allow for a longer period before session expiration (reducing the amount of prompting for credentials).

Re: Upcoming change to Communities sign-in experience (02-Mar-2019)

MichelleHomes — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 20:59:19 GMT

Were you able to find out if the "remember me" feature can be re-enabled?

I'm becoming more reluctant to engage with the platform now with having to log in frequently. Is anyone else?