Use SAML, OAuth, and OIDC Single Sign On (SSO) methods to send custom field data to Skilljar, which can include custom data can include information such as Job Role, Company Name, or Country.

Once Skilljar is set up to collect custom data, you can use this data to further optimize the learner experience by automatically creating and populating Groups.  

*Please note that the following article assumes an SSO integration is already in place for your Skilljar domain(s). You can read more about integrating your Skilljar domains with SSO here: Integrating SSO.

Overview 

Customers often want to tie existing user data from their Identity Provider (IdP) or other database to a student's record in Skilljar for reporting purposes or to be able to organize and assign users to different learning paths in the future. Examples of these custom data fields include:

• Job Role
• Department
• Organization Name
• Subscription Type (or Product Purchased)
• Sales Region or Territory
• Skill Level (Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced)

The way to pass these custom fields from an IdP into Skilljar will differ depending on whether your domain is set up with SAML, OAuth, or Token-based SSO. First we'll take a look at the process for SAML and OAuth integrations.

SAML 2.0 & OAuth 2.0 SSO

At a high-level these are the steps Customers integrated with SAML or OAuth SSO will follow to send custom field data from their Identity Provider into Skilljar: 

1. Create Skilljar Signup Field(s) (see below)
2. Name the new fields to match the field from the IdP
3. Update SSO settings to pass those additional fields to Skilljar
4. Begin viewing the data in Analytics, and/or use the custom fields to create Groups and auto-assign users to those Groups

Note regarding OAuth 2.0: Aside from using Sign-up fields, you can also send group parameters in auth response, which can be added to the SSO integration on the Skilljar side. To do this, please reach out to Skilljar support and provide us with the name of the parameter in the auth response which contains a JSON list of StudentGroups for the user. This only applies to OAuth 2.0, not SAML 2.0.

Creating Skilljar Signup Fields to Pass Custom Data

The first step to sending custom data from your IdP to Skilljar is to create a corresponding Signup Field within Skilljar for each data field being sent over. Note that "custom fields" may also be referred to as custom attributes or variables depending on the Identity Provider that you're using.

Here is how you can create a new Signup Field:

1. Go to your Skilljar Dashboard, expand the Domains & Publishing header, and select Domains to open the Domains page.
2. Find the domain you want to edit and select Domain Settings. 
   
   
   
   
3. In the Signup Field section, select New Signup Field. A pop-up box will appear.
4. Select Select the field type that corresponds to the data being passed.
   • If you plan to make Groups using the responses to the signup fields, please use the "Pick-List" option.
     
     
     
     
5. In the Label field, copy over the field name exactly as it appears in your IdP.
   • For example, if you're looking to send a user's company name, and the field in your IdP is listed as 'company_name', write 'company_name' in the Label field within the Create Signup Field page in the Dashboard.
6. Enable the "Active" check box for this signup field.
7. Select Create.
8. Repeat steps 3-7 for any additional custom data fields you want to capture within Skilljar.
9. Once all of your new fields have been created and mapped to your IdP, make sure that your IdP is set to allow data to pass to Skilljar.

The last step is to test your settings and ensure that data for your test users is passing into Skilljar Analytics as expected. The best report to review is Analytics>Enrollments which will display your custom signup fields. You can also go to Students, search for a student name, select the Student, and within the profile, you will see the Student Signup Information (Field Label and Student Response).  

Tips for Use:

A great way to leverage custom data in Skilljar is to create a more personalized learning experience for your students using the Groups functionality.

Example scenarios include:

• Only displaying training content to Resellers based on products they are authorized to sell
• Featuring a Getting Started learning path to Admins
• Enrolling Tier II Support employees in a course for their skill level
• Making Live Training/ILT Courses visible to users in a particular country

Once you have the new signup fields created in Skilljar, you can use those signup fields to create and then auto-populate Groups accordingly. Learn more about creating Groups based on Signup fields.

As a last step, you'll want to adjust course visibility settings based on those Groups you've created in order to surface the right content to students. Learn more about making courses visible to select Groups.