Conversations API: Retrieve and submit consumer-generated content (CGC), and retrieve your product catalog and statistics about your CGC.
Authentication
The Conversations API lets you programmatically retrieve and submit Bazaarvoice Conversations data for use in your applications. To learn more, go to the Conversations API documentation home page.
Contents
This section contains tutorials specific to authenticating authors when they submit content.
Overview
Bazaarvoice support the following two ways for you to identify content authors:
- Bazaarvoice-mastered
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In this authentication type, authors do not login to your site prior to submission. Instead, they authenticate by providing an email address with their submission. User IDs are created by the Bazaarvoice authentication system, which is considered to be the authoritative (master) source for user identification, and are associated with the email addresses. Bazaarvoice-mastered authentication is also referred to as "Bazaarvoice-hosted authentication" because Bazaarvoice manages the user IDs.
- Client-mastered
-
In this authentication type, authors must login to your site prior to submission. User IDs are created by your authentication system, which is considered to be the authoritative (master) source for user identification, and are submitted to Bazaarvoice along with the author's content. Client-mastered authentication is also referred to as 'Client-site authentication' because it relies on your site's authentication system.
Requirements comparison
The following table summarizes the high-level requirements you must complete to use either Bazaarvoice-mastered or Client-mastered authentication:
| Requirement | Bazaarvoice-mastered | Client-mastered |
|---|---|---|
Build and host a submission form, including server side submission to Bazaarvoice. |
✓ | ✓ |
A verification service that makes an API request to Bazaarvoice to confirm the author owns the email address used during submission. |
✓ | |
Persist a Bazaarvoice provided user token as users browse your site. |
✓ | |
An authentication service that creates and stores user IDs, logs users into your site, and persists user state as users browse your site. |
✓ | |
Securely store a shared key and use it to create an encrypted user token. |
✓ |
Which to choose
Bazaarvoice-mastered authentication is best if your site login system is difficult to customize or you don't have site login capabilities.
Client-mastered authentication may be used if you already have a user authentication system or you have legal or other business requirements necessitating that you maintain user IDs.
Section contents
Use the links below or the menu to the left to navigate to the pages in this section.
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Bazaarvoice-Mastered Authentication
The components you will need to implement Bazaarvoice-mastered authentication via the Bazaarvoice Conversations API and how the process works. |
Client-Mastered Authentication
How developers can authenticate authors with Bazaarvoice by submitting a user ID along with consumer generated content. |
Related resources
Refer to these resources for additional information related to authentication.
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Submission Fundamentals
Learn Conversations API submission request fundamentals including content types, the |