Use Microsoft Entra ID as SSO Provider

Important
When using SSO, you need to create user accounts in ClickHelp for each SSO user that authenticates with a 3rd-party service. This is required so ClickHelp can apply specific permissions to the authenticated user, and those permissions are configured in a ClickHelp user profile. You can use ClickHelp REST API to bulk-create users or to create a new ClickHelp user every time a new application user is getting created on your end. 

The Azure SSO provider allows users to log into a ClickHelp portal using their Microsoft Entra ID accounts. It is possible to make the portal a single-tenant application and allow only users from a specific Microsoft Entra ID to log in to the portal. Alternatively, you can make the portal multi-tenant and work with users from any Microsoft Entra ID tenants.

Only Microsoft Entra ID (Work or School) accounts are supported. Microsoft (personal) accounts are not supported.

  • Open the Azure portal, go to Microsoft Entra ID
    Click the Azure Active Directory on the Azure portal
  • Click App registrations under the Manage section.
    The App registrations button in the Azure Active Directory
  • Click the New registration link.
      Click the New registration link on the App registrations screen 
  • On the Register an application screen, specify the application name, desired access type (single or multi-tenant), application type (select Web), and the redirect URL (https://<YOU_PORTAL_NAME>.clickhelp.co/oauth2/). Click Register to proceed.
    Fill in the necessary fields on the Register an application screen
  • The application is added. Now, we need to get some details about it. If the application widget is not opened automatically, click the application name on the App Registrations screen.
    Click the application name to open the application widget
  • Find the Application (client) ID and Directory (tenant) ID fields in the application widget. The value of the first field is the Client ID needed to set up the OpenID Connect provider in ClickHelp, and the second value is the Tenant ID that we will need. Copy the values somewhere to use them later.
     The Application ID and Directory ID in the application widget
  • Click Certificates & secrets under the Manage section, then New client secret, and specify a name for a new client secret in the Description field. Select the desired duration for the secret and click Add to generate the value. Copy the generated value and save it somewhere — this is the new application’s client secret.
    Copy the necessary value on the Certificates & secrets screen
    Important
    This is the only time you can see the client secret in the Azure portal.
  • Now open the Single Sign-on settings page in your ClickHelp portal by going to Settings → Security → Single sign-on. And select the Azure provider in the list. Open the ClickHelp Single Sign-On settings and specify the Redirect URL
  • Populate the corresponding fields of the Azure client in ClickHelp with the values from Azure. For example, use either the Tenant ID or the domain name for the Tenant field. If you want to make users from several tenants access your ClickHelp portal, check the Multi-tenant box. Then, enable the connection and save changes. Populate the corresponding fields of the Azure client in ClickHelp with the values from Azure

Now it is possible to log in to the portal using Microsoft Entra ID accounts. To make the portal log in the user, the email address of the Microsoft Entra ID account should be the same as the address of the corresponding ClickHelp account.

The Log in with Azure option on the ClickHelp login page

When logging in to the portal with the Microsoft Entra ID account for the first time, you will be prompted to accept the ClickHelp portal’s request for permissions to read the Microsoft Entra ID user profile.

Permissions request to read the Azure AD user profile

You can force users to log in using Microsoft Entra ID accounts by selecting the Azure connection in the Login with field: 

Even if you specified Azure as the default login option, it is still possible to log in to a ClickHelp portal using its native credentials (ClickHelp user account, no SSO), you can do this by following the Login link with a special no-sso parameter: https://<YourPortalName>.clickhelp.co/login/?error=no&no-sso=true