Create users from API

Question

We are trying to build a stand-alone API, which has to meet this requirement.

The API gets inputs for "Name" & "Email" and should then create user in any chosen Sitecore instance.

As this is a stand-alone API, it will have to make use of Sitecore dlls & configs, to be able to do what is required. But will this be violating the license.

One way, that I know of, is to host this service/API in the Sitecore instance itself. These user creation requests are huge in number, so can't have them in CD. Also, is it advisable to have such an API in CM which should be secure.

I would appreciate any suggestions to achieve this functionality.

Answer 1

If all you really need to do, is create users based on "Name" and "Email", you don't have to put this in Sitecore at all.

Sitecore runs on a completely standard ASP.NET Membership Provider implementation. Sitecore has a layer on top to allow for Roles-in-Roles membership amongst other things, but under the hood it remains vanilla ASP.NET.

Base your code on the SqlMembershipProvider, point it to your "core" database (assuming you've not moved the Sql Membership Provider tables from its default location) and create/remove/delete users to your heart's content. You can host your API code in any IIS instance, and no Sitecore license is required.

Be mindful though

• Likely Sitecore will have user and role caching going on, so any updates you do behind the scenes like this, might not be immediately picked up by running Sitecore instances.
• Also be aware of whatever security hardening is in place in your Sitecore instances, and set your ASP.NET Membership API to the same settings. See: https://doc.sitecore.net/sitecore_experience_platform/setting_up_and_maintaining/security_hardening/configuring/change_the_hash_algorithm_for_password_encryption