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Higher Logic Thrive Communities Integration Guide

Patrick O'Toole
  • Updated

The Rhythm and Higher Logic Communities integration allows you to provide your members with a community of like minded individuals. The integration utilizes the information in Rhythm to give your members access to online communities and resources all by utilizing the Rhythm SSO. 

What information is needed before setup?

From Rhythm

Before setting up the integration in Rhythm, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or your Project Manager to ensure the integration is enabled in your environment. Rhythm also recommends that you create a test contact to test your integration before a full push of your contacts is sent to Higher Logic. This contact will have the fields you want to send to Higher Logic, along with any permissions to access specific communities, if applicable. 

 

Rhythm will also need to provide you with:

  • Authorization Sign On URL
  • Token Endpoint URL
  • UserInfo Endpoint URL
  • User AMS ID Attribute
  • Logout URL

From Higher Logic

Before setting up the integration in Rhythm, you will need the following:

  • Higher Logic Tenant Code
  • API Key

If you do not know these, please reach out to your Higher Logic representative. 

What needs to be configured?

Basic Set Up in Rhythm

API Keys

The API Keys are needed for Higher Logic to establish the SSO between Rhythm and Higher Logic. Once this step is complete the link will contain the credentials for Higher Logic to establish the connection. After you have sent the information to your Higher Logic contact, please add the appropriate Callback and Logout URLs to the API Key. 

 

Note: Rhythm currently uses OAuth2.0 authorization through Auth0 to access the Rhythm API. Your Elevate point of contact can give you information on how to connect with Rhythm through SSO. Please look over our SSO/Authentication guides here: https://docs.api.rhythmsoftware.com/developer-portal/authentication/. 

  1. Go to the Security and Settings app
  2. Click API keys
  3. Click Create API Keys
  4. Enter a name for the API Key
  5. Enter a description of what the key is for
  6. Select the Web SSO option
  7. Click Save Changes
  8. Copy the link that appears and send to your Higher Logic point of contact for SSO configuration

Helpful hint: The Auth0 Callback URL needs to be changed from the Developer Site URL to the Production Site URL upon go-live.  This can be done in the API Key for the integration.

 

  1. Go to the Security and Settings app
  2. Click Integrations
  3. Under the Communities subheading, click Higher Logic
  4. Enter in the Tenant Code and the API Key from Higher Logic

Optional Fields

  1. Contact Role Communities
    1. These are communities you will set up in Higher Logic. They allow you to create groups based on criteria that members can participate in discussion, access information, and other features in Higher Logic.
  2. If you are going to send events from Rhythm to Higher Logic, please select your default event timezone. 
  3. If the community was previously integrated with your legacy AMS, please select that option
  4. By default, Rhythm sends Organizations to Higher Logic. If you do not want to send them to Higher Logic, please select that option
  5. If you do not want to send events to Higher Logic, please select that option. 

Test Information

  1. Here you can select your test contact you want to push to Higher Logic before all contacts are sent

Demographics: These are fields you want to send to Higher Logic beyond the standard fields that Rhythm sends to Higher Logic. The standard payload of fields is listed below.

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Middle Name
  • Suffix
  • Nickname
  • Gender Identity
  • Race / Ethnicity
  • Date of Birth
  • Age
  • Job Title
  • Profile Image
  • Email Address
  • Home Phone Number
  • Work Phone Number
  • Fax Phone Number
  • School Phone Number
  • Preferred Address Line 1
  • Preferred Address Line 2
  • Preferred Address City
  • Preferred Address State
  • Preferred Address Postal Code
  • Preferred Address Country
  • Facebook URL
  • Twitter URL
  • Linked In URL
  • Company Name
  • Member Number
  • Join Date
  • Expiration Date
  • Do Not Show In Directory

If you will be sending Organization information to Higher Logic, the default payload of fields sent from Rhythm is listed below:

  • Name
  • Logo
  • Main Phone Number
  • Fax Phone Number
  • Address Line 1
  • Address Line 2
  • Address City
  • Address State
  • Address Postal Code
  • Address Country
  • Facebook URL
  • Twitter URL
  • LinkedIn URL
  • Member Number
  • Join Date
  • Expiration Date
  • Do Not Show In Directory

