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To configure a minimal required Keycloak setup, follow these steps:
Recommended keycloak version: 18.0.x
For more detailed information, refer to the official Keycloak documentation:

Keycloak documentation

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Creating a new realm

A realm is a space where you manage objects, including users, applications, roles, and groups. To create a new realm:
  1. Log in to the Keycloak Admin Console using the appropriate URL for your environment (e.g., QA, development, production).
  1. In the top left corner dropdown menu, click Add Realm.
If you are logged in to the master realm this dropdown menu lists all the realms created. The Add Realm page opens.
  1. Enter a realm name and click Create.
  1. Configure the realm settings (Realm Settings → Tokens), such as SSO session idle and access token lifespan, according to your organization’s needs:
  • SSO Session idle - suggested: 30 Minutes
  • Access Token Lifespan - suggested: 30 Minutes

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Creating/importing user groups and roles

You can either create or import a user group into a realm. We prepared a script that helps you to import a super admin group provided with the necessary default user roles. You can create or import user groups into a realm. If you choose to import, follow the provided script to import a super admin group (SUPER_ADMIN_USERS) with default user roles. After importing, add an admin user to the group and assign the necessary roles. Make sure to validate the imported roles by checking the following section:

Default roles

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Creating new users

To create a new user in a realm and generate a temporary password:
  1. In the left menu bar, click Users to open the user list page.
  2. On the right side of the empty user list, click Add User.
  3. Fill in the required fields, including the username, and ensure Email Verified is set to ON.
  4. In the Groups field, choose a group from the dropdown menu, in our case: FLOWX_SUPER_USERS.
  1. Save the user, go to the Credentials tab, and set a temporary password.

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Adding clients

A Client represents an instance of an application. A client is attached to a specific realm. First, add platform-authenticate client - will be used for login/logout/refresh token by web and mobile apps.
  1. Click Clients in the top left menu, then click Create.
  2. Set a client ID as {example}-authenticate, which will be used for login, logout, and refresh token operations.
  3. Set the Client Protocol type as openid-connect.
  1. Open the newly created client and edit the following properties:
  • Set Access type to public (this will not require a secret).
  • Set Valid redirect URIs, specifying a valid URI pattern that a browser can redirect to after a successful login or logout, simple wildcards are allowed.
  • Enable Direct Access Grants and Implicit Flow Enabled by setting them to ON.
  1. Add mappers to {example}-authenticate client.
Refer to the next section on how to add mappers and which mappers to clients.

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Adding protocol mappers

Protocol mappers in Keycloak allow for the transformation of tokens and documents, enabling actions such as mapping user data into protocol claims or modifying requests between clients and the authentication server. To enhance your clients, consider adding the following mappers: By incorporating these mappers, you can further customize and enrich the information contained within your tokens.

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Group Membership mapper

To add a group membership mapper:
  1. Navigate to Clients and select your desired client, in our case, {example}-authenticate
  2. Go to the Mappers tab and click Create to create a new mapper.
  3. Provide a descriptive Name for the mapper to easily identify its purpose.
  4. Select Group Membership as the mapper type.
  5. Set the token claim name for including groups in the token. In this case, set it as groups.
By configuring the group membership mapper, you will be able to include the user’s group information in the token for authorization purposes.

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User Attribute mapper

To include custom attributes such as business filters in the token claim, you can add a user attribute mapper with the following settings:
  1. Go to the desired client, {example}-authenticate, and navigate to the Mappers section.
  2. Click on Create to create a new mapper.
  3. Configure the following settings for the user attribute mapper:
  • Mapper Type: User Attribute
  • User Attribute: businessFilters
  • Token Claim Name: attirubtes.businessFilters
  • Add to ID token: OFF
  • Multivalued: ON
By adding this user attribute mapper, the custom attribute “businessFilters” will be included in the token claim under the name “attributes.businessFilters”. This will allow you to access and utilize the business filters information within your application. You can find more information about business filters in the following section:

Business filters

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User realm role

Add roles mapper to {example}-authenticate client - so roles will be available on the OAuth user info response. To add a roles mapper, follow these steps:
  1. Go to the desired client, {example}-authenticate, and navigate to the Mappers section.
  2. Click on Create to create a new mapper.
  3. Configure the following settings for the user attribute mapper:
  • Mapper Type: User Realm Role
  • Token Claim Name: role
  • Add to userinfo: ON
By adding this roles mapper, the assigned realm roles of the user will be available in the OAuth user info response under the claim name “roles”. This allows you to access and utilize the user’s realm roles within your application. Please note that you can repeat these steps to add multiple roles mappers if you need to include multiple realm roles in the token claim.

