Integrate with SeaTable - Authentik

What is SeaTable

SeaTable is a no-code database and app builder platform that provides a web-based, spreadsheet-like interface for organizing data, building apps, and automating workflows. It is designed to function as a collaborative database with features like tables, views, forms, and permissions.

-- https://seatable.com

Preparation

The following placeholders are used in this guide:

seatable.company is the FQDN of the SeaTable installation.
authentik.company is the FQDN of the authentik installation.

:::info SaaS vs Selfhosted SeaTable is available as both a cloud SaaS and a self-hosted solution. This guide is for self-hosters only. :::

:::info This documentation lists only the settings that you need to change from their default values. Be aware that any changes other than those explicitly mentioned in this guide could cause issues accessing your application. :::

authentik configuration

To support the integration of SeaTable with authentik, you need to create an application/provider pair in authentik.

Create an application and provider in authentik

Log in to authentik as an administrator and open the authentik Admin interface.
Navigate to Applications > Applications and click Create with Provider to create an application and provider pair. (Alternatively you can first create a provider separately, then create the application and connect it with the provider.)
- Application: provide a descriptive name, an optional group for the type of application, the policy engine mode, and optional UI settings.
  - Set the Launch URL to https://seatable.company/sso/.
- Choose a Provider type: select SAML Provider as the provider type.
- Configure the Provider: provide a name (or accept the auto-provided name), the authorization flow to use for this provider, and the following required configurations.
  - Set the ACS URL to https://seatable.company/saml/acs/.
  - Set the Issuer to https://seatable.company.
  - Set the Service Provider Binding to Post.
  - Set the Audience to https://seatable.company/saml/metadata/.
  - Under Advanced protocol settings, set an available Signing certificate.
- Configure Bindings (optional): you can create a binding (policy, group, or user) to manage the listing and access to applications on a user's My applications page.
Click Submit to save the new application and provider.

Download the signing certificate and retrieve metadata URL

Log in to authentik as an administrator and open the authentik Admin interface.
Navigate to Applications > Providers and click the newly created SeaTable provider.
Under Download signing certificate, click Download. This certificate file will be required in the next section.
Under Metadata, click Copy download URL. This metadata download URL will be required in the next section.

SeaTable configuration

To support the integration of authentik with SeaTable you need to configure certificates and then enable SAML authentication.

Setup required certificates

SeaTable requires the signing certificate from authentik and its own signing certificate. Follow these steps to configure the required certificates on your SeaTable deployment:

Connect to your SeaTable server or exec in to the shell of your SeaTable container.
Create a /opt/seatable-server/certs directory and navigate to it.
Copy the signing certificate that you downloaded from authentik to this directory and name it idp.crt.
Generate a certificate and key with the following command:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 3650 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout sp.key -out sp.crt

After completing these steps, the /opt/seatable-server/certs directory should contain: idp.crt, sp.crt, and sp.key.

Determine effective URL for metadata download

authentik's metadata download URL returns a 302 redirect but SeaTable requires the effective URL. Run the following command to determine the effective URL:

curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w '%{url_effective}\n' "<metadata_download_URL>" 2>/dev/null

The output of this command will be required as the SAML_REMOTE_METADATA_URL in the next section.

Configure SAML authentication

Add the following block to your SeaTable configuration file:

python

ENABLE_SAML = True
SAML_PROVIDER_IDENTIFIER = 'authentik'
SAML_REMOTE_METADATA_URL = '<metadata_effective_url>'
SAML_ATTRIBUTE_MAP = {
    'http://schemas.goauthentik.io/2021/02/saml/uid': 'uid',
    'http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/emailaddress': 'contact_email',
    'http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/name': 'name',
}
SAML_CERTS_DIR = '/shared/certs'

Restart the SeaTable service or Docker container to apply the changes.

Configuration verification

To confirm that authentik is integrated correctly with SeaTable, log out, then navigate to the SeaTable login page, then click Single Sign-On. You should be redirected to authentik to log in, and if successful, redirected to SeaTable.

:::info Troubleshooting Check opt/seatable-server/seatable/logs/dtable_web.log for troubleshooting info if authentication fails. :::

Resources

SeaTable Admin Manual - SAML