Data model to support different authentication methods for organizations

[cyrildewit]

Description

We need to design a data model that allows us to configure different authentication methods for an organization. Not all organizations will use the same authentication method and therefore we need to design the system in such way that it's open for extension when the times arrives.

Fontys Hogeschool uses SAML to authenticate students in their various portals. Canvas, Office 365 and the FHICT portal. This method needs to be made configurable on organization level. Only organization administrators are allowed to change these settings.

Technical design

Data model

An organisation entity can setup multiple authentication methods. Initially we will only support one authentication method that we have setup for the Fontys Hogeschool organisation. Each authentication method records stores information related to the method. To determine the type of authentication method, we will be storing the type. The supported list of types are defined by us. For SAML 2.0 that would be saml2. In the future we could support other methods like:

• LDAP
• Credentials (username and password)