Joomla Single Sign-On for
Educational Institutes

Requirement

Consider a university with multiple colleges, each of which has its own OAuth Provider for managing user identities. For example, there might be a College of MBA, a College of Engineering, and a College of Arts and Sciences. Each college has its own set of web applications and resources that are specific to its students, faculty, and staff members. However, there are also university-wide resources which are created on Joomla websites that are beneficial for all students, such as a library portal, a career services center, and a student health center. To access these university-wide resources (applications or websites), students must currently log in to that website by using their college-specific OAuth Provider’s credentials. To simplify this process, the university can implement a Central identity management system using the OAuth protocol. This would allow each college's OAuth Provider to be connected to a Central OAuth Provider, which can manage user identities and provide secure access to the university-wide resources (i.e Joomla websites or Applications)

Solution

A student navigates to the central site that contains all the university resources. The student clicks on a link to access a specific resource, such as the library portal. The central site redirects the student to the OAuth Provider login page. The student selects their college's OP from a drop-down menu on the OAuth Provider login page. The student is redirected to their college's OAuth Provider login page, where they enter their college-specific login credentials. The college's OAuth Provider authenticates the student's credentials and generates an access token. The college's OAuth Provider sends the access token back to the Central OAuth Provider. The Central OAuth Provider verifies the access token and issues a security token. The Central OAuth Provider redirects the student back to the central university site, along with the security token. The central university site verifies the security token with the Central OAuth Provider. If the security token is valid, the central site grants the student access to the requested resource.
By using a Central identity management system with OAuth protocol, the university can simplify the login process for students while also increasing security by reducing the number of login credentials that need to be managed and secured. Additionally, it can provide a seamless user experience across multiple colleges and university-wide resources, making it easier for students to access the resources they need to succeed.