=== Integrating Blackboard Connect with Shibboleth for institutional authentication of users and SSO ===
University of Alaska Identity & Access Management November 2012
University of Alaska has implemented central authentication and "single sign-on" (SSO) using [[https://shibboleth.net/ https://iam.alaska.edu|Shibboleth]]. The following is a brief description of the steps taken by UA to have services from [[http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Connect/Products/Blackboard-Connect.aspx|Blackboard Connect]] rely on our central authentication to log in users. This description does not attempt to be a general guide to either Shibboleth or Blackboard Connect. It is focused merely on the specific steps to integrate vendor-hosted Blackboard Connect services with a working campus-based Shibboleth Identity Provider (IdP). ''These steps are a little different than a prototypical integration because''[[BR]]
(1) Blackboard CONNECT entity id's depend on an X509 certificate the customer uploads to the hosted service, [[BR]]
(2) Blackboard CONNECT does not as of this writing participate in the [[http://www.incommon.org|InCommon federation]], requiring manual addition of metadata and certificates, and most important [[BR]]
(3) Blackboard CONNECT uses "unsolicited" or "IdP-initiated" SSO, which entails a work flow that differs from the norm.

=== Step 1: (1) Determine the entity id for BBC service(s) ===
The Blackboard Connect administrative interface provides a setting to configure the service for Single Sign-On (SSO). You will of course need to have been provided administrative-level access and credentials by Blackboard Connect. You will also need to upload your IdP certificate. You need to do this step first because later steps will need the custom entity id generated in this process.[[BR]]

1.1 Have a copy of your IdP certificate ready to upload[[BR]]

1.2 Login to the admin interface https://www.blackboardconnect.com/signin/default.aspx# with credentials provided by Blackboard Connect.

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