Login Step Eliminated

Introduction

You can now go directly to ELMAR postings without logging in and without any intervening screens

 ARC: Community: ELMAR: Technical Stuff

Quick Summary

  • You no longer need to login to read ELMAR postings or get to the site. 
  • A login button will appear near the top of the left hand nav bar if you are not logged in.
  • You will need to login to change your password or email address (from "Main") or the frequency of updates (from "Preferences").  Some other services will also require login. 

Backstory

One intermittent but constant request from ELMAR subscribers has been to reduce or eliminate the need to explicitly login to the ELMAR platform. I basically agreed with these requests.  Surely transparency and simplicity is a Good Thing.  But after looking at implementations of the CommunityZero platform by various organizations, and systematically and repeatedly exploring the configuration options for the software, I concluded that it didn’t allow for it.

In fact, a few weeks ago I had a nice phone chat with a developer from CommunityZero and suggested that this be an option the software allow.  The developer, if I am remembering correctly, was somewhat non-committal.  He did show me an example where you absolutely didn’t have to login, but I swear he told me that that option had been customized in-house by the client and it wasn’t generally available. 

Now fast forward to last Wednesday.  For the umpteenth time I was looking at administrative options, and I spied a button that had a kind of familiar look.  It was in the "Community Restrictions" section and it was in the "on" position. Had that always been there?  Had I un-checked that one before?  Hmm. What would happen?  So I un-checked it, logged out of the community, and then noticed I could get in without logging in!  Wow. I tried to click on a link in the Community Update email. Same thing! No login necessary. 

OK, so here are the two possibilities:

  1. The developer, hearing my insightful request, implemented a new option and installed it for us.
  2. That silly button was there all the time but it took eight months of stumbling around to find it.

Can we go with #1? 

Charles Hofacker,
ELMAR Moderator