Becoming an SSO Provider

In addition to the authentication methods provided by Crowdin, you can use the Single Sign-On (SSO) feature to authenticate your users instantly with their existing usernames.

This feature is available in organization plans only.

Crowdin hybrid SSO is a faster way to create the translator account than classic SSO like OAuth or SAML.

The entire streamlined process works as follows:

  1. Enable SSO in your account and copy your account API key.
  2. Create a special URL in your system that redirects a translator to Crowdin. This URL will contain the translator’s authentication information and the API key you received earlier as URL parameters encrypted with AES.
  3. Crowdin uses these parameters to create an account for the translator and redirects to the desired page. For example, translators can be redirected immediately to the translation editor to begin working.
  4. The translator receives an email with instructions on activating the account and must agree to Crowdin’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Note: Before referring a user to Crowdin, please include a warning that you are sending the translator’s encrypted personal information to the outside party.

If you pass a login name or email to the SSO URL already taken at Crowdin, the user will be asked to correct the registration details.

Enabling Single Sign-On (SSO)

To enable SSO for your projects, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Account Settings > SSO.
  2. Select Enable single sign-On.
  3. Specify a valid provider’s name.
  4. Click Save.

SSO URL Parameters

Below is the list of parameters you can pass to Crowdin for automatic registration. In this step, you will need to pack the data as a JSON array before encryption (See the sample integrations in popular programming languages below).

Parameter Required Type Default Example Notes
user_id yes int 12345678901 A unique identifier for the user (e.g., the user_id in your system).
login yes string johndoe Crowdin login name. Should match the pattern [a-z,0-9]
user_email yes string john.doe@mail.com Valid email address
expiration yes int 1406124776 Valid unix timestamp.
Note! Set no more than 30 minutes from the current UTC time.
display_name string John Doe Pseudo or real name
locale string en_US de_DE Locale code
projects string docx-project,csv-project A comma-separated list of Crowdin project identifiers that the translator should initially have access to
gender int 0 1 | 2 1: male, 2: female
role int 0 0 | 1 | 2 User role in joined projects. 0: translator, 1: proofreader, 2: manager
languages string ro,uk,fr Comma separated list of Crowdin language codes the user should have access to. Used for projects with moderate language access policy
redirect_to string https://crowdin.com/profile https://crowdin.com/project/your-project-url The Crowdin URL where the translator should land after registration
return_crowdin_login int 0 | 1 Return GET parameter crowdin_login (works in combination with redirect_to parameter)

The output JSON array should look like the following:

{
  "user_id":"12345678901",
  "login":"johndoe",
  "user_email":"john.doe@mail.com",
  "display_name":"John Doe",
  "locale":"de-DE",
  "gender":1,
  "projects":"docx-project,csv-project",
  "expiration":1406124776,
  "role":0,
  "redirect_to":"https:\/\/crowdin.com\/project\/docx-project"
}

Encrypting the Information

The JSON created in the previous step must be encrypted using AES 128-CBC, with the first 16 characters of your Crowdin account API key acting as the cipher key, and the last 16 characters as the initialization vector. The encrypted text should be transformed now to Base64 text.

The SSO URL should use the following pattern:

https://crowdin.com/join?h={ENCRYPTED_STRING}&uid={CROWDIN_USER_LOGIN}

Where:

{ENCRYPTED_STRING} is the Base64 text you created in the previous step.

{CROWDIN_USER_LOGIN} is the login name of your Crowdin account. Note: this must be the same account you used to create the projects you want the translator to have access to.

Sample Integrations

We’ve created the code snippets for the most major programming languages. Remember to replace CROWDIN_USER_LOGIN and CROWDIN_USER_API_KEY with your personal authentication information.

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