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Re-branding the Default Login Page for Your Application

WSO2 Identity Server usually displays a default login page for all service provider applications that send authentication requests to it. WSO2 IS supports re-branding this login page according to your requirements for SAML2 SSO, OAuth, or OpenID Connect.

The login pages and other pages, such as error and notification screens, of SAML SSO, OAuth, OpenID Connect, and Passive STS are located in the authenticationendpoint webapp file, which is found in the <IS_HOME>/repository/deployment/server/webapps directory.

You can easily re-brand these pages within this web application by changing the respective JSPs, JavaScript, and CSS. If you want to point to a different web application, you can do so by redirecting or forwarding from authenticationendpoint to your webapp. In the case of SAML SSO, the ' issuer ' id of the service provider is also sent to this webapp. Therefore, different login pages can be given to different service providers by looking at the ' issuer ' request parameter.

This page guides you through re-branding the login page for a sample SAML2 SSO web application.

Configuring the two service providers

First, register two service providers in WSO2 Identity Server.

  1. Deploy traveloctity sample application.

  2. Download a copy of travelocity.com.war and place it in the <TOMCAT_HOME>/webapps/ folder.

  3. Rename the file to avis.com.war and restart the Tomcat server.

    Note

    • Open the <TOMCAT_HOME>/webapps/travelocity.com/travelocity.properties file and check the following configurations. 

      #The URL of the SAML 2.0 Assertion Consumer
SAML2.AssertionConsumerURL=http://wso2is.local:8080/travelocity.com/home.jsp

#openid.return_to parameter
OpenId.ReturnToURL=http://wso2is.local:8080/travelocity.com/home.jsp

    • Open the <TOMCAT_HOME>/webapps/avis.com/avis.properties file and check the following configurations. 

      #The URL of the SAML 2.0 Assertion Consumer
SAML2.AssertionConsumerURL=http://wso2.is:8080/avis.com/home.jsp

#openid.return_to parameter
OpenId.ReturnToURL=http://wso2.is:8080/avis.com/home.jsp

  4. Register a new service provider with the name avis.com similarly by following the steps given in the configuring service provider for travelocity sample section while replacing travelocity.com references to avis.com.

  5. Start the application server and access the following URLs to ensure both apps are running.

    travelocity.com

    URL: http://wso2is.local:8080/travelocity.com/index.jsp

    Travelocity screen

    avis.com

    URL: http://wso2is.local:8080/avis.com/index.jsp

    Avis screen

Registering the two service providers in WSO2 Identity Server

  1. Sign in to the WSO2 Identity Server Management Console.
  2. On the Main menu, click Identity > Service Providers > Add.
  3. Enter travelocity.com as the Service Provider Name in the form that appears and click Register. The Service Providers page appears.
    Add new service provider
  4. Under the Inbound Authentication Configuration section, click SAML2 Web SSO Configuration > Configure. The Register New Service Provider page appears.
    SAML2 Web SSO Configuration option

  5. Configure the following details for travelocity.com and repeat steps 1 to 6 and configure details for avis.com.

    New application screen

    travelocity.com

    • Issuer: travelocity.com
    • Assertion Consumer URL: http://wso2is.local:8080/travelocity.com/home.jsp
    • Select Enable Response Signing
    • Select Enable Single Logout

    avis.com

    • Issuer: avis.com
    • Assertion Consumer URL: http://wso2is.local:8080/avis.com/home.jsp
    • Select Enable Response Signing
    • Select Enable Single Logout

  6. When attempting to "login with SAML from WSO2 Identity Server" in Travelocity.com and Avis.com, you can see the following default page located at <IS_HOME>/repository/deployment/server/webapps/authenticationendpoint/login.jsp .
    Identity Server sign in screen

Configuring the login page

Understanding the authenticationendpoint web application

The login page that is displayed during SAML2 SSO, OAuth, OpenID Connect, and Passive-STS flows is located inside the webapp named authenticationendpoint. The reason for storing this in a web app is:

  • To easily customize the page according to user requirements.
  • To place that whole web application in an external application server, if needed.

