DNN SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) with Salesforce as IDP

DNN SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication provider gives the ability to enable SAML Single Sign-On for your DotNetNuke applications. Using Single Sign-On you can use only one password to access your DotNetNuke application and services. Our authentication provider is compatible with all the SAML-compliant identity providers. Here we will go through a step-by-step guide to configure Single Sign-On (SSO) between DotNetNuke and Salesforce considering Salesforce as IdP.

Pre-requisites: Download And Installation

• Download the package for DNN SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication provider.
• Upload the installation package dnn-saml-single-sign-on_xxx_Install by going in Settings > Extension > Install Extension.

Steps to configure DNN Single Sign-On (SSO) using Salesforce as IDP

1. Add authentication provider on DNN page

• Now under the Installed extensions tab select Authentication Systems.Here you can see the miniOrange DNN SAML Authentication Plugin.

• Just Click on the pencil icon as mentioned in the image below to configure the DNN SAML Authentication Provider.

• You have finished with the Installation of the authentication provider on your DNN site.

2. Setup Salesforce as Identity Provider

• Select your identity provider Salesforce from the list shown below.

• There are two ways detailed below with which you can get the SAML SP metadata to configure onto your identity provider end.

A] Using SAML metadata URL or metadata file:

• Under Service Provider Settings, you can find the metadata URL as well as the option to download the SAML metadata.
• Copy metadata URL or download the metadata file to configure the same on your identity provider end.
• You may refer to the screenshot below:


B] Uploading metadata manually:

• Under the Service Provider Settings section, you can manually copy the service provider metadata like Base URL, SP Entity ID, ACS URL and share it with your identity provider for configuration.
• You may refer to the screenshot below:

• Log into your Salesforce account as admin.
• Switch to Salesforce Lightning mode from profile menu and then go to the Setup page by clicking on setup button.

• From the left pane, select Settings Tab and click on Identity Provider.

• Click on Enable Identity Provider.

• In the Service Provider section, click on the link to create the Service Provider using Connected Apps.


• Enter Connected App Name, API Name and Contact Email.

Connected App Name	Provide a name for Connected App
API Name	Provide a API name
Contact Email	Provide a Contact Email


• Under the Web App Settings, check the Enable SAML checkbox and enter the following values:

Enable SAML	Checked
Entity ID	SP-EntityID / Issuer from Service Provider Metadata tab of the Plugin
ACS URL	ACS (AssertionConsumerService) URL from Service Provider Metadata tab of the Plugin
Subject Type	Username
Name ID Format	urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:unspecified


• Click on Save to save the configuration.
• Now from the left pane, under Platform Tools section select Connected Apps.
• Then select Manage Connected Apps and click on the app you just created.

• In the Profiles section click Manage Profiles button.
• Assign the Profiles you want to give access to log in through this app.

• Under SAML Login Information, click on Download Metadata.

• Keep this metadata handy for configuring the Service Provider.

You have successfully configured Salesforce as SAML IdP (Identity Provider) for achieving Salesforce SSO login into your DotNetNuke (DNN) Site.

3. Configure DotNetNuke SAML Authentication Provider as Service Provider

• For configuring application in the authentication provider, click on the Add new IdP button in the Identity Provider Settings tab.

There are two ways detailed below with which you can configure your SAML identity provider metadata in the authentication provider.

A] Upload metadata using the Upload IDP Metadata button:

• If your identity provider has provided you with the metadata URL or metadata file (.xml format only), then you can simply configure the identity provider metadata in the authentication provider using the Upload IDP Metadata option.
• You may refer to the screenshot below:

• You can choose any one of the options according to the metadata format you have available.

B] Configure the identity provider metadata manually:

• After configuring your Identity Provider, it will provide you with IDP Entity ID, IDP Single Sign On URL and SAML X509 Certificate fields respectively.
• Click Update to save your IDP details.

4. Testing SAML SSO

• Click the Test Configuration button to verify if you have configured the plugin correctly.
• On successful configuration, you will get Attribute Name and Attribute Values in the Test Configuration window.

You can even configure the ASP.NET SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) module with any identity provider such as ADFS, Azure AD, Bitium, centrify, G Suite, JBoss Keycloak, Okta, OneLogin, Salesforce, AWS Cognito, OpenAM, Oracle, PingFederate, PingOne, RSA SecureID, Shibboleth-2, Shibboleth-3, SimpleSAML, WSO2 or even with your own custom identity provider. To check other identity providers, click here.

5. Additional Resources

• DNN SAML Single Sign-On (SSO)
• DNN OAuth Single Sign-On (SSO)
• ASP.NET SAML Single Sign-On (SSO)
• nopCommerce SAML Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Umbraco SAML Single Sign-On (SSO)