This article will walk through details about the SSO configuration between the Classroom and MC Trade, and troubleshooting tips to ensure seamless access.
How it works
When you purchased your Classroom, as part of your setup, our team established the API connection between your Classroom and your MC Trade account. With this connection in place, it ensures that users who are already logged into MC Trade and who click on a link to go to the Classroom will arrive to the Classroom in an already logged-in state. Please note: they will still need to click the "Login" button to authenticate, but will not need to re-enter their credentials. Alternately, if a user accesses the Classroom home page but is not already logged into MC Trade, clicking the login link will take them to an MC Trade login screen where they will simply enter their MC Trade profile account credentials, and will then be immediately redirected back to the Classroom in a logged-in state.
Learners will need to have MC Trade profiles
Before being able to log into the Classroom, a learner must first have an MC Trade profile in place, and must also log into the MC Trade account at least once before trying to log in through the SSO to the Classroom. This is especially important to note if you are currently using the event registration option as a means to permission groups within the Classroom - the registration itself will not be enough to grant them access to the Classroom, that registrant must also have a profile set up with login credentials in order to have access.
Profiles must have a few mandatory fields
To be able to successfully log into the Classroom, the user's MC Trade profile must always include a first name, last name, and email address. Having these pieces of information in place will ensure the user is able to access the Classroom without error.
User email addresses are unique to each MC Trade profile
If a user who is attempting to access the Classroom is having access issues (especially an error that references information missing, such as first name, last name, email, etc) it is often because another profile in your MC Trade instance is using the same email address as the user who is attempting to login. Ensuring you don't have multiple profiles using the same email address is a best practice in general, but is crucial to each profile being able to successfully login to the Classroom since the email address is referenced as part of the authentication.
Profile edits should only be made within MC Trade
If you need to make an update to a learner's profile, you will want to make these updates in their MC Trade profile, not within the Classroom. Making updates to Classroom profile information will not go back into MC Trade, but especially if the edits are to information such as the learner's email address, such an edit in the Classroom could prohibit your learner from being able to successfully log in on their next attempt. To be safe, always make any profile edit within the MC Trade system and not the Classroom.