At a Glance
- B2C customer portal - SSO for product registration, support access, and account management
- Okta integration - enterprise identity management for consumer-facing platform
- Automatic provisioning - customer accounts created and updated on authentication
- PHPUnit coverage - comprehensive test coverage for authentication flows
Lead Web Engineer responsible for building a custom Okta Single Sign-On integration for Sonos’s Craft CMS customer portal (via Solspace Inc.). Unlike internal employee SSO, this integration served Sonos customers directly, enabling them to access product registration, warranty information, support resources, and account management through a unified authentication experience.
The Challenge
Consumer electronics companies need to provide customers with access to post-purchase services: product registration, warranty claims, support documentation, and account management. Sonos chose Okta to manage customer identity, but needed their Craft CMS-powered portal to integrate seamlessly with this identity system.
Key requirements:
- B2C scale: Authentication needed to handle consumer traffic patterns, not just internal employee usage
- Seamless customer experience: Login friction directly impacts customer satisfaction and support efficiency
- Product integration: Customer accounts needed to link to their registered Sonos products
- Enterprise-grade security: Consumer data protection with Okta’s security infrastructure
What I Built
Custom Okta SAML Plugin:
- Craft CMS plugin implementing SAML 2.0 protocol specifically for Okta’s identity platform
- SP-initiated authentication flow optimized for customer portal access
- Proper handling of Okta’s SAML response format and assertion parsing
Customer Account Provisioning:
- Automatic account creation when customers first authenticate through Okta
- Profile data synchronization connecting customer identity with product registrations
- Attribute mapping for customer-specific data fields
Technical Resilience:
- Graceful fallback handling for authentication edge cases
- Robust error handling for network timeouts and identity provider unavailability
- Comprehensive PHPUnit test coverage ensuring authentication flows remain reliable
Outcome
The integration enabled Sonos customers to access their portal using Okta’s enterprise-grade authentication, providing secure, single-click access while giving Sonos centralized control over customer identity management.
This B2C SSO implementation differs from internal employee SSO projects in its scale requirements and direct impact on customer experience. Every authentication friction point affects customer satisfaction with post-purchase services.
Interested in Similar Work?
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