The Help Center provides access to the main sources of information for Absorb LMS. This allows you to find answers to your queries swiftly and effectively. In addition, you can utilize Absorb Academy to access Online Courses and bolster your LMS knowledge.

 

Knowledge Base

The Help Center, or Knowledge Base, houses articles and documentation intended to assist you in using the LMS.

 

To access the Help Center from the Admin Experience, please advise the following steps:

1. Access the Admin Experience.
2. Open the Help & Support Menu from the top right corner.
   
3. Select View Support Site.
   

 

Navigating a Knowledge Base Article

Once you have accessed a Knowledge Base article, there are a few sections to be aware of. These sections are the same across all of our articles.

 

1. The Search Bar enables you to query the Knowledge Base. Results will be returned that match your search.
2. The Breadcrumb Trail or Category path indicate where in the Knowledge Base this article is located. You can click any of the items present here to navigate to that Category.
3. The Table of Contents provides an overview of the headers present in this article. Click any of the items in the list to navigate to that section.
4. Click the Related Articles section to expand it and reveal additional articles related by topic.
   
5. Click the Attachments section to expand it and reveal any files that can be downloaded from this article. The Attachments section will only appear if there are files attached to the article. Click the files to download them.
   

 

Absorb Academy

Absorb Academy is the best place to upskill on existing features, learn more about new ones and enhance your overall knowledge of our LMS. Since it utilizes our own LMS, the platform will already be familiar to you. The Academy is updated with new Courses every month, where these new Courses will be highlighted with a red New! tag on them.

To access Absorb Academy from the Admin Experience, please advise the following:

1. Access the Admin Experience.
2. Open the Help & Support menu from the top right of the page.
3. Select Absorb Academy.

 

This will bring you straight to Absorb Academy. Let’s go through what each of these containers comprise of:

1. My Courses: Courses or Curricula you have enrolled in, past and present.
2. Catalog: A view of all the Courses our Academy has to offer.
3. LMS Core Training: Learn how to be the best Administrator you can be with our LMS Admin Training.
4. Release Training: Houses all of our Major Release Demos to date.
5. Absorb LMS Tutorials: Quick-guides and configuration training on various LMS features.

 

Featured Courses are typically those most relevant to any changes or new features that have been implemented, and can be found under the containers above, as shown below:

 

Contacting Absorb Support

Our Client Advocacy or Support team liaise with our clients in relation to any cases of unexpected functionality. This can include but is not limited to:

• Potential bugs
• Unwarranted errors in configuration
• Sudden performance delays.

 

Should your query be in relation to training or configuration needs, our Client Success Managers or Digital Client Success Managers would be best equipped to assist you.

To contact Support from the Admin Experience, please advise the following:

1. Access the Admin Experience.
2. Open the Help & Support menu from the top right of the page.
3. Select Contact Us.

 

 

This will open a dialogue box (shown below) that will allow you to submit a ticket to our Client Advocacy team for investigation. Please ensure you include all information for your issue with examples, screenshots and screen recordings where necessary.

 

Alternatively, you can visit this page for further information on our Support lines, or submit a request via this form within our Knowledge Base.

Once you are signed into the Help Center, you will be able to track all your requests in the My Activities page. Here, you can see the Ticket ID, Subject, Created, Last Activity and Status.

 

 

First Time Access

When you attempt to sign in to the Absorb Help Center, Absorb Academy or Ideas Portal for the first time you will be prompted to log in using the Email Address associated with the Administrator account of your Portal.

 

A one-time code will be sent to your Email Address to verify your login. You will be required to enter the code sent to your email to gain access to your target service. If your Email Address was not validated, you will be asked to fill out a form with your information before continuing.

 

Office Hours

Hosted by our Digital Client Success Management Team, Office Hours brings together fellow Absorbers and allows them to learn about new features, and best practices and ask questions.

Follow the steps below to join one of our upcoming sessions:

1. Contact your assigned Absorb representative to advise of your interest to receive your Enrollment Key.
2. Log-in to Absorb Academy. Remember, you must be signed in to your Portal in order to access the Academy.
3. In the Academy, open the Private Menu in the upper right corner of the screen.
4. Select Enrollment Key.
5. Enter the Enrollment Key when prompted.
6. After using the Enrollment Key, proceed to the Office Hours Curriculum and choose a Session to attend.
7. After enrolling in a Session, you will automatically be sent an email with a Calendar Invitation. We kindly ask that you complete the Office Hours Questionnaire in advance of the Session.

