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Adding OpenID authentication to Moodle LMS

"OpenID Connect is an interoperable authentication protocol based on the OAuth 2.0 framework of specifications (IETF RFC 6749 and 6750). It simplifies the way to verify the identity of users based on the authentication performed by an Authorization Server and to obtain user profile information in an interoperable and REST-like manner."

Of course, Moodle LMS has a plugin so you can use this to connect to any Authorization server, including Azure ( part of Microsoft Entra ) and this article deals with using the latter.

There are two parts to setting this up: The AzureAD side and the Moodle one.

 In Azure

  1. Login to Azure.
  2.  Register the App in App Registrations.
  3.  Create an application (reference it so it's easily findable)
  4.  Create client Secret ID and copy this (important).
  5.  Add in Redirect URI from Moodle plug-in page.

 

In Moodle

  1. Install OpenID and other O365 plugins
  2. Set the M$ ID Platform as v2.0 
  3. Copy the client secret in from Azure. Also, copy in the Application ID and enter it in the box as shown above.
  4. From Azure, copy the endpoints.
  5. Turn the authentication on and check the settings. It will appear on the login screen as below.
  6. Test out with a valid user from your tenancy. Okay so now you are asking "What's the difference between SAML (Shibboleth) and OpenID? Here is there answer:

"The Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is an XML-based federation technology used in some enterprise and academic use cases. OpenID Connect can satisfy these same use cases but with a simpler, JSON/REST based protocol. OpenID Connect was designed to also support native apps and mobile applications, whereas SAML was designed only for Web-based applications. SAML and OpenID Connect will likely coexist for quite some time, with each being deployed in situations where they make sense."

   

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