7 Frameworks, One SAML Jackson - Your Open Source Single Sign-On Solution
Tags: webdev, opensource, javascript, security
Published: 2024-04-04 00:12:18

Many SaaS founders building services for the business-to-business (B2B) industry will quickly encounter the need to offer [single sign-on](https://boxyhq.com/enterprise-sso) as part of their SaaS offerings or risk losing out on lucrative enterprise sales. While there are quite a few providers in this space, there are very few with the flexibility and ease of adoption of [BoxyHQ's SAML Jackson](https://github.com/boxyhq/jackson).

Two of the core strengths of any open-source project are the quality of its documentation and a helpful and supportive community. You will be delighted to learn that BoxyHQ has got you covered on both of these fronts. From the [clearly written README](https://github.com/boxyhq/jackson) that gets SAML Jackson running locally in no time, to [detailed guides](https://boxyhq.com/guides) demonstrating how to integrate SAML Jackson into your application, and a [supportive community](https://discord.boxyhq.com/), you are in good hands.

> **Did you know?** Most enterprises rely on SAML-based single sign-on (SSO). But what is SAML? [Learn more in this post](https://dev.to/schalkneethling/what-is-saml-and-why-you-should-care-4anp).

## The Guides

In the JavaScript ecosystem, there are guides for enabling SAML-based enterprise single sign-on in [AdonisJS](https://adonisjs.com/), [Express.js](http://expressjs.com/), [Next.js](https://nextjs.org/), [Remix](https://remix.run/), and [React](https://react.dev/) with an Express.js backend.

- [SAML Jackson AdonisJS guide](https://boxyhq.com/guides/jackson/frameworks/adonis)
- [SAML Jackson Express.js guide](https://boxyhq.com/guides/jackson/frameworks/express)
- [SAML Jackson Next.js guide](https://boxyhq.com/guides/jackson/frameworks/nextjs)
- [SAML Jackson React guide](https://boxyhq.com/guides/jackson/frameworks/react)
- [SAML Jackson Remix guide](https://boxyhq.com/guides/jackson/frameworks/remix)

Each guide follows a similar outline with some additional steps detailed where needed.

### Configure SAML Single Sign-On

This section features two guides that help you understand everything you need to know about configuring SAML single sign-on. The first guide assists you in [configuring SAML SSO](https://boxyhq.com/guides/jackson/configuring-saml-sso) and the second covers the [SSO Connection API](https://boxyhq.com/docs/jackson/sso-flow).

### Authenticate with SAML Single Sign-On

The authentication portion of the guides follows a similar seven-step process, with some of the guides requiring additional steps.

- Install SAML Jackson
- Setup SAML Jackson
- Make an Authentication Request
- Receives SAML Response
- Request Access Token
- Fetch User Profile
- Authenticate User

Some guides require you to run SAML Jackson as a service. In these cases, you can either:

- Run it locally by following the [setup guide in the project README](https://github.com/boxyhq/jackson?tab=readme-ov-file#deploying-saml-jackson-as-a-separate-service-locally)
- Deploy an instance [using Vercel](https://boxyhq.com/guides/jackson/deployments/vercel)
- Deploy an instance [using Heroku](https://boxyhq.com/guides/jackson/deployments/heroku)

> **Question:** What other deployment targets would you like to see? Let us know in the comments.

For some people, there is nothing like "view source". If this is you, you will be happy to know that for each of these frameworks there exists a sample implementation ([jackson-examples repo](https://github.com/boxyhq/jackson-examples/)):

- [AdonisJS](https://github.com/boxyhq/jackson-examples/tree/main/apps/adonisjs)
- [ExpressJS](https://github.com/boxyhq/jackson-examples/tree/main/apps/express)
- For Next.js there is [this sample application](https://github.com/boxyhq/jackson-examples/tree/main/apps/next-auth), and you can also look at the [BoxyHQ Enterprise SaaS starter kit](https://github.com/boxyhq/saas-starter-kit) for a complete implementation example.
- For React there is [an example application](https://github.com/boxyhq/jackson-examples/tree/main/apps/react-example) and an example of the backend [Express API](https://github.com/boxyhq/jackson-examples/tree/main/apps/express-api) referenced in the guide.
- The Remix guide is one of the guides that is quite different and has it's [own repo containing an example implementation](https://github.com/boxyhq/jackson-remix-auth).

> **Question:** Is your chosen framework missing from the list? Let us know in the comments which frameworks we should cover next.

Using Laravel or Ruby on Rails? We have not forgotten about you. As with the JavaScript frameworks above, we have you covered with guides and sample implementations.

- [SAML Jackson Laravel guide](https://boxyhq.com/guides/jackson/frameworks/laravel) and [sample app](https://github.com/boxyhq/php-examples/tree/main/laravel-enterprise-sso).
- [SAML Jackson Ruby on Rails guide](https://boxyhq.com/guides/jackson/frameworks/rails) and [sample app](https://github.com/boxyhq/ruby-examples/tree/main/rails-enterprise-sso).

> **Question:** As with the JavaScript frameworks, let us know in the comments which frameworks we should cover next.

With these guides, sample applications, and the supportive community there is no need to put off adding single sign-on to your SaaS application today.

> **NOTE:** Because everything mentioned here is open-source we welcome your contributions to make what we have today even better.

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Stop by [BoxyHQ's home on GitHub](https://github.com/boxyhq) and share some love and appreciation by adding a star to the powerhouse behind this, [SAML Jackson](https://github.com/boxyhq/jackson).