WSO2 Identity Server is aware of the location of this web application as it is specified with the following configurations in the <IS_HOME>/repository/conf/deployment.toml file.

[authentication.endpoints] 
login_url="/authenticationendpoint/login.do"
retry_url="/authenticationendpoint/retry.do"

By default, the configuration points to a location inside WSO2 Identity Server itself thus, the relative path is given. If it is necessary to point to an external application, the full path should be given instead.

Note

If this web app is moved outside the Identity Server, ensure that no one can access the login credentials passed between this application and the Identity Server. This means that the external location should ideally be either inside a secured intranet or the transport should be HTTPS. Other similar precautions may be necessary to secure the communication.

The following is the structure of this web app.

Web app folder strcture

The authenticationendpoint web application uses a carbon component called org.wso2.carbon.identity.application.authentication.endpoint.util. This bundle includes a filter called the org.wso2.carbon.identity.application.authentication.endpoint.util.filter. AuthenticationEndpointFilter, which acts as the Front Controller.

When a request is made to the authenticationendpoint web application, based on the authentication protocol type identified by the request parameter ‘type’, the controller first forwards the request to the protocol-based login URL patterns defined. For example, if the request to the authenticationendpoint web application is initiated as a result of a SAML SSO authentication request, the controller will forward the request to the URL pattern /samlsso_login.do. If you look inside the web.xml, you will see that this URL pattern is mapped to the login.jsp file. The request is finally forwarded to this login.jsp page.

Everything on the authenticationendpoint web application can be modified according to your requirements. You can either add JSP pages or modify them and configure the web.xml respectively.

The only restriction involved is that the content already sent back by the pages inside the default web app must be submitted to the Identity Server. Additionally, you must point to the correct location via the <IS_HOME>/repository/conf/identity/application-authentication.xml file.

Re-branding the login page

When a request comes to the default login page, you will see several parameters being passed in the address bar. For this example, the focus is on the following two parameters:

  • sessionDataKey : This is an identifier used by the Identity Server to maintain state information related to this particular request by the service provider. !!! note The sessionDataKey query parameter is used to coordinate the request state across components participating in the request flow. It does not correlate with the user session. Furthermore, the request state maintained against the sessionDataKey parameter value is cleared by each participating component at the end of the request flow. This means that even if an external party grabs the sessionDataKey they will not be able to get into the authentication sequence, as the user session is not associated with that key.

  • relyingParty : This is the value we gave for the "Issuer" field when we registered the SAML2 SSO service provider (e.g.,travelocity.com). This value is used to display different login pages to different service providers.

When modifying the pages, ensure that the following is applied.

  1. Form submissions should happen to the "commonauth" servlet as a POST.

    <form id="form" name="form" action="../../commonauth" method="POST">

  2. Make sure to send back the "sessionDataKey" with the form submission by using a hidden input field.

    <%@ page import="org.owasp.encoder.Encode" %>

<input type="hidden" name="sessionDataKey" value="<%=Encode.forHtmlAttribute(request.getParameter("sessionDataKey"))%>"/>

Using a JSP to redirect to SP relevant pages

  1. Rename the existing login.jsp to default_login.jsp

  2. Create a new file with the name login.jsp including the following code.

    <%  
String relyingParty = request.getParameter("relyingParty");

if (relyingParty.equals("travelocity.com")) {
    RequestDispatcher dispatcher = request.getRequestDispatcher("travelocity_login.jsp");
    dispatcher.forward(request, response);
} else {
    RequestDispatcher dispatcher = request.getRequestDispatcher("default_login.jsp");
    dispatcher.forward(request, response);
} 
    %>

    The above code forwards the request to a different login page by checking the value of relyingParty parameter.

  3. Get the travelocity\_login.jsp from here and place it at the same level as login.jsp. Also, download the contents of the css and images folders from that same link and put them inside the respective folders in the authenticationendpoint.

  4. Log in to the travelocity.com web app again. You are presented with the re-branded page.

    Travelocity login screen

    If you access avis.com, it still displays the default login page.

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