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Examples

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Login

curl --location --request POST 'http://localhost:8080/realms/flowx/protocol/openid-connect/token' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
--data-urlencode 'grant_type=password' \
--data-urlencode 'username=admin@flowx.ai' \
--data-urlencode 'password=password' \
--data-urlencode 'client_id= example-authenticate'

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Refresh token

curl --location --request POST 'http://localhost:8080/realms/flowx/protocol/openid-connect/token' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
--data-urlencode 'grant_type=refresh_token' \
--data-urlencode 'client_id= example-authenticate' \
--data-urlencode 'refresh_token=ACCESS_TOKEN'

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User info

curl --location --request GET 'localhost:8080/realms/flowx/protocol/openid-connect/userinfo' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN' \

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Authorizing client

Add {example}-platform-authorize client - it will be used to authorize rest requests to microservices and Kafka
  • set Client Protocol to openid-connect
  • set Access type as confidential
  • disable Direct Access Grants Enabled - OFF
  • Valid Redirect URIs - mandatory
  • disable Backchannel Logout Session Required - OFF
Once you have configured these settings, the {example}-platform-authorize client will be created and can be used to authorize REST requests to microservices and Kafka within your application.

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Minimal auth config for microservices

security:
  type: oauth2
  basic:
    enabled: false
  oauth2:
    base-server-url: http://localhost:8080
    realm: flowx
    client:
      access-token-uri: ${security.oauth2.base-server-url}/realms/${security.oauth2.realm}/protocol/openid-connect/token
      client-id: example-authorize
      client-secret: CLIENT_SECRET
    resource:
      user-info-uri: ${security.oauth2.base-server-url}/realms/${security.oauth2.realm}/protocol/openid-connect/userinfo

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Adding service accounts

What is a service account?A service account is an account that grants direct access to the Keycloak API for a specific component.Each client has a built-in service account which allows it to obtain an access token. To use this feature you must set the Access Type of your client to confidential. When you do this, the Service Accounts Enabled switch will appear.

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Admin service account

The admin service account is employed by the admin microservice to establish a connection with Keycloak for the purpose of utilizing user and group management features within the designer.
Follow these steps to add an admin service account:
  1. Add a new client by selecting Clients then click Create.
  1. Next, set Access type as confidential and enable Service Accounts.
  1. Go to Clients → realm-management → Roles and add the following service account client roles under realm-management:
  • manage-realm
  • manage-users
  • query-users
Make sure first that you created a realm-management client with the following client roles:
  1. Assign the necessary service account roles:
In the provided example, the admin service account can have the following assigned roles, depending on the required access scopes:
  • manage-users
  • query-users
  • manage-realm
The admin service account does not require mappers as it doesn’t utilize roles. Service account roles include client roles from the realm-management.
For detailed information, refer to the following section:

Configuring access rights for admin

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Task management service account

The task management service account is utilized to facilitate process initiation, enable the use of the task management plugin (requiring the FLOWX_ROLE and role mapper), and access data from Keycloak.”
The task management microservice requires a service account to make direct calls to the Keycloak API. Follow these steps to add a task management service account:
  1. Add a new client by selecting Clients then click Create.
  1. Next, set the following properties:
  • Access type - confidential
  • Service Accounts Enabled - ON
  1. Go to Clients → realm-management → Roles and add the following service account client roles:
  • view-users
  • query-groups
  • query-users
Example for view-users:
  1. Configure a realm roles mapper:
  1. Assign the necessary service account roles, including FLOWX_ROLE.
In the provided example, the task management service account can have the following assigned roles, depending on the required access scopes:
  • view-users
  • query-groups
  • query-users
For more information, check the following section:

Configuring access rights for Task Management

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Process engine service account

The process engine requires a process engine service account to make direct calls to the Keycloak API.
This service account is needed so the use of Start Catch Event node is possible.
Follow these steps to add a process engine service account:
  1. Add a new client by selecting Clients then click Create.
  2. Next, set Access type as confidential and enable Service Accounts.
This service account does not require client roles.
  1. Assign the FLOWX_ROLE (this is needed to run process instances).
  1. Add a realm-roles mapper:

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Scheduler service account

This service account is used for Start Timer Event node. The registered timers in the scheduler require sending a process start message to Kafka. Authentication is also necessary for this operation.
Follow these steps to add a scheduler service account:
  1. Add a new client by selecting Clients then click Create.
  2. Next, set Access type as confidential and enable Service Accounts.
  1. Assign the FLOWX_ROLE as service account role (this is needed to run process instances).
  1. Add a realm-roles mapper (as shown in the example for process-engine service account).