This guide is for your development team. It covers embedding SocialLadder’s community dashboard on your website when you are not connecting it to your own customer accounts. Visitors create their community account and log in directly inside the widget. You don’t need a server, an API key, or any authentication code. The whole installation is one snippet.
If your website already has customer accounts and you want members to be recognized automatically, use the Open Community + SSO: Technical Installation Guide instead.
For a business-level overview of Open Community, see Open Community Integrated.
How It Works
Step | What Happens | Who Handles It |
Widget loads | Community appears on your page. With Public Discovery on, visitors can browse in read-only mode | SocialLadder widget |
Visitor interacts | Widget prompts the visitor to log in or sign up | SocialLadder widget |
Login or sign-up | Visitor creates a community account or logs in inside the widget | SocialLadder widget |
Returning visit | Widget remembers the member’s session | SocialLadder widget |
Email links | Links in SocialLadder emails (challenges, resources, password reset) open your page with parameters the widget reads | Your page and SocialLadder widget |
The key difference from SSO: your site doesn’t pass any user identity to SocialLadder. SocialLadder owns the login, so community accounts are separate from any accounts on your website.
Prerequisites
Your areaGuid, provided by your SocialLadder onboarding specialist.
The URL of the page that will host the community, shared with your onboarding specialist so links in SocialLadder emails point to it. [CONFIRM]
Optional: Public Discovery enabled in your SocialLadder Portal.
Step 1 — Add the embed snippet
Paste this snippet inside the body of the page that will host your community, where you want the community to appear.
<div id="slWebFrame"></div>
<script src="https://socialladder.rkiapps.com/SLWeb/slweb-frame.js"></script>
<script>
// Your community identifier, provided by SocialLadder
var areaGuid = "YOUR_AREA_GUID";
// Read link parameters from the page URL so links in
// SocialLadder emails open the right screen in the widget
var campGuid = getParameterFromURLByName(“campGuid”);
var resGuid = getParameterFromURLByName(“resGuid”);
var resetToken = getParameterFromURLByName(“resetToken”);
// The second parameter stays empty: there is no SSO token,
// so SocialLadder handles login inside the widget
loadSLWebFrame(areaGuid, “”, campGuid, resGuid, resetToken);
</script>
Keep the order exactly as shown: the div first, then the widget script, then your inline script. The widget looks for the element with id="slWebFrame" to load into, so the div must exist before the script runs. Place the snippet in the page body, not the head.
Step 2 — Replace the parameters
Only areaGuid needs a value from you. Leave everything else as it is.
Parameter | Description |
areaGuid | Your community identifier. Required. Provided by SocialLadder. |
Second parameter (“”) | Reserved for the SSO token. Always an empty string in a non-SSO install. |
campGuid | Read from the page URL. Opens a specific challenge when a member arrives from a challenge link. |
resGuid | Read from the page URL. Opens a specific resource when a member arrives from a resource link. |
resetToken | Read from the page URL. Opens the password reset screen when a member clicks the reset link in their email. |
These link parameters only work if your page keeps the query string. If your site, CMS, or a redirect strips URL parameters (for example ?resetToken=...), password reset and challenge links will open the community home instead of the right screen.
Step 3 — Test the installation
Before launching, run through the member journey on the live page:
Open the page in a private browser window and confirm the community loads.
If Public Discovery is on, try to react or post and confirm the login prompt appears.
Create a test account and confirm you land in the community.
Request a password reset and confirm the email link opens the reset screen on your page.
Troubleshooting
The widget isn’t loading
Check that the script URL is correct and reachable, and look for errors in the browser console. Make sure the div with id="slWebFrame" comes before the scripts in the HTML.
Password reset or challenge links open the community home
Your page is losing the URL parameters. Open the link from the email and check whether parameters like resetToken are still in the address bar after the page loads. If they disappear, look for redirects, URL rewrites, or page builder settings that remove query strings on your community page.
The widget loads slowly
The widget typically loads in under 2 seconds. If it takes 5 to 10 seconds, other scripts on the page are usually competing for resources.
Synchronous script tags before the SocialLadder snippet delay it. Move them after, or add the defer attribute.
Open DevTools (F12) > Network, reload with “Disable cache” checked, and filter by JS. 50 or more scripts on the page is the likely cause.
Live chat widgets like Intercom or Drift often load 15 to 25 scripts. Lazy load them or exclude them from your community page.
On Shopify, a dedicated minimal page template for the community removes unused theme scripts and can cut load time significantly.
For a business-level overview, see Open Community Integrated.
To connect the community to your own customer accounts, see Open Community + SSO: Technical Installation Guide.
For implementation support, contact your SocialLadder onboarding specialist.