Manual authentication

For information about Manual authentication aimed at academics, please go to this article.

For information about Manual authentication aimed at students, please go to this article. 

HEIs that do not use Shibboleth, OpenAthens or EZProzy can use a manual authentication method to give their students access to DCS links. This is particularly useful for smaller institutions who do not have a federated system, but who want to use the DCS. 

This authentication method will authenticate your students based on their email addresses, which you will be able to add to the DCS in bulk. Once integrated, you can add all of your required student emails to the DCS. Students can then access the links by setting up their own password as a first-time user - see below for a step-to-step guide on how to do this. Each session lasts 12 hours, so the students will not have to continuously re-login. We recommend that they enable cookies to be saved, as their login details will then be saved in their browser. 

The authentication works for everyone added to the DCS - not just students. This means that DCS users and lecturers added to the DCS will also be able to access the links. It is up to each institution how they want to give lecturers access to the links - you may choose to add them as students instead of lecturers for example if you are not using the academic request form. If your lecturers are using the academic request form, you should add them as lecturers which will give them access both to using the academic request form and to the DCS links as authenticated users. 

To get this authentication method setup, please get in touch with our support team. All you need to do is let us know that you want to setup manual authentication and we will let you know once you can upload your student emails. Please note that manual authentication cannot be used in conjunction with other authentication methods, except for IP ranges. 

Skip to section:

• Adding your students to the DCS
• Adding new students in bulk
• Updating existing students in bulk
• First-time authentication for students

Adding your students to the DCS

To add your student emails, you should go to the 'My institution' page in the DCS. Then scroll down to the 'Authentication' section:

When adding your students, we recommend using institution emails, however you can use personal emails if institution emails are unavailable. Click on 'Add student' to manually add a student email:

You will see a warning message on the screen reminding you to include the student in your next bulk update so they aren't removed. 

We recommend that you bulk update your student cohort once a year, and use the above manual method to add single students whenever necessary. The bulk update function can be used to delete as well as add email addresses. 

To bulk update your students, you can download a template to which you can add all of your required student emails, or you can generate a CSV pre-filled with current information - this is useful when you want to add or remove students from the DCS. Once you've done this, save your template and click 'Bulk Update'. 

Adding new students in bulk

To bulk add students, click 'Download template' and add all of your required emails:

Updating existing students in bulk

To bulk update your students, click 'Generate CSV pre-filled with current info'. You will then be able to view all of your currently added users, and add, amend or remove as required. Please note that when doing a bulk update, any student that is not in the updated CSV will be deleted from the DCS.

Once you have saved your CSV, you should click 'bulk update' and upload the file. Note that before any students are deleted you will see a warning where you are asked to confirm that you wish to delete the student(s):

Click 'Accept' to continue, or 'Cancel' to stop the bulk update process. Once you have clicked accept a summary report is automatically downloaded. It is important to review or save this as it cannot be retrieved again at a later stage. 

If a student is deleted by mistake please add them again and they should be able to log straight back in using their original password. If you need to bulk upload deleted students remember to bulk upload all students that require access, any student left off the bulk upload will be removed.

First-time authentication for students

You can send your students this guide to help them get setup: Manual Student Authentication - Students

First-time users will see this screen when clicking on a DCS link:

Given that they have been added to the DCS as a student, they should click on 'New user'. They will then be asked to provide their email address for password setup:

After adding their password, they will get a confirmation informing them that an email has been generated: 

Once they have received the email, they should click on the link to setup a password.

From here they should enter a password and then click 'Reset': 

They will see the below confirmation and can now log in:

From this screen they can also reset their password if they have forgotten it. 

Upon clicking 'sign in', the student will be taken to the link they tried accessing initially. They will not have to go back to wherever they found the link, e.g. their reading list, to find the link again. If they choose to save their password, they will not have to re-enter this the next time they try to authenticate:

Once authenticated, the students will stay logged in for 12 hours, and will therefore be able to remain logged in to the extract for all this time and access any other DCS extract, without logging in again, if in the same browser session.

If you have any questions, or want to setup this manual authentication method at your institution, please get in touch at [e-mail]