Authentication Provider (multiple) Preselection in SoftwareHub

1.        Overview

Software Hub allows multiple authentication providers to be configured. These providers are displayed on the login page as a drop-down list from which users can select their preferred authentication provider.

Currently, users must manually select their authentication provider, even though they may not know which provider their account belongs to. This makes it impossible for the user to login, since the name of the authentication provider represents a technical environment. This feature introduces the ability to preselect the authentication provider automatically using a query parameter in the application’s access URL.

2.        Goal

Enable automatic preselection and redirection to a specific authentication provider in SoftwareHub, based on a query parameter provided in the application URL. 

This improves the login experience by removing the need for manual provider selection when the user’s authentication source is already known.

3.        Functional requirements

SoftwareHub shall accept a query parameter (e.g., „authProvider“) in the URL of the target application to identify the authentication provider to be used.

When the „authProvider“ parameter is present, SoftwareHub shall automatically preselect the corresponding authentication provider on the login page. 

If the specified authentication provider is uniquely identified and valid, SoftwareHub shall automatically forward the user to that provider’s authentication endpoint without displaying the SoftwareHub login page.

The name oft he query parameter should be changeable by the administrator of SoftwareHub to allow more flexibility with defining the URLs.