Donations

Donations are welcome to support the development of the plugin.

 
Sponsors:

• Mark Stewart - Moodle Administrator in New Zealand
  

Info of the plugin

This plugin add SAML authentication support to Moodle.
If you need auto-enrol based on SAML you need to install the SAML Enrolment Plugin too.


Prerequisites

Install in the same machine a simpleSAMLphp instance and configure it as a Service Provider

Install Instruction
1. Unpack this saml directory into the /auth/ directory as you would for any Moodle auth module (http://docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_contributed_modules_or_plugins).

2. Login to Moodle as an administrator, and activate the module by navigating
Site administration->Plugins->Manage authentication->SAML Authentication

3. Let priivileges to the server user to write over the auth/saml/saml_config.php file.

Configuration
After the installation we must configure the saml plugin, so go to "Settings" if you are in
"Manage Authentication" page, or you can also go to Users > Authentication > SAML Authentication. These are the fields of this form:

• simpleSAMLphp Path: it will not work unless you specify the saml library path. This refers to the library path for the simpleSAMLphp environment you want to use. For example: /var/simplesamlphp/lib
• SimpleSAMLphp SP source. Select the SP source you want to connect to moodle. (Sources are at the SP of simpleSAMLphp in /config/authsources.php).
• SAML username mapping: it is a SAML attribute that will be mapped to the Moodle username. By default, this attribute will be set to 'mail'.
• Single Log out: Enable/disable the single logout. This will log out you from moodle, identity provider and all conected service providers 
• SAML Image: when you enable the SAML authentication plugin, a new button will be shown in the login Moodle page that allows to authenticate via SAML. By default, the simpleSAMLphp image (something like a fish) will be shown, but you can specify another one you want to use. Note: this image needs to exist in the server as it is not possible to upload an image through the form right now. 
• SAML login description: you can also specify a description text for the previous button. This description will be shown below the SAML image in the login Moodle page.
• Log file path: this is the absolute path of a file where the plugin will log information about its actions. It is optional.
• Hook file path: this is the absolute path of a file with php functions that will be called to alter the default behaviour of this plugin. See the file custom_hook.php for more information.
• SAML support Courses: this select has three options:
• • No suport (default value): the plugin will not have support for enrolling the user into courses automatically
  • Internal: the plugin will use an internal database table to map the courses in the next field with Moodle courses 
  • External: the plugin will use a tabla in an external database to map the courses in the next field with Moodle courses.
• SAML courses mapping: it is a SAML attribute that is mapped to Moodle courses data. By default, it is set to 'schacUserStatus'.
• Field used to identify a course: this can be the Short Name or the Number ID and referes to the Moodle field used to identify a course during the matching phase of the plugin.
• Ignore inactive courses: if this field is checked the user will stay in previous enrolled courses even if the status of the course is inactive in the SAML attribute. 
• Data Mapping section:  The Identity Provider (IdP) provides some user's data such as the first name, surname, email address, etc. In this section, you can specify the correspondence with the same data in Moodle. By default, the configuration is set as is shown below: First name = cn Surname = sn Email Address = mail
• Course Mapping section: The course mapping section allows the administrator to link saml courses and moodle courses. To make it working we need to create an intermediate database on where we can store this data. This database will have the following internal structure:
  

  Field	Type	Null	Key	Default	Extra
  course_mapping_id	int(11)	NO	PRI	NULL	auto_increment
  saml_course_id	varchar(20)	NO		NULL
  saml_course_period	int(4)	NO		NULL
  lms_course_id	text	NO		NULL

  
  Once we already have created the database, we need to specify the DSN (Data Source Name) that has the following syntax: 
• • MySQL
    mysql://user:password@host/database_name
  • SQLite
    sqlite:///path/to/database/file
  • PostgresSQL
    postgres://user:password@host/database_name
• Below the database DSN field we can start introducing course mappings between Moodle and SAML courses. No field can be null, if you try to introduce a null course mapping, this data will be ignored and it will not be saved in the database. If you try to introduce a duplicate course mapping this data will not be saved in the database and you will be redirected to the form showing an error. If you want to delete a course mapping you must only check the corresponding checkbox to the left and clicking to 'delete' button. Also, you can update the previous introduced course mappings in every moment if the new data doesn't conflicts with none of the previous course mappings. Is possible to introduce several course mappings at the same time, you can add a new row by clicking in '+' button to the right. It no errors happen while introducing the course mappings, you will be redirected to the 'Manage Authentication' page as with any other field of the form.

Internal Changes
The 'config.html' file was renamed to 'config.php' because it now has PHP code. - Two new files was created in SAML plugin directory: - 'courses.php': this file contains the needed PHP code for showing the new 'Course mapping' table. - 'DBNewDatabase.php': this file contains a tiny function for creating a database connection, because it seems there is a bug when you try to open a SQLite database connection using a DSN.

In 'auth.php' we have used 'validate_form' for validating the form and store the errors, and 'process_config' for saving the data into the database if there are no errors. Also, 'sync_roles' function have been modified for mapping roles and courses.

NOTES
These changes are tested and valid for simpleSAMLphp >= 1.7

Important for enrollment!!

This plugin suppose that the IdP send the courses data of the user in a attribute that can be configured but the pattern of the expected data is always

You can change this pattern editing the file auth/saml/course_mapping.php

Default pattern is:  <country> : <domain> : <courseId> : <period> : <role> : <status>
status could be 'active' or 'inactive',
courseId, period and role depends on the configuration of the mapping.
Example  es:moodle.org:00001:2009-10:student:active 

And you may prefix it with the urn of your attribute. The default vaulue for carry course data is shacUserStatus so you may prefix the prevous string with the related urn
Example:
urn:mace:terena.org:schac:userStatus:es:moodle.org:00001:2009-10:student:active

If you use other attribute than shacUserStatus or you want to change the fortmat of the course data you may edit the course_mapping.php file

Problems with the login view

SAML auth plugin rewirte the login view I had to copy some code of the login/index.php view and made some changes. If you find problems on the login view, you can disable the "login view replacement". Edit the auth/saml/auth.php, at the the loginpage_hoook funcion, disable the following code:
        if (empty($CFG->alternateloginurl)) {
            $CFG->alternateloginurl = $CFG->wwwroot.'/auth/saml/login.php';
        }