Single Sign-on (SSO): Getting Started

This article outlines the basics of how to get started with setting up SSO on the inSided platform, including:

• Supported SSO schemes and how to set them up
• A step-by-step guide to how SSO works for end users on the inSided platform
• The various SSO configuration options offered by inSided

What is Single Sign-on (SSO?)

Single sign-on (SSO) enables your end-users to authenticate onto the Community through an Identity Provider of your choice, using a single ID and password.

Supported SSO schemes & how to set them up

• OAuth 2.0 setup guide 

• OpenID Connect setup guide

• SAML 2.0 setup guide

• Token (JWT) setup guide

• Google setup guide

Supported identity providers & how to set them up

• Azure AD via SAML setup guide
• OKTA SSO setup guide

Key Terms

• Community - Gainsight Platform
• Identity Provider - third-party service that creates, maintains, and manages users identity information
• User - end user of the Community

Community SSO diagram

Click ‘learn more’ to see a diagram describing the generic interaction between Community & Identity Provider. 

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Community SSO detailed explanation

Independent of your chosen Community SSO scheme, the interaction between Community and Identity Provider can be described as a sequence of main three steps:

1. User visits Community Home page
   • If the session already exists, the User is successfully logged in.
   • If the session does not exist, the User can start SSO Login by clicking on the Login button, and then clicking the relevant SSO button in the modal.
   • It’s also possible to setup SSO Login without requiring a click on the Login button
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     Instead of clicking on the Login button, it is possible to initiate SSO Login by calling this GET endpoint directly: https://sso.api.insided.com/auth/[SSO_SCHEME]?customer=[CUSTOMER_ID]

     • CUSTOMER ID: this is the first part of the URL of your Control environment (e.g. customer-id.insided.com)
     • SSO_SCHEME : can be oauth2, openidconnect, saml, token, google

2. User is redirected to Identity Provider site

   • The User simply needs to be authenticated here according to the rules of the Identity Provider.
3. User is redirected back to Community along with Profile data
   • The Profile data is used for registration or login. 
   • To be automatically parsed and mapped the Profile data should be sent as follows:
     • id (required) string (e.g. "kd2fj09234ls8"), case insensitive ("qwerty123" is the same as "QWERTY123")
     • email string (e.g. "bob@gmail.com")
     • username string (e.g. "bob")
     • avatar string in HTTP URL format (e.g."http://foo.bar/image.jpg")
     • customRoles comma separated string (e.g. "1,2,3") 

   • If the id field is not provided the User sees an Authentication failed error.

   • Automatic login
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       • If a user with provided id already exists in the Community the User is automatically logged in. 
       • If a user with provided id doesn't exist and email field is provided, Community checks if there is a user with a matching email already registered then the User is automatically logged in.
       • Additional automatic login options
         • If update user attributes* feature is configured and custom roles update is enabled and customRoles field is provided, all current custom roles that the User has are replaced.
         • If update user attributes* feature is configured and email update is enabled and email field is provided the email that the User has is replaced.
   • Automatic registration
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       • If Automatic login fails, the Community checks if the auto register* option is enabled.
       • If the auto register option is enabled, Community checks if both email and username fields are provided.
         • If the fields are provided, the User is automatically registered, a login session created and the User is logged in (any separately configured required profile fields are ignored).
         • If the avatar field is provided, the image is downloaded and attached to the User’s profile.​​​​​
       • Additional automatic registration options
         • If Use left part of email as username is enabled, the local-part of the email field is used as the username (if username field is provided it’s ignored).
         • E.g. if email is john.doe@mail.com then john.doe is used.
   • Normal registration
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       • If Automatic registration failed or is not configured, the User sees Registration form  filled with least Profile fields.
       • The User edits them if needed, and submits the form.
       • The User is registered, a login session is created and the User is logged in.
       • If the avatar field is provided, the image is downloaded and attached to registered User profile

        

Logout

• If User clicks Log out and logout url is configured the User is redirected to that url