Log in, Log out, Log in, Log out…

Folks,

Until recently, I was a happy user of just one S-ID that granted me access to many SAP websites (like SCN and Support Portal). All I needed to do was to flash my digital certificate and the virtual bouncers would just smile and roll out the red carpet for such valued member of SAP society.

But then my employer decided to assign me a new S-ID, just for the giggles. Apparently, no one at SAP AG was able to foresee such exotic move because no provisions were made to allow the SCN members to change the S-ID in their profile. You might ask why I started using S-ID on SCN in the first place? Well, you see, it was actually possible to switch S-IDs on SCN up until about 2010. It was cumbersome, your account could’ve been “guestified” for a while, your “member since” date might be off, you had to email someone, ask nicely and then wait, etc. But it was a possibility. Of course, this had to be “improved” and now “UPDATE User_Profile WHERE SID =… ” no longer works.

This is not breaking news, it’s been a known issue for a while (see Exhibit A, B, and C just from the top of the Google search). But now it affects me personally, so it just got “super duper cereal”.

In absence of other options, I had to bite the bullet and create new SCN account with so called P-ID thus becoming Jelena The Second. With the new account, I lost the ties to my old SCN posts, my followers and followees. But I’m also still Jelena The First and need to access other SAP sites, sometimes using both old and new S-ID.

I use mostly Chrome browser because Firefox has some kind of beef with our corporate spyware and IE… well, who really uses IE voluntarily these days? There are 2 digital certificates installed on my PC (for both S-IDs) and I asked Chrome to remember my login information for SCN because I don’t like typing. The following happens daily when I go to the SCN home page.

I do not want to use a digital certificate on SCN, so it’s important to click Cancel and close the pop-up. If I try to access SCN while undercaffeinated and accidentally click on a new certificate, I will end up cleaning up cookies and my Inbox till lunch time.

If I don’t mess up this step, I arrive at the SCN Welcome page where I’m greeted by the picture of the aftermath of an extinction event that evaporated all humans but left the buildings intact. Probably rather accurate representation of SAP Community these days. Note that at this point SCN still does not recognize me and I have to click on the Login button explicitly. (By the way, why do we use “Single sign-on” to “log in“? English is confusing.)

After that, SCN finally admits me into the club. Unless I venture to check my Notifications:

Anyways, at least this takes care of SCN access. But apparently the SAP websites are like the casinos – they don’t want you to leave and visit other places. If after stopping by SCN I decide to do some club-hopping to the Support Launchpad, this is what I see:

Err, I kind of already did that for not just one but two S-IDs, so why is it pretending we have not been introduced? Okay, I’ll just click the button and maybe then it’ll let me pick a certificate?

I guess not. Well, I’m too lazy to search for my S-ID and password (which needs to be exactly 8 characters with a punctuation symbol or The Matrix will blow up) and type it in, so let me just close this. And now I have the pristine blue screen (because Launchpad thinks I want to use my P-ID, which is meant solely for SCN) but hey, there is a Log Out button, maybe it will work?

Hm, what do I want to do next? Go to Launchpad? I thought I’m already here… This reminds me of Eddy Izzard’s impression of the American colonists: “This is Plymouth? We just came from Plymouth!” 🙂 But OK, let’s go back to Plymouth, err, Launchpad. Aaaand here we go again with the wrong credentials:

This seems like a good opportunity to use the cure-all of IT “have you tried turning it off and on again”. But, surprisingly, after closing the browser and opening it again, the SCN presents me with a choice of certificates (as in the very first screenshot above) yet Launchpad stubbornly insists on using the SCN credentials and ignores the certificates. What the deuce?

Of course, sitting all day singing “log in, log out, hey!” to the tune of this song is not the best use of one’s time. At some point you just cut the losses and power up another browser, like the evil IE. With the pesky SCN out of the way, Support Launchpad allows to juggle the two digital certificates somewhat decently by using “Log out” and going back to Ply… Launchpad.

But SCN and Launchpad are not the only SAP clubs I need to visit. There is also Jam and the Mentor app, for example. And even after you’ve managed to log in (or on?) there, sometimes things just don’t work as expected. Inevitably you hear: “yeah, that does not work well in Internet Explorer, have you tried Chrome?”

Image source: Wikipedia