Domains› Core Concepts› Security› External Authentication Services›

Set Up Facebook Authentication

Password fatigue is a common problem with sites that require registration. In fact, a recent study found that 92% of shoppers abandon a website rather than go through the process of recovering a lost or forgotten password! However, if the website has a social media login option, they are 65% more likely to return. The same study showed that a majority of individuals prefer Facebook as their credential of choice. Luckily setting up a Rock website to use Facebook authentication is quick and easy.

Step 1: Create a Facebook App

Before you can add a Facebook login, your organization will need a Facebook "App". Visit the Facebook Developer website (https://developers.facebook.com/apps) to see the Apps that have been configured for your Facebook account. You'll need to designate someone’s personal Facebook account in your organization to use as the 'admin', but you can choose an organization’s email to be the contact email when setting this up. If you don't already have an App, follow these steps in the Facebook site to add one:

  1. At the top of the screen click the Register Now button. This will begin the quick start setup.
  2. You might need to verify your account with a phone number and provide some additional personal information.
  3. Click the Create First App button.
  4. You'll be presented with a screen asking for a Display Name and Contact Email for your app. Once you've entered a name and email, click Create App ID.
  5. You'll then have to go through a "captcha" step, just to make sure you're not a robot.
  6. The next screen will be the Product Setup screen. Click the Set Up button for "Facebook Login".
  7. Next, choose the "WWW" Web option.
  8. On the "Tell Us about Your Website" panel, enter in your site URL and click Save and then Continue.
  9. You can then just keep clicking Next to continue past the "Set Up the Facebook SDK for JavaScript", "Check Login Status", "Add the Facebook Login Button" and "Next Step" panels. Rock takes care of all these things for you.
  10. Now that you've navigated through all the panels under the "Web" setup, over in the left sidebar under Products, under "Facebook Login", click the Settings option.
  11. In the Client OAuth Settings section, enter the URL for your site in the "Valid OAuth redirect URIs" field. You need to include the port your website runs on (default is 80) such as http://rocksolidchurch.org:80/. Currently, Facebook has Force HTTPS enabled by default. As of October 6, 2018, this is required. Port 443 will need to be used instead of 80. You'll also need to add the page that has the Facebook login button onto the end of the domain (i.e., https://rock.rocksolidchurch.com:443/page/207 or https://rock.rocksolidchurch.com:443/Login) (Note: Only the Web OAuth Login needs to be enabled in this section. You can turn off the 'Client OAuth Login' option). Click Save Changes when you're finished.
  12. Now, back in the left sidebar, click the "Settings" option (not the "Settings" option under Facebook Login, but the main "Settings" section above). From the "Basic" screen, note the "App ID" and "App Secret" values. You'll need these two values when configuring Rock.
  13. Before you make your app public, Facebook recommends submitting any additional features or permissions for App Review -- user_friends is one such feature that will need to be submitted if you would like to use the Facebook Friend Known Relationship within Rock.
  14. To submit an item for approval, click App Review on the left-hand menu and then click “Permissions and Features”.
  15. A new page will present you with a list of available Permissions and Features. Permissions you can submit. Scroll down to user_friends and click the Request button.
  16. Click the “Continue” link that appears in place of the Request button.
  17. You'll be redirected to a Request for App Review page. You may need to add Business Verification.
  18. Click each section on the page to provide the requested details according to the instructions provided.
  19. Provide "App Verification Details" by describing how a person can test the integration. An example template is provided.
  20. For "Requested Permissions and Features" you’ll need to tell Facebook how you'll use the desired permission. You'll also need to upload a screencast demonstrating how the permission is being used. For user_friends, for example, we did a quick 10 second screencast showing a Facebook Friend Known Relationship in the Known Relationship block on the person profile page (essentially just scrolling down the page and highlighting the known relationship). You’ll need to do this for each requested permission.
  21. For "Complete App Settings" you’ll need to provide several configuration pieces. Add an icon for your app, and provide the URL to your privacy policy for the app. Then, select the appropriate “Business Use” (probably “Support my own business”). Lastly, you’ll need to select an App Category from the list provided.
  22. After all of the steps on the Request for App Review page have been completed, you can click the Submit for Review button at the bottom of the page.

Step 2: Configure Rock

Now that you have a Facebook App, you can start configuring Rock to use the Facebook authentication. Follow these steps:

  1. Activate the Facebook Authentication Service by navigating to the Admin Tools > Settings > Authentication Services > Facebook page.Enter the Facebook "App Id" and "App Secret" that you saved from the previous steps, and make sure that the service is Active. Save your changes.
  2. Now enable the Facebook login on any of your login pages by updating the block settings of the login control to enable the "Facebook" external service provider. Having this block setting allows you to decide which of your sites allow Facebook to be used (some organizations may prefer not to allow Facebook to be used to login to their internal Rock site). Also make sure the "Redirect Page" setting is pointed to the default home page for your site. Once enabled, your login screen will now have an additional button to allow individuals to login using their Facebook account.

Login Screen

Now that you've enabled Facebook login, when someone logs in using Facebook, they will see a screen similar to the one below that links their Facebook account to your server.

Facebook Account Link Page

When an individual's Facebook account is used for the first time Rock will apply the following logic to attempt to match the Facebook account to a Rock record.

  1. If a person record can be found with the same First Name, Last Name and Email, the login is attached to this record. As an extra bonus, if no photo exists in Rock for this person their photo from Facebook will be added to their record in Rock.
  2. If an exact match can't be made, a new record is created in Rock using the information from their Facebook account. The record status of this new individual is set to "Pending" so they will show up under the "Pending Individuals" report Tools > Reports | Organization > Data Integrity > Pending Individuals.

When a new person record is created as a result of a Facebook login, we'll pull the following information from Facebook:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Email
  • Gender

Whenever they log in, we'll also do the following:

  1. If the person doesn't have a photo in Rock and they do in Facebook, their Facebook photo will be added to Rock.
  2. Their Facebook Media Link will be updated.
  3. Any of their friends that have also logged into Rock using Facebook will be added as a Facebook Friend known relationship.
Intro to External Authentication Set Up Google Authentication