Forms Builder Form as External Link in Portal

You can create links to Forms Builder forms as external links on Portal. Forms Builder forms can be used to enable students to fill out forms for various purposes, e.g., sign-up forms for events, parking passes, change of address forms, immunization forms, etc. To access these forms, Portal users will log in as student or staff using single sign-on (SSO), select a Portal menu option (e.g., the External Links), and click a link that will bring up a form.

Depending on the options selected in the Portal Configuration tool, a linked form can be displayed as popup, new browser tab, or as an IFrame within the Portal window. When the IFrame option is configured, the Portal user's browser security settings may prevent the user from accessing the form because specific cookies are not allowed.

The security settings can be found in Chrome under Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data > See all cookies and site data. When exceptions for sites like [*]login.mircosoft.comand and {*}login.windows.net are configured for the browser under "Sites that can always use cookies", Portal will be able to display authenticated Forms Builder sequences in an IFrame. Exceptions for Microsoft cookies are set in many corporate environments, but student users may not have them and may not be able to access authenticated form sequences.

For anonymous form sequences, the Portal link can be configured with auto-login (SSO) enabled, and the sequence workflow can be modified to retrieve the student or staff ID based on the AuthGuid value provided by Portal. See the steps below.

Configure an IFrame Link in the Portal Configuration Tool

  1. Log in to the Portal Configuration tool.

  2. Expand the Server node and select your Campus.

  3. Select Menu Groups > External Links.

  4. Select the Menu Item Configuration for your form. In our example, the Menu Item is named "Student Basic Info".

  5. In the Launch As Popup option, select No. This option displayed the linked form in an IFrame within the Portal window. Click Update Menu Item to save your changes.

    Click the menu item ("BasicInfo" in our example) in the External Links list to access additional configuration options.

    External Link > Menu Item Configuration

  6. In the External Link Information section, configure the following items:

    1. Target URL: Specify the URL for the rendered Forms Builder sequence.

    2. Requires Auto-Login (SSO): Select Yes.

      When auto-login is enabled, Portal generates a unique GUID for the session. Portal will insert the session data with the Student ID (or Staff ID) along with the AuthGuid value into a data table. The AuthGuid will apply to any URL that is specified in the Target URL and Auto-Login URL fields.

      In our example, the AuthGuid will be appended to the Forms Builder sequence URL when a user clicks the external link. The values passed in the iframe element are seen in browser development tools as shown below:

      <iframe src="https://<server:domain>:9003/#/renderer/5619?AuthGuid=e28733a4-cfe8-40d6-bf71-3bd9535b645e&amp;TargetURL=https://<server:domain>:9003/#/renderer/5619" id="_ctl0_PlaceHolderMain_iframeContent" title="Links" align="left" frameborder="no" style="WIDTH: 100%; HEIGHT: 680px">
      </iframe>

    3. Auto-Login URL: Specify the link to the rendered Forms Builder sequence.

    4. Session Timeout: Specify a session timeout value in minutes to ensure that the session is closed when the user is inactive.

    External Link > Menu Item Configuration

  7. Click Update Link to save your changes.

Modify the Workflow to Resolve the AuthGuid

  1. Launch Workflow Composer and open the workflow for the Forms Builder sequence that is linked in Portal.

  2. Insert an ExecuteDataReader activity at the top of the workflow.

    ExecuteDataReader

    1. Specify a Connection string name.

    2. Specify the following value in the Query field to call a stored procedure:

      "exec dbo.sproc_User_Integration_WebServices_Session_Get '" +System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode(formInstance.QueryParams.DataDictionary("AuthGuid").ToString) +"'"

      The sproc uses the AuthGuid value provided by Portal in the IFrame URL and retrieves the associated student (or staff) ID from the wpExternalAppSessions table in the Portal database.

      The student (or staff) ID value can then be used in a GetEntity<> activity to obtain the student (or staff) entity for further workflow steps.

  3. ( Optional) If desired for additional security, you can include Assign activities to tie the AuthGuid to a Portal user IP address. The IP address is part of the formInstance entity.

    Assign To Value
    studentId DirectCast(CurrentRow("UserID"),Int32)
    portalUserIp DirectCast(CurrentRow("BrowserIPAddress"),String)

    However, don’t rely too much on the IP address because student users can be behind a firewall or VPN and the true IP address may not be available. See Collect IP Address in Forms Builder help.