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Single Sign-On (SSO) for Apps Using Moodle as IDP

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How can we Authenticate using Moodle as an Identity Provider?

Moodle authentication is a process where users can login to their external applications and Websites using their Moodle website credentials. miniOrange lets Moodle act as an IDP (Identity Provider) which allows users to achieve Single Sign-On (SSO) into multiple applications and external websites. Users will authenticate themselves via their Moodle credentials only once and they can access all the external applications.
The Moodle User database is linked to miniOrange as a user store to provide SSO into external applications. This is made possible by miniorange's Moodle as API Authentication Source plugin which provides login capabilities using API endpoints.

Features of Moodle as API Authentication Source plugin:

• Secure SSO access for multiple applications and websites using Moodle Credentials.
• You don’t need to migrate your users from Moodle to any third party system.
• On-the-fly user creation : Auto create users at the time of SSO login and auto sync up of user details.
• Multiple Authentication protocol support : SAML, OAuth, OpenID, JWT etc.

Follow the Step-by-Step Guide given below for login with Moodle as IdP

1. Install and setup Moodle API Authentication Plugin

• Contact us to setup and get Zip file for Moodle API Authentication plugin.
• Navigate to your Moodle admin dashboard to install and activate the Moodle API authentication plugin.
• Open the Moodle API Authentication plugin settings and copy the User Authentication URL and the User Authentication Parameter.

• Enter the attributes name that you want to release to your application during the authentication.

• Click on the Save button to save your Moodle API configurations.

2. Setup Moodle as authentication source in miniOrange

• Login with your miniOrange account.
• Navigate to External Directories and click on the Add Directory button.
  
  
• Switch to the API tab and select Moodle from the dropdown.
  
  
• Provide an API identifier name.
• Under the Authentication Configuration section, paste the User Authentication URL and User Authentication Parameters that you copied from API credentials section in step 1 above.
  
  
• Provide the Header Name as Content-Type and its value as application/json.
• Select the Method as POST.
• For the Success Criteria, you can select any one option from the dropdown and enter the values as:

1. is equal to: You can enter the Status key as 'status' and Status value 'SUCCESS'.

2. is not empty: You can enter the Status key as 'message'.

3. contains valid email address: You can enter the Status key as 'email'.

• For Error Status Message, you can enter error as the value.
• Click on the Save button.
• To test the connection, select the user store you just added and click on Test Authorization API.
  
  
• Enter your Moodle credentials when prompted and you should be able to see a Success message.

3. Configure your application in miniOrange

• Login to miniOrange Admin Console.
• Go to Apps >> Add Application.

• SAML Application
• OAuth Application
• JWT Application

• Click on Create App under SAML.



• Search for your Application. In case you do not find your app, search for Custom SAML App.





• Get the ACS URL and SP Entity ID from your application.
• Enter the following values OR click on Import SP Metadata:

Service Provider Name	Choose appropriate name according to your choice
SP Entity ID or Issuer	Your Application Entity ID
ACS URL X.509 Certificate (optional)	Your Application Assertion Consumer Service URL
NameID format	Select urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.1:nameid-format:emailAddress
Response Signed	Unchecked
Assertion Signed	Checked
Encrypted Assertion	Unchecked
Group policy	Default
Login Method	Password

• Click on Save to configure your application.
• Now to get the IDP metadata of the app configured, Go to apps >> your_app >> select >> metadata tab.



• Click on the Show Metadata details in the Information required to Authenticate via External IDPs section. Download the metadata XML file by clicking on Download Metadata button or copy the Metadata URL link.



• You need to Upload this metadata in your application.

• Click on Create App under OAuth/OIDC. Click on Open ID Connect App .



• You can add any OAuth Client app here to enable miniOrange as OAuth Server. Few popular OAuth client apps for single sign-on are Salesforce, WordPress, Joomla, Atlassian, etc.





• Enter following Values:

Client Name	Add appropriate Name
Redirect URL	Get the Redirect-URL from your OAuth Client
Description	Add if required
Group Name	Default
Policy Name	As per your Choice
Login Method	Password

• Click on Save
• Now to provide the required data to OAuth client go to the app configured i.e apps >> your_app >> select >> edit.






Note: Choose the Authorization Endpoint according to the identity source you configure.

• When you want to use you want to use miniOrange as OAuth identity server use this endpoint: https://{mycompany.domainname.com}/moas/idp/openidsso
• If you are configuring any Identity Provider in Identity Providers Menu and not using miniOrange as IDP use this endpoint: https://{mycompany.domainname.com}/broker/login/oauth{customerid}

• Click on Create App under JWT.



• Select JWT App.



• Configure the name for your application and configure Redirect-URL which tells where to send JWT response. Redirect-URL should be an endpoint on your application where you want to achieve SSO.




In case you are setting up SSO with Mobile Applications where you can't create an endpoint for Redirect or Callback URL, use below URL.

https://login.xecurify.com/moas/jwt/mobile


• Click Save
• To get the SSO link for your application, Go to Apps >> your_app >> select >> Edit.



• Then, copy the Single Sign On Url and verify SSO setup by browsing that url.



• On successful authentication, you will be redirected to configured Redirect or Callback URL with JWT token
• You will need to download a certificate from App > Manage Apps, and click Certificate link against your configured application. This certificate will be used for signature validation of JWT response.

4. Login using IDP selection page (Optional)

• You can configure multiple IDPs (Identity Providers) and give users the option to select the IDP of their choice to authenticate with.
  For Example - It could be multiple AD domains belonging to different departments or multiple okta organizations.

Few usecases where customers configure multiple IDPs -


• Suppose you have a product which many of your clients use and each client has their own unique IDP so you want them to SSO into your product as well using their existing IDP only. miniOrange provides a centralized way to connect with all IDPs in a very easy manner and integrate SSO into your application.
• Suppose you are providing a course to many universities, each having a unique SAML, OAuth protocol supported IDP's like Shibboleth, ADFS, CAS, etc. You can provide Single Sign-On (SSO) into your course application to all these universities by integrating with all of them using a single platform provided by miniOrange.
• This is the endpoint to call from your SAML application -

For Cloud IDP -	https://login.xecurify.com/moas/discovery?customerId=<customer_id>
For On-Premise IDP -	https://yourdomain.com/discovery?customerId=<customer_id>



• You should copy the Customer Key from admin console-> Settings -> and replace it with <customer_id> here. Once configured in SP, when you initiate the login from Service Provider, a user will be redirected to IDP Selection Page listing all IDPs configured for that account.

You can see the screenshot below of the IDP Selection Page with a list of IDPs.




Note: To view the IDP in drop-down list, go to Identity Providers tab > against your configured IDP > Select >Edit , here Enable the Show IdP to Users option.




• You also have the option to modify the appearance and design of this page. Login to miniOrange Admin console. Navigate to Customization -> Branding Configuration. See the below screenshot for reference-




• You can customize the title of this page.
• Change the logo and favicon for this page.
• Change the background and button color for this page from admin UI.

External References

• What is Identity Brokering?
• Learn more about SSO