Single Sign-On
Contents
General Information
SmartSimple offers two methods of implementing Single Sign-On (SSO) integration:
- SAML 2.0
- Cipher encrypted reference
This page provides technical details of each solution.
Implementation of Single Sign On using either method requires configuration by both SmartSimple and the administrator of the system that will provide the authentication. Please contact your account manager or SmartSimple support for further information.
SAML 2.0
SmartSimple supports SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) 2.0 at the recipient end of an authenticated login. For example, the user will log into the client side system/infrastructure and then SSO into SmartSimple, not vice versa.
The client system will construct a base64-encoded SAML response object and send this to the user’s browser. The user’s browser will then be forwarded to the SmartSimple server.
The following Assertion attributes are used:
- UID (client system’s unique user id)
- Email (optional)
- First name (optional)
- Last name (optional)
- Department (optional)
- Roles (optional)
- Language (optional)
- RedirectURL (optional)
Note: Client must provide SmartSimple with a public key in base64-encoded X509Certificate format for digital signature validation.
Contact SmartSimple for an example of a valid SAML Response.
Cipher encrypted reference
The SmartSimple cipher-encrypted reference SSO is accessed by passing parameters in the URL, including an encrypted token, for authentication.
Example:
- http://myalias.smartsimple.com/QryAuth/?em=2&alias=myalias&message=dnnOBh9xvqPSC9uXZFAz10Tc
URL Request Parameters
| Parameter Name | Description | Sample |
| em | Encryption method | 1 or 2 |
| alias | SSO alias | ssoalias |
| message | Encrypted String, encryption method is indicated by em parameter | cm90YXJ5Oztjcm1 …… |
em (1 or 2) 1 – Message is encoded by base64 only (for systems that do not support DES encryption). 2 – Message is first encrypted by "DES" using a provided key and then encoded by base64.
alias Identifies which SSO settings should be used. SmartSimple supports multiple SSO entries.
message A string composed of 11 elements delimited by two semi-colons (;;). For example, 88;;Id12345;;John;;Smith;;Contact,Internal Staff;;Toronto branch;;Canada Office;;abc@gmail.com;;Canada;;2011-11-08 12:30:00;;English
There must be no spaces between elements.
Key used: AD789034 (example only)
Encrypted Message will be: I%2BA%2B/Qb73aUmJZyP5f3/9Lm90fIguwkAgKovK0626HxbeT7cGfdZfSGyDdAybGstBwHBZgDYqc3uhgS7YTQIxzQXIfAovKCzbHLhc/Nh/AizHemadQL1SNRQeNwKz9%2B37IR%2BrwQyvR2Qlh0On8zy7cDSZYm/QKL5EmGV3g9Z%2B10=
Note: When base64 encoding results include a '+' character, please replace '+' with '%2B'
Element Position
| Element Position |
Description | Sample | Options |
| 1 | Reserved Constant | Always 88 | Mandatory |
| 2 | Unique identifier of user. If this ID is not found in SmartSimple, either a new user will be created or the request will be rejected. This is controlled by the SSO settings within SmartSimple. | Id12345 | Mandatory |
| 3 | First Name | John | *Optional |
| 4 | Last Name | Smith | *Optional |
| 5 | Comma delimited list of roles (by name) to be assigned to the user. | Contact, Internal Staff | *Optional |
| 6 | Parent Company (one level above the user's company) | Canada Office | Optional |
| 7 | Company | Toronto Branch | *Optional |
| 8 | E-mail address | abc@gmail.com | *Optional |
| 9 | Country | Canada | *Optional |
| 10 | Date Time Stamp (GMT). Login will only succeed if the server time is within +- 10 minutes of this timestamp. This is to prevent bookmarking the SSO URL and token. If the SSO settings within SmartSimple have “debug=on”, then the timestamp is ignored. | 2011-11-08 12:30:00 | Mandatory |
| 11 | Language | English | Optional |
- NOTE: Optional items listed with an asterisk are mandatory if this will result in creation of a new user (only relevant if the Single Sign-On setting “Create User” is enabled).
The 6th parameter (Parent Company) can result in changes to the organizational hierarchy. The Company (parameter 7) will be moved under the Parent Company, so this should be used with caution if this effect is not desired.
Contact SmartSimple for sample code for Cipher encrypted reference SSO.
