How to Integrate an IDP with a membership directory?

Membership directories come in all forms and sizes, such as Active Directory, Google Workspace, LDAP based directories, Workday and Human Resources applications. If we take the example of Google Workspace, they provide APIs as well as management console that one can use to configure a directory for integration with an IDP.

The process of configuration usually begins with a domain name such as sampledomain.info or sampledomain.net and these domain registrations are sometimes offered through the management console for a price of about twenty dollars or so. The registration process is automatic but does not happen instantaneously. It remains pending until an external authority registers it and the duration can take anywhere from one day to a week.

The next step in the process is the configuration of the membership directory is the provisioning of an administrator user. This person will now have an email address with the newly created domain name. With this email-based credential, this person can start adding other users and set the maximum number of members in the directory. Once the directory is created, it will be available programmatically as well.

When the membership directory is ready, the process for integration can begin. This step requires to go over to the IDP and create an application which is of the type that the membership directory belongs to. Some membership directories are well suited to integrate with a specific IDP and make the automation extremely easy to trigger, follow through and complete. All membership directories supported by an IDP would begin with the ask for the domain name associated with the membership directory.

An authentication step is required to enable the programmatic access to the membership directory via the consent page when the automation is triggered. This usually requires the same credentials as the administrator of the membership directory.

Once this configuration is initiated, the next step is to enable provisioning of users. This step is important because the IDP and the membership directory must be in sync. A person registering with the IDP and indicating the membership directory via the domain in his email address must be allowed to create a member in the membership directory. Usually, this is done by assigning a role to the user by the IDP that is authorized by the membership directory to map to a member in the directory. If the member is not found, the role creates a new member for this purpose.

Enabling the automatic provisioning helps during the rollout and keeps the IDP and membership directory in sync by creating, deleting and editing the record corresponding to the member. Other configuration parameters must also be chosen at this time. These can include additional information about the potential member as well as groups that they must be part of. The specification of the groups is also associated with rules that determine the default groups a user must be part of. These groups are also helpful to be associated with roles.

Finally, the configuration on the IDP requires validation and testing by means of built-in checks as well as by exercising the creation of a new member. This new member must have all the attributes set by the IDP and this can be verified from the console.