 

News

We currently have a section in our Help Center called News. This details the various client communications around Feature Changes, Major Releases and Change Logs. Let’s go through what each of these entail below:

 

1. Announcements: Designed to inform anyone following this section of minor or major service updates, or to any potential disruption to service or performance delays.
2. Release Notes: Houses Release Notes for past and upcoming Major Releases. Please be advised that these notes do not detail bug fixes but rather discuss any new or changing features within the LMS or our paid add-on services.
3. Change Logs: These logs update clients proactively on changes to any Integrations or add-on services that they currently utilize. As we continue to enhance our Knowledge Base, we hope to grow these logs to encompass more services and Integrations.
4. Service Notifications: Monthly patching and infrastructure deployments are listed here.
5. Content Library Updates: If you utilize Absorb Amplify or BizLibrary, our teams are constantly working to update their content and increase the variety of resources for clients.

To be alerted of updates related to any of these sections, please click the Follow button on any of the sections or pages you want to receive notifications for.

 

This button can be found on the top right of each section and article page.

 

We are consistently striving to better the client experience with our self-help tools and resources. Should you have any feedback on articles that you believe could be updated/enhanced or improvements to Absorb Academy, please do not hesitate to fill out this form here for our Customer Enablement team to review.

Single Logout (SLO) is a concept complementary to Single Sign-On (SSO).

• Single Sign-On (SSO): This authentication method allows Users to access multiple applications using a single set of login credentials. It simplifies the login process by eliminating the need to remember different Usernames and Passwords for various services. With SSO, once a User logs in, they gain secure access to multiple applications without re-entering their credentials.
• Single Logout (SLO): SLO works in the reverse direction. When a User logs out from one application (using SSO), SLO ensures that the User is also signed out from all other applications they accessed using the same set of credentials. In other words, if you log out from one service provider, all active sessions tied to that identity are terminated automatically. SLO relies on systems and architecture similar to those needed for SSO. The Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 provides a dedicated logout profile for implementing SLO.

 

Without SLO, Users would have to manually log out from every session they’ve signed into. With SLO, signing out from one service provider terminates all active sessions, making it vastly convenient.

SLO ensures that Users are completely logged out of their identity. Without it, there’s a risk that Users might forget some active sessions, leaving their identity partially logged in and posing a security threat. For example, an employee using a temporary workstation could inadvertently leave multiple applications logged in.

In summary, SLO enhances security and User experience by simplifying the logout process across multiple applications. It’s an effective counterpart to the convenience offered by SSO.

 

Configuring Single Logout in Absorb

A System Admin will be required to access Portal Settings and click the Manage SSO Settings button.

 

Single Logout is available for incoming SAML SSO configurations using one of the following Modes:

• Identity Provider Initiated
• Service Provider Initiated

If your SAML SSO configuration is using one of the above Modes, you will see the Single Logout toggle.

 

Click the Single Logout toggle to expand the External Single Logout Url field and Wait for IdP Response toggle.

 

In the External Single Logout Url field enter the SLO endpoint that you want to direct Single Logout requests to. This URL will be specific to your configuration, or SSO provider.

 

Wait for IdP Response

The Wait for IdP Response toggle defaults to being disabled. Click the toggle to enable it.

• Enabled: The Portal will wait until the IdP sends the response back to the LMS to logout the User. This follows the order of operations described in this article.
• Disabled: The Portal will logout the User regardless of if the SLO flow is successful on the IdP side.

 

Logout URL

The Logout URL is a field on the Manage Single Sign-On Settings page that can be used in place of, or alongside Single Logout. A Logout URL can be any URL that you want to direct a User to when they sign out of your Portal.

Signing out and being directed to a Logout URL does not transfer credentials, or sign an SSO identity out from any instances. This manages only the URL that User will land on after signing out.

 

External Configuration

On the Absorb side of the configuration there is only the Single Logout toggle, External Single Logout Url field and Wait for Idp Response toggle.

 

This is not the full extent of configuration required for a Single Logout flow to be successful. There is an external component that may change between configurations or SSO providers. This section details the required components of this setup.

