In this article we'll be using Keycloak to quickly augment an application with user management and single sign on (SSO) using the open source Identity and Access Management System (IAM) Keycloak for Authentication and Authorization. We will demonstrate the integration by securing a page for logged-in users. This quickly provides a jump-off point to more complex integrations.
We've received a lot of support requests about the right way to set up SSO connections. We've published a 5 minute video showing you how to do it easily. Also, the script is included below in case you miss anything!
There are a lot of guides out there, official and unofficial, for how to secure applications with Keycloak. The subject is rather broad, so it's difficult to know where to start. To begin, we'll be focusing on Keycloak's use of OpenID Connect (OIDC), and how to use that standard, along with some helpful libraries, to secure a simple but instructive application.
For the purposes of the sample, we'll actually be using two common applications, a frontend single-page application (SPA) written in JavaScript, and a backend REST API written for Node.js. The language we selected for the sample is JavaScript, but the principles apply no matter the implementation technology you choose.
Working with one of our customers, we discovered that even the most technically literate developer or ops professional could look at the configuration for an SSO connection like it was a foreign language. While our configuration interface attempts to cover all possible options, and document clearly what each option means, it can still be entirely unclear what is required during a setup.