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3.8. Black Box Portal Authentication (customer portal login)

Updated: Jan 23 2025, 03:46 PM

Black box authentication allows you to integrate your organizations authentication system with HelpSpot. Configuration requires only a few simple steps.

Summary: Steps to enable BlackBox Authentication

• Customize the BlackBox function in the file /custom_code/BlackBoxPortal-base.php to authenticate the username and password passed to it against your own authentication system.
• Rename BlackBoxPortal-base.php to BlackBoxPortal.php
• Enable Black Box authentication in Admin->Settings->Portal->Request History Login Type

Customizing the BlackBox function

In the root of your installation there's a folder called /custom_code. Within that folder is the BlackBoxPortal-base.php file. This file contains the empty BlackBox function:

function BlackBoxPortal($username, $password){

	/* 
		DO YOUR AUTHENTICATION HERE 
		
		Here's an example of how to return a valid user:
		return "john.smith@company.com";
	*/

	return false;

}

Customize this function to do authentication against your internal system by using the username and password provided. Here is an example of the function customized to authenticate against a MySQL database: (some security procedures left out for clarity)

function BlackBoxPortal($username, $password){

       $dblink = mysql_connect('localhost', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
       mysql_select_db('database', $dblink);

       $username = mysql_real_escape_string($username);
       $password = mysql_real_escape_string($password);

       $result = mysql_query("SELECT email FROM users WHERE users = '$username' AND pass = '$password'", $dblink);
       $num_rows = mysql_num_rows($result);

       if(mysql_num_rows($result) == 1){
              $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
              //An email must be returned
              return $row['email']; 
       }else{
              return false;
       }
}

Returning an email will authenticate the user and show them any requests for that email, while false denies access.

Knowledge Tags

Authentication  / 

Downloads

• php
  BlackBoxPortal-base.php