We have been testing CAS for the last month or so, but can't seem to nail down
a configuration that serves all our needs. Things keep getting scuttled as new
needs arise and possibilities become available. Perhaps some input from those
more experienced could help.
On June 1, I need to deploy a simple portal. The portal will provide 9,000
students with access to content and services they need to use regularly. We
have looked at many portal solutions, but decided to hack up Moodle and use it.
There are many reasons for this, but the most important one is that we know
Moodle well and have talented PHP/MySQL folks on staff. It will work for what
we are trying to do.
The first goal of this project is to get everyone using a single account. We
have a variety of systems running and over the years each evolved it's own
account structure. We have solved this issue. We are importing all student
accounts from our student management system into Active Directory. This makes
AD our basic directory service.
However, we would also like to make SSO available. This is where things get a
bit more complicated. We use Blackboard (AKA WebCT) CE 6.0., Moodle 1.8,
Google Apps for email, and a legacy student management system. CAS helps with
several of these applications. I have found "recipes" that will help adapt
these applications, but there are some trouble spots.
Blackboard--It seems like the best way to integrate Blackboard is to use the
Shibboleth Power Link available from Blackboard.
Moodle 1.8--Moodle has a CAS plug-in, but it is broken for 1.8, Moodle's latest
release. It has been assigned in Moodle's bug tracker, but no estimated date
is available, and I need to have this portal available on June 1. Moodle also
has a Shibboleth plug-in which apparently works in Moodle 1.8.
Google Apps--Google has an API using SAML 2.0.
Student Management System--Will have to be customized. This is a legacy
application with no support for SSO.
I am primarily concerned about SSO for the first three
applications--Blackboard, Moodle, and Google Apps. The third is a work in
progress.
Blackboard and Moodle will work with Shibboleth, so I have considered
installing CAS 3.07 using the Shibboleth plug-in. However, this doesn't help
with Google Apps. CAS 3.1m2 supports SAML, but I don't know whether is
supports SAML 2.0, and it is not a production release. Still, this might be
worth a gamble since it seems to meet all the needs.
Any advice?
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