Additional Contact and Organization Fields

  • Select the built-in or customer field you want to send to Higher Logic
  • Optionally, you can add a Demographic Type Key
    • The Demographic Type Key is used to create a different ID for the field in Higher Logic than what is in Rhythm. This is used most often if your Higher Logic instance was used before coming to Rhythm
  • Optionally, you can add a Demographic Type Value
    • The Demographic Type Value allows you to display a different name than the field name in Rhythm. 
  • Optionally, you can set fields to be Free Form Demographic fields
    • If you enable this option, it allows the field to become a short answer text field instead of one set of possible values. 

Contact/Organization Community Opt-In Fields

Optionally, you can set the Contact or Organization fields that contacts can contacts can opt-in to. They can be based on active membership if you would like. 

 

Test Contact

When it is time to test the SSO portion of the integration you will need to have a contact with login credentials you can use. It is best to set this contact up with the Username/Password login option. The contact will need to have the default fields filled in that are sent to Higher Logic, rights to access a community, along with any optional fields you set to be sent to Higher Logic to fully test this. The contact can be the test contact you set in the Higher Logic integration set up. 

 

Membership and Committees

In the Membership and Committees application you will need to create any Chapters, Sections, or committees that will be accessible in your Higher Logic instance. Please follow the steps below for the respective items you will be sending to Higher Logic.

 

Chapter Setup

  1. Click Setup
  2. Click Chapters
  3. Click Types
  4. Click Create Chapter Type
  5. Enter in a Name for the Type
    1. Optionally you can say only certain members can join this chapter. If so please select the Types
  6. Click Save Changes
  7. Return to the Membership and Committees Overview
  8. Click Chapters 
  9. Click Create Chapter
  10. Select the Type
  11. Enter a Name for the Chapter
  12. Enter any additional optional information
  13. Click Save Changes
  14. During the membership application process for your test contact, ensure that you are adding the Chapter

Section Setup

  1. In the Membership and Committees application
  2. Click Sections
  3. Click Types
  4. Enter a Name for your Section Type
    1. Optionally, you can say only certain members can join this Section. If so please select the Types
  5. Click Save Changes
  6. Return to the Membership and Committees Overview
  7. Click Sections
  8. Click Create Section
  9. Select the Type
  10. Enter a Name for your Section
  11. Enter any additional optional information 
  12. Click Save Changes
  13. During the membership application process for your test contact, ensure that you add the Section

Committees Setup

  1. In the Membership and Committees application
  2. Click Setup
  3. Click Committees
  4. Click Types
  5. Click Create Committee Type
  6. Enter in a Name for your Type
  7. Click Save Changes
  8. Click Positions
  9. Click Create Committee Position
  10. Enter in a Name for your position
    1. Optionally, you can set this position to only apply to certain Committee Types
  11. Click Save Changes
  12. Return to the Membership and Committees Overview
  13. Click Committees
  14. Click Create Committee
  15. Select the Type of the Committee
  16. Enter a Name for the Committee
  17. Enter any additional optional information
  18. Click Save Changes
  19. On the Committee 360 screen click Active Members and then click Add Member
  20. Enter in the name of your test contact
  21. Click Save Changes

 

Basic Set Up in Higher Logic

If you are setting up Higher Logic for the first time, please use the Higher Logic Knowledge Base for a full set up of your instance. Your Higher Logic representative will also help you set up the SSO integration between Rhythm and Higher Logic. 

 

How do we test the integration?

SSO Testing

To test the SSO, please go to your Higher Logic instance and click login. Please use the login credentials for your test contact in Rhythm. 

 

Field Verification

Once you have logged into Higher Logic with your test contact, please verify that the standard and custom fields selected in the Rhythm setup have the correct information as is in Rhythm.

 

Communities and Security Groups

The last item to test is the access to communities and security group permissions. Based on your configuration of Higher Logic, please attempt to access the communities your contact should and should not be a part of to ensure the criteria are functioning properly.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What do I need to use the Rhythm + Higher Logic Integration?

