How Do I Work With Multiple Databases When Using Single Sign-On?

Question: How Do I Work With Multiple Databases When Using Single Sign-On?

Product Details:
Product Family: Act! Growth Suite
Tier: Professional, Premier, Ultimate
Deployment: Act! in the Cloud
Version: v22 

 

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Answer:

When you first begin working with Single Sign-On, you will begin with one blank database provided at the point that you sign up for an Act! trial. For the vast majority of customers, you will only need this one database. However, if you have used the on-premise version of Act! it may be the case that you would like to upload a backup of your existing Act! database. Doing so would mean you now have access to the trial database, as well as your own existing database. Because of that, you will need to understand how to work with multiple databases when using SSO (Single Sign-On).

 

To begin with, you will need to actually upload that Act! backup. Instructions on doing so can be found in the next section.

 

Upload an Act! Database

1. Sign in to your Single Sign-On account as normal.
2. Click your user name in the top right corner, and choose User Management.
3. Click the option to Upload an Act! Database, click Choose Files and browse to your Act! Backup file that you wish to restore.
4. Enter the administrator username and password, in the fields provided. If the backup file itself was password protected then enter that password too, in the majority of cases this will be left blank.
5. Finally, enter one or two email addresses that you wish to be notified once the restoration is complete.
6. Click Upload.
7. You will receive a message advising that the upload is in progress. The email addresses you entered in step 5 will then be notified once the restoration is complete.
8. If there has been a problem with the upload, you will instead receive an email advising you that the upload was unsuccessful. In this circumstance your email will have three links:
   
   Resend Credentials: In the vast majority of cases the problem is caused by incorrect credentials. Clicking this link allows you to re-enter your Act! username and password.
   Upload my database: This option allows you to try the upload again from scratch. For example, perhaps you have another backup file that you wish to use instead.
   Log in: If you wish to simply log back into your Act! database, use this option.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The username of the administrator that you entered will be changed automatically once the database has been restored. In order to make use of SSO, each username must be an email address. Therefore, when you upload a database, the system will automatically change the username that you enter to your current SSO username. So for example: 

1. You begin a trial of Act! using your own personal email address actuser@gmail.com and are provided with a new database.
2. You upload an Act! backup which currently has the user Chris Huffman as the administrator.
3. Once the upload is complete, the username will have automatically been changed to actuser@gmail.com

  

 

 

As can be seen in the screenshot above, the username has been changed to match that of the SSO user that uploaded the database. 

 

Upload a Spreadsheet

1. Click the option to Upload a Spreadsheet, then click Browse and select your spreadsheet, then click Open.
2. Enter any special instructions into the Special Instructions field (NOTE: Any instructions entered will require a manual upload by an Act! technician and will therefore take up to 24 hours to complete).
3. Finally, enter one or two email addresses that you wish to be notified once the restoration is complete.
4. Click Upload.
5. You will receive a message advising that the upload is in progress. The email addresses you entered in step 3 will then be notified once the restoration is complete.

 

 

Working with Multiple Databases

Now that you have uploaded another database, when you use the online portal to access your SSO databases, the log in screen looks like this:

 

 

 

If you are only using the trial, or just have one database, when you insert your SSO email address and password, the system will log you directly into your database. 

 

If you have uploaded a backup however and therefore have more than one database, then it works in a slightly different way (for information on uploading additional databases, please see the final section of the article How Do I Manage Users With Single Sign-On?).

 

If you have multiple databases, enter your SSO email address and password as normal. Once you have done so, you will then see the following screen: 

 

 

 

From here, you can select from the dropdown list which database you would like to access, then click Launch Act! to open it up. 

 

The above information is very easy to understand when you have a single user of Act!. In order to make sure you understand what happens when you have multiple SSO users across multiple databases, please read through the below two scenarios.

 

 

Scenario 1

Imagine the following scenario, you have created a trial Act! SSO account. The email address you used was Actuser1@hotmail.com.

 

You then added a new SSO user using the Manage Users console (see the Add Users subheading in the article How Do I Manage Users With Single Sign-On?). This user was Actuser2@hotmail.com and you made this user a Standard level user. So in your trial database you now have:

 

Actuser1@hotmail.com – Administrator

Actuser2@hotmail.com – Standard

 

The Administrator (Actuser1@hotmail.com) then uploads an Act! backup called MyLiveData which originally had 2 users, Chris Huffman (Administrator level), and Allison Mikola (Manager level).

 

Once the database has been uploaded, Chris Huffman will have been replaced by Actuser1@hotmail.com. So then, in the MyLiveData database you will have the following users:

 

Actuser1@hotmail.com – Administrator

Allison Mikola – Manager – INACTIVE

 

When Actuser1@hotmail.com logs into SSO, he will then see a dropdown list allowing him to choose his trial database, or the MyLiveData database.

 

When Actuser2@hotmail.com logs into SSO, she will immediately go into the trial database as that is currently the only database she currently has access to.

 

 

Scenario 2

Following on from the above, Actuser1@hotmail.com now logs into the MyLiveData database. He goes into the Manage Users console, and chooses the option to Manage SSO (see the Manage SSO subheading in the in the article How Do I Manage Users With Single Sign-On?). He selects Allison Mikola and provides the email address Actuser2@hotmail.com. The confirmation screen will provide a different message in this case:

 

   

  

REMEMEBER: Actuser2@hotmail.com is already an SSO user in the trial database. Therefore she WILL NOT receive an email to create a password as she is already a verified user as the confirmation screen suggests.

 

Because there is no confirmation email, after completing the Manage SSO process just described, the administrator will then need to choose the Activate and Deactivate Users option in the console in order to make this new user Active.

 

 

Once this process has been completed, the next time that Actuser2@hotmail.com signs into SSO, she will now see a dropdown allowing her to choose which database she wants to access.

 

However, as per the scenario described above, when she logs into the trial database, she will be a Standard level user, but because she replaced Allison Mikola in the MyLiveData database, she will be a Manager in there. The administrator can of course change this permission if he wants to.