How to grant parents access to Canvas if we have Canvas SSO set up for Azure AD authentication?

[ITSolutions]

How to grant parents access to Canvas if we have Canvas SSO set up for Azure AD authentication (SAML)?

[janagamn]

Hi- we also set up Azure SAML authentication for students and Staff. This is authentication 1. We have self-registration set up for parents - which is authentication number 2.  However, when the parents receive emails from Canvas and they click on the links they are being directed to the SSO login and not the canvas login page. This is causing issues for our parents. 

[chriscas]

Hi @janagamn.,

Have you set up a discovery page in your authentication section?  Basically it would be a webpage you create that lists the different login providers and who should use them.  Users are always directed to the discovery page to choose their login source when it's configured.

-Chris

[janagamn]

Hey chris- Thank you for your immediate reply. I just found out about the discovery page. I will set that up and check it out. But, even if I set that up, I am not sure how it will work. 

For example, let us say a teacher sends an announcement . As a parent, they receive an email with that announcement and a link to that. Say the link is something like below :

https://XXX.instructure.com/courses/173709345/files/12573826656?wrap=1

Here the teacher sent a link to a file to the parents.

When the parents clicks on that link(if discovery URL) is set up, it takes to that webpage.

Parent selects the "Parent Login"- https://XXX.instructure.com/login/canvas

They are taken to the Login screen. From there , they still need to navigate to this particular announcement or file (or) again click on the link. There is no direct way to do this isn't it ? When they click on the link, they are not directly taken to the page ?

[chriscas]

Hi @janagamn,

With the discovery page set up, they should still end up at the final destination link correctly after they pick their login provider on the discovery page.  It all happens behind the scenes, but works out pretty well in general.

-Chris

[janagamn]

Thanks Chris. Working on creating the Discovery webpage right now. Hopefully, it works. Will keep you posted. 

[janagamn]

Chris- This worked very well. 

[Justin_Reynolds]

Hi, 

This is a late reply but we create users manually and have them use the special URL that forces the use of the Canvas login screen. 

https://yourschoolhere.instructure.com/login/canvas?global_includes=0

We then delete the users when we're done so we don't have any hanging out that aren't being used.  It works very well for us.

[MrsLauraMetz]

Hello, What do you mean 'we create users manually'? Does that mean you give them a username and password premade? If so, how do you keep this data safe? Is it printed for teachers or admin? Thanks!!