To enable the Rhythm + Higher Logic Integration, you will need your Higher Logic Tenant Code and API Key, both of which can be supplied by your Higher Logic representative.

 

Q: Is the Rhythm + Higher Logic Integration available to everyone?

The Rhythm + Higher Logic Integration is available to anyone who has, or is currently implementing, a Higher Logic community.

 

Q: How do I enable the Rhythm + Higher Logic Integration? 

In the Rhythm console, in the System & Security app, select Integrations, then choose Higher Logic. The integration is enabled by supplying the Higher Logic Tenant Code and API Key. 

 

It is a best practice to also supply a test contact when initially enabling the Rhythm + Higher Logic Integration. When this value is supplied, only data related to this contact will be sent to Higher Logic. Once you are comfortable with the behavior of the integration in your Higher Logic community, you can remove the test contact and all records will be sent to Higher Logic.

 

Q: What contact member data is sent to Higher Logic?

The following fields are sent to Higher Logic as a part of the contact’s member profile:

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Middle Name
  • Suffix
  • Nickname
  • Gender Identity
  • Race / Ethnicity
  • Date of Birth
  • Age
  • Job Title
  • Profile Image
  • Email Address
  • Home Phone Number
  • Work Phone Number
  • Fax Phone Number
  • School Phone Number
  • Preferred Address Line 1
  • Preferred Address Line 2
  • Preferred Address City
  • Preferred Address State
  • Preferred Address Postal Code
  • Preferred Address Country
  • Facebook URL
  • Twitter URL
  • Linked In URL
  • Company Name
  • Member Number
  • Join Date
  • Expiration Date
  • Do Not Show In Directory

 

Q: Can I send demographic data to Higher Logic? 

Yes, you can select any standard or custom field on your contact records to send to Higher Logic in the form of demographics. These fields can be selected or modified at any time on the Rhythm + Higher Logic Integration configuration screen.

 

Q: What is a Demographic Type Key?

Under some conditions, you may want a Demographic in Higher Logic to have a different ID than the field in Rhythm. This occurs most often when integrating with a pre-existing Higher Logic community. By specifying this optional value, you change the ID of the Demographic that is sent from Rhythm to Higher Logic.

 

Q: What is a Demographic Type Value?

Under some conditions, you may want a Demographic in Higher Logic to have a different label (display name) than the field in Rhythm. By specifying this optional value, you change the descriptive name of the Demographic that is sent from Rhythm to Higher Logic.

 

Q: What is a Free form demographic?

Some Demographics can be used in Higher Logic to filter based on a set of possible values. For example, a “languages” demographic may include “english”, “french”, “spanish”, “korean”, “etc”. When the Free form demographic? option is enabled, the Demographic value is treated as short answer text instead of one of a set of possible values.

 

Q: What organization member data is sent to Higher Logic?

The following fields are sent to Higher Logic as a part of the organization’s member profile:

  • Name
  • Logo
  • Main Phone Number
  • Fax Phone Number
  • Address Line 1
  • Address Line 2
  • Address City
  • Address State
  • Address Postal Code
  • Address Country
  • Facebook URL
  • Twitter URL
  • LinkedIn URL
  • Member Number
  • Join Date
  • Expiration Date
  • Do Not Show In Directory

 

Q: What Community Groups are created in Higher Logic?

A Community Group is created in Higher Logic for active members, each chapter with members, each section with members, and each committee with members.

 

Q: Are new Community Groups automatically visible in Higher Logic?

No. New Community Groups will be inactive until manually enabled in the Higher Logic administrative interface.

 

Q: What Security Groups are created in Higher Logic?

A Security Group is created in Higher Logic for active members as well as one for each Membership Type in Rhythm. Every active member is placed in the active member security group as well as the Security Group corresponding to their Membership Type.

 

Q: Do new Security Groups have the Member Status flag enabled?

No. New Security Groups will not have the Member Status flag. You must enable that flag manually in the Higher Logic administrative interface if desired.

 

Q: What other types of records are created in Higher Logic?

The Rhythm + Higher Logic Integration will push any changes to Events records from Rhythm to Higher Logic.



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