What Is Direct Access?

What Is Direct Access?

Sales Cookie's authentication uses strong security measures by default:

1. Users must complete the authentication flow each time they connect. Users must provide a strong proof of identity, such as a correct email & password, a valid Google single-sign-on, etc. 
2. Embedding of incentive dashboards into another website is not allowed. This reduces the risk of click-jacking, where a malicious website captures authentication cookies using embedding.

Direct Access allows you to override normal security to suit unique scenarios such as:

• Allowing admins to impersonate a rep to see exactly what the payee sees on their incentive dashboard without user credentials.
  
• Allowing users to login using a clickable URL with a unique access code.
  
• Allowing embedding of incentive dashboards within another authorized website, for e.g. Salesforce.  

Direct Access bypasses normal user authentication. It allows for automatic login without a password or authentication flow. Anybody with knowledge of a Direct Access URL can login as the corresponding user. The login action is immediate.

To get a direct link access URL for a given user:

1. Browse to Users > All Users
2. Edit the user (must have the Participant role)
3. Scroll down on the Overview tab
4. Click to copy the access URL

 

5. Paste the access URL in an incognito or private browser window to impersonate and see exactly what a rep sees.

6. Exit the browser when done.

Please note the following:

1. Users should not share their Direct Access URLs with others.
2. Availability is limited to users with the Participant role.
3. Access is limited to the current workspace.
   
   1. No access is granted to other workspaces the user may belong to.
4. Deactivating a user immediately terminates Direct Access.
   
5. Direct Access URL can be set to expire automatically within a set time limit under Settings > Security and can also be disabled.

Here is an example of dashboard embedding within an IFrame with Direct Access:

 

Sharing Links

Only share Direct Access links with intended users. Anybody with knowledge of a Direct Access link can login to Sales Cookie as the corresponding user. While users with the Participant role only have read-only access, sharing a Direct Access link means granting someone access to the corresponding incentive dashboard.

Admin Console

Suppose that you logged in as administrator and navigated to a payee's Direct Access link and incentive dashboard.  If you didn't paste the access url in an incognito or private browser window, you can simply go to Account > Logout and log into Sales Cookie using your administrator credentials.