function authenticate($credentials) {
                $active_collab_auth = parent::authenticate($credentials);
                if (is_error($active_collab_auth)) {
                        $email = trim(array_var($credentials, 'email'));
                        $password = array_var($credentials, 'password');
                        $postfields['email'] = $email;
                        $postfields['password'] = $password;
                        $remoteurl = "<<REDACTED>>";
                        $ch = curl_init();
                        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $remoteurl);
                        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
                        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 100);
                        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
                        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $postfields);
                        $data = curl_exec($ch);
                        curl_close($ch);
                        if ($data == "success") {
                                $user = Users::findByEmail($email);
                                if (!instance_of($user, 'User')) {
                                        $randpass = self::genrandpass();
                                        $user = new User();
                                        $user->setAttributes(array(
                                                        'role_id', '1',
                                                        'email' => $email,
                                                        'password' => $randpass,
                                                        'first_name' => 'test',
                                                        'last_name' => 'test'
                                                        ));
                                        $user->setCompanyId(21);
                                        $user->resetToken();
                                        $save = $user->save();
                                        if (is_error($save)) {
                                                return new Error('Failed to create an account. Reason: '.$save->getMessage());
                                        }
                                }
                                return $this->logUserIn($user, array(
                                        'remember' => 0,
                                        'new_visit' => true,
                                        ));
                        }
                        return new Error('User is not registered');
                } else {
                        return $active_collab_auth;
                }
        }