Tutorial: Microsoft Entra integration with IdeaScale

In this tutorial, you learn how to integrate IdeaScale with Microsoft Entra ID. Integrating IdeaScale with Microsoft Entra ID provides you with the following benefits:

• You can control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to IdeaScale.
• You can enable your users to be automatically signed-in to IdeaScale (Single Sign-On) with their Microsoft Entra accounts.
• You can manage your accounts in one central location.

If you want to know more details about SaaS app integration with Microsoft Entra ID, see What is application access and single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Prerequisites

To configure Microsoft Entra integration with IdeaScale, you need the following items:

• A Microsoft Entra subscription. If you don't have a Microsoft Entra environment, you can get one-month trial here
• IdeaScale single sign-on enabled subscription

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on in a test environment.

• IdeaScale supports SP initiated SSO

Adding IdeaScale from the gallery

To configure the integration of IdeaScale into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add IdeaScale from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

To add IdeaScale from the gallery, perform the following steps:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > New application.

3. In the search box, type IdeaScale, select IdeaScale from result panel then click Add button to add the application.

   

Configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on

In this section, you configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with IdeaScale based on a test user called Britta Simon. For single sign-on to work, a link relationship between a Microsoft Entra user and the related user in IdeaScale needs to be established.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with IdeaScale, you need to complete the following building blocks:

1. Configure Microsoft Entra Single Sign-On - to enable your users to use this feature.
2. Configure IdeaScale Single Sign-On - to configure the Single Sign-On settings on application side.
3. Create a Microsoft Entra test user - to test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with Britta Simon.
4. Assign the Microsoft Entra test user - to enable Britta Simon to use Microsoft Entra single sign-on.
5. Create IdeaScale test user - to have a counterpart of Britta Simon in IdeaScale that is linked to the Microsoft Entra representation of user.
6. Test single sign-on - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Microsoft Entra single sign-on

In this section, you enable Microsoft Entra single sign-on.

To configure Microsoft Entra single sign-on with IdeaScale, perform the following steps:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > IdeaScale application integration page, select Single sign-on.

   

3. On the Select a Single sign-on method dialog, select SAML/WS-Fed mode to enable single sign-on.

   

4. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, click Edit icon to open Basic SAML Configuration dialog.

   

5. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, perform the following steps:

   

   a. In the Sign on URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<companyname>.ideascale.com

   b. In the Identifier (Entity ID) text box, type a URL using the following pattern:

   http://<companyname>.ideascale.com
   https://<companyname>.ideascale.com
   

   Note

   These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Sign on URL and Identifier. Contact IdeaScale Client support team to get these values. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

6. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Federation Metadata XML from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.

   

7. On the Set up IdeaScale section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per your requirement.

   

   a. Login URL

   b. Microsoft Entra Identifier

   c. Logout URL

Configure IdeaScale Single Sign-On

1. In a different web browser window, log in to your IdeaScale company site as an administrator.

2. Go to Community Settings.

   

3. Go to Security > Single Signon Settings.

   

4. As Single-Signon Type, select SAML 2.0.

   

5. On the Single Signon Settings dialog, perform the following steps:

   

   a. In SAML IdP Entity ID textbox, paste the value of Microsoft Entra Identifier..

   b. Open the downloaded metadata file from Azure portal into Notepad, copy the content of it and paste into the SAML IdP Metadata textbox.

   c. In Logout Success URL textbox, paste the value of Logout URL..

   d. Click Save Changes.

Create a Microsoft Entra test user

The objective of this section is to create a test user called Britta Simon.

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.
2. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
3. Select New user > Create new user, at the top of the screen.
4. In the User properties, follow these steps:
   1. In the Display name field, enter B.Simon.
   2. In the User principal name field, enter the username@companydomain.extension. For example, B.Simon@contoso.com.
   3. Select the Show password check box, and then write down the value that's displayed in the Password box.
   4. Select Review + create.
5. Select Create.

Assign the Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you enable Britta Simon to use Azure single sign-on by granting access to IdeaScale.

1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > IdeaScale.

   

3. In the applications list, select IdeaScale.

   

4. In the app's overview page, select Users and groups.

5. Select Add user/group, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.

   1. In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
   2. If you are expecting a role to be assigned to the users, you can select it from the Select a role dropdown. If no role has been set up for this app, you see "Default Access" role selected.
   3. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Create IdeaScale test user

To enable Microsoft Entra users to log into IdeaScale, they must be provisioned in to IdeaScale. In the case of IdeaScale, provisioning is a manual task.

To configure user provisioning, perform the following steps:

1. Log in to your IdeaScale company site as administrator.

2. Go to Community Settings.

   

3. Go to Basic Settings > Member Management.

4. Click Add Member.

   

5. In the Add New Member section, perform the following steps:

   

   a. In the Email Addresses textbox, type the email address of a valid Microsoft Entra account you want to provision.

   b. Click Save Changes.

   Note

   The Microsoft Entra account holder gets an email with a link to confirm the account before it becomes active.

Note

You can use any other IdeaScale user account creation tools or APIs provided by IdeaScale to provision Microsoft Entra user accounts.

Test single sign-on

In this section, you test your Microsoft Entra single sign-on configuration using the Access Panel.

When you click the IdeaScale tile in the Access Panel, you should be automatically signed in to the IdeaScale for which you set up SSO. For more information about the Access Panel, see Introduction to the Access Panel.

Additional Resources

• List of Tutorials on How to Integrate SaaS Apps with Microsoft Entra ID

• What is application access and single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID?

• What is Conditional Access in Microsoft Entra ID?