Knowledge base SSO | Salesforce

This article discusses functionality that is included in the Aha! Knowledge Advanced plan. Please contact us if you would like a live demo or want to try using it in your account.

Salesforce has the ability to function as an identity provider for your knowledge base using SAML 2.0. This enables your colleagues who work in Salesforce to access the documentation they need — without having to remember another user name and password.

How it works

When a user navigates to the knowledge base, they will be presented with the option to authenticate to the knowledge base via SSO only. If they are already logged in to the SSO provider, they will automatically be logged in to your knowledge base without any additional actions.

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Enable Salesforce as an identity provider

To do this, follow the instructions on Salesforce's knowledge base.

The configuration described in this support document establishes a SAML based authentication where your Salesforce community users are able to use their Salesforce community credentials to log into your Aha! knowledge base.

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Configure Salesforce SSO in your Aha! account

With Salesforce set up as an identity provider, you can then go into Aha! Roadmaps and enable SSO for your ideas portal (or account).

To do this, you will need to open your knowledge base settings. Navigate to Settings ⚙️ -> Account -> Knowledge -> Single sign-on. You will need to be an administrator with customizations permissions to configure knowledge base.

  1. Click Add new provider.

  2. Choose SAML as your identity provider Type. Click Save.

  3. The SAML 2.0 configuration will display.

  4. Configure Salesforce as your identity provider.

Note: When configuring SSO with Salesforce, the single sign-on endpoint field in Aha! Roadmaps needs to be populated with the SP-Initiated Redirect Endpoint URL from the SAML Login Information settings in Salesforce. The default endpoint provided by Salesforce utilizes a HTTP POST as opposed to a HTTP GET that is expected when running SSO.

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Share your SSO configuration

Since SSO for ideas portals is configured in the same way as knowledge base SSO, knowledge bases and ideas portals can share an SSO configuration.

The table below explains how many ideas portals and knowledge bases can share a single SSO configuration, depending on which Aha! plan(s) you are subscribed to.

Aha! plans

Number of ideas portals on a single SSO configuration

Number of knowledge bases on a single SSO configuration

Notes

Aha! Roadmaps

1

0*

One SSO configuration per ideas portal.

Aha! Roadmaps

+ Aha! Ideas Advanced

2+

0*

One SSO configuration can be shared between multiple ideas portals.

Aha! Roadmaps

+ Aha! Knowledge Advanced

2+

2+

One SSO configuration can be shared between one ideas portal and multiple knowledge bases.

Aha! Roadmaps

+ Aha! Ideas Advanced

+ Aha! Knowledge Advanced

2+

2+

One SSO configuration can be shared between multiple ideas portals and multiple knowledge bases.

* Publishing a knowledge base requires an Aha! Knowledge Advanced plan.

To share your identity provider configuration between multiple knowledge bases and/or with a single ideas portal:

  1. Navigate to Settings ⚙️ -> Account -> Knowledge -> Knowledge bases. You will need to be an administrator with customizations permissions to do this.

  2. Click a knowledge base to open its settings.

  3. Once you have your knowledge base settings open, navigate to Overview -> Authentication.

  4. Select an identity provider you have configured from the Identity provider dropdown.

  5. Repeat these steps for each knowledge you wish to use the shared Identity provider configuration.

You can manage your identity provider configuration — and the knowledge bases or portal that uses it — from the Identity providers tab in Settings ⚙️ -> Account -> Knowledge -> SSO.

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Troubleshooting

We have created an article to help you troubleshoot common SSO configuration issues, complete with explanations and resolutions.

The best place to start in most of these situations is the Recent SSO events for your SSO configuration, at the bottom of the configuration page. Those messages will help diagnose and solve the problem.

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