The myEastern Portal

Executive Summary - Skip myEastern and use the Jump Page on EU's Password website instead.

Overview

The myEastern portal is where the EU community does 'business' with Eastern University.  Students register for courses, employees do time cards, etc.

In its most basic form, myEastern is a Microsoft SharePoint (SP) system. Mixed in with the very sparse SharePoint content, are links to other systems, including EU's Self-Service system; which is, technically, where you actually do business with EU.  In fact, you do not really need to log into the myEastern portal -- or deal with any of the errors referenced below -- if you simply log into EU's Single Sign-On (SSO) system at password.eastern.edu.  Once you've logged into the Password website, there is a blue hyperlink titled Go to SSO Jump Page in the upper-right corner of the 'Account Management' screen.  Click through to the Jump Page, and you will find little icons representing all of the various systems (applications) here at EU that are tied to the SSO system, including the Self-Service system you would otherwise access THROUGH the myEastern portal.  (Important note:  Faculty and Staff will still need to log into myEastern to access department-specific intranet sites, such as, the HR sub-site to get HR forms, the Town Hall sub-site to watch the latest Town Hall recording, etc.)

Assuming your Microsoft SharePoint (SP) account is configured correctly and you get to the correct landing page, you will first see the SharePoint content.  There are widgets on the sides, like a calendar, some helpful links to other systems (outside of SP), etc.

Front and center is a section called the Self-Service Menu.  Drilling into this menu, you will eventually click a link that takes you out of SharePoint, and into EU's Self-Service system.  Your primary cue that you've clicked a Self-Service link is that the Logo in the upper-left corner will now reference Eastern University, instead of the SharePoint-specific 'myeastern logo'.  Another cue that you've switched systems is that the URL in the address will now reference selfservice.eastern.edu, instead of portal.eastern.edu.

Your login to the myEastern portal is NOT tied to EU's SSO system (the Password website).  Therefore -- if you have not previously logged into EU's Password website -- you will be presented with a Username form field, which is the first step of the two-step login form for the Self-Service system.  If you HAVE previously logged into EU's Password website -- for example, in order to access the Colleague system, or your EU email account -- you should just go directly to the page within the Self-Service system that the myEastern menu item was linked to.

Common Errors

If you've chosen the path of your EU ancestors, please continue reading about the various obstacles the myEastern portal may present to you.

Constituency Redirect: When you first login, you should end up on a 'landing page', based on how SharePoint (SP) understands your role -- employee or student -- here at EU.  This leads me to the first (although rare) error you will see from myEastern.  If SP does not have a constituency (role) assigned to your account, it will not know which landing page to send you to at login.  Instead, SP will send you to an error page referencing a 'Constituency Redirect error', and advise you to click around to see if you can find the landing page yourself.  If you see this error page, please open a support ticket so we can update your SP account appropriately.

Blinking Login Form (from my.eastern.edu website): This frequently happens when a student is trying to access the myEastern (SharePoint) system from a managed network and/or computer.  (e.g. -- An Employer's network or managed computer.)  Your best opportunity to access the myEastern system, or any EU-managed system really, is from a personally-owned computer, on your home network.

If, however, you are at home on your own computer, then the blinking login form indicates that the login is incorrect in some way (probably your password.)  If you see this behavior (at home), clear out the password your browser auto-filled for you and enter your current EU password.  If you do not know / remember that password, please do a change password procedure on EU's Password website; then try to log into the myEastern portal again.

401 Unauthorized:  This means you've left the sign-in form for the myEastern portal completely, before it was filled in with the correct Username and Password.

Site Not Shared With You:  This means you have a good login for EU (from EU's Password website); but, the myEastern (SharePoint) system does not have an account 'ready' for you to use.  Once admitted, several different things happen behind the scenes, automatically.  Various systems are updated and changed to get you access to all the resources you will need to be academically successful here at EU.  One of the last things that happens is that the myEastern portal is instructed to create a new SharePoint account for you.  It is for this reason your 'Welcome Letter (Email)' should tell you to wait 24 hours before logging into myEastern (to pay your deposit, register for courses, or whatever.)  Only if it has been more than 24 hours since you received your Welcome Letter, should you open a new support ticket, so that EU IT can look into it further for you.

Could Not Retrieve something From Colleague: If you see this error, there is a major outage (disconnect) between myEastern and one of the other administrative systems.  Please feel free to open a ticket about this, just in case you are the first one to find it.

Self-Service Errors

The following errors are technically NOT on the myEastern (SharePoint) system, but are presented to our users THROUGH that system.

Blank Pages (from selfservice.eastern.edu):  If you click a Self-Service link, and get a blank page.  Please try logging into EU's Password website, and trying again.  If that does not work, please open a new support ticket for assistance with Self-Service.

Errors retrieving data: If Self-Service says there was an error, please open a new support ticket for assistance.

Holds:  If the either myEastern (alerts) or the Self-Service system say there is a Hold on your account, this is NOT an technology issue.  Please read the Hold notice to determine which business unit to contact -- Registrar's Office, Student Accounts, etc. -- to get the Hold resolved.