Single Logout follows this order of operations:

1. A User clicks Logout in Absorb.

2. Absorb performs a GET call with SAMLRequest as a URL parameter to the External Single Logout Url.

3. The IdP verifies the request, and responds with a SAML POST to /api/rest/v2/authentication/samlLogout

4. Absorb verifies the response and then performs an HTTP redirect to the Logout URL (if applicable).

 

Important Fields for Single Logout

For a SAML Authentication Response (SAML Response) sent to the LMS, the following elements are required:

• SAML Assertion: All the elements as denoted below:

  • Assertion: The package element of information with one or more statements.

  • ID: Identifier for this assertion.

  • IssueInstant: Time that the instant is issued in UTC.

  • Version: The SAML version for this assertion, should be “2.0”.

  • Issuer: The authority making the claim in this assertion, should be the URI for your IdP.

  • <ds: Signature>: Contains the XML Signature that protects the integrity of this assertion.

  • Subject: The package element for the subject’s (user) identity.

  • NameId: The ID Property identifier as configured in Absorb SSO settings.

  • Conditions: Contains information that denotes the validity of the assertion.

  • NotBefore: A time instant in UTC.

  • NotOnOrAfter: A time instant in UTC.

  • AuthnStatement: Contains information of the assertion subject.

  • AuthnInstant: A time instant in UTC.

  • AuthnContext: The context of the authentication event.

• SessionIndex: Part of the AuthStatement, contains a session identifier.

 

For a SAML Logout Response (LogoutResponse) sent to the LMS, the following elements are required:

• Issuer: The authority making the claim in this assertion, should be the URI for your IdP.

• <ds: Signature>: Contains the XML Signature that protects the integrity of this assertion.

• Status: Contains the StatusCode.

 

This article contains information regarding Absorb support process, restrictions, recommendations, and more to help improve your support experience!

 

Coverage & Contact Information

The Absorb Support Team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You can reach us through any of the following options:

Method	Details
Phone	North America (CA Direct): +1 (587) 800-4334 North America Toll Free: +1 (877) 540-8772 Australia: +61 1800 531 598 United Kingdom: +44 808 281 2767
Direct Email Service	support@absorblms.com
Create and manage support tickets through our support site	https://support.absorblms.com/hc/en-us Please see below for additional details and steps.

 

Submitting a Support Request

Once you have accessed the Absorb Help Center, it is recommended that you sign in if you haven't already. If you accessed from the Admin Experience, or the Customer Hub, you may already be signed in.

 

Once you have signed in, follow these steps to submit a Support Request:

1. Click the Submit a Request button from the top right corner.
   
2. Select the type of Support Request you would like to submit by clicking one of the options.
   
3. Complete the form for the Support Request.
   
4. Once all relevant details are added, and reviewed, clicked the Submit button to finalize the Support Request.
   

 

Reviewing Submitted Requests

Support Requests submitted when you are signed in will be accessible to view, and respond to in the Absorb Help Center. To view your submitted Support Requests, follow these steps:

1. Click the arrow beside your profile picture in the top-right corner and select My Activities.
   
2. All Support Requests, categorized by Status will be visible in the presented list

First Time Access

When you attempt to sign in to the Absorb Help Center for the first time you will be prompted to log in using the Email Address associated with the Administrator account of your Portal.

 

A one-time code will be sent to your Email Address to verify your login. You will be required to enter the code sent to your email to gain access to Absorb Help Center. If your Email Address was not validated, you will be asked to fill out a form with your information before continuing.

 

Best Practices

The following are a collection of topics that provide advantageous information, or insights related to the topic of Support Requests.

 

Who Can We Assist?

For privacy and security purposes, our Support Team is able to assist:

• Users with Administrator access to active LMS environments.

 

Our Support Team may only provide assistance within the scope/visibility of the Administrators assigned roles and permissions. As an example, if an Administrator requested support with a Department they do not have permission to access in the Portal, the Support Team will be unable to render support until an Administrator with adequate permissions gives clear, confirmed consent to do so.

 

Ticket Submission Starters

Please always confirm the following, especially if it's your first time reaching out to the Support Team, so we can validate your account and make any updates to our support system as needed:

• Portal URL of the LMS environment in regards to your Admin account and issue/concern.
• The Admin account Username that you use to access the LMS.
  • This information is required so our Support Team can efficiently verify your Admin status in the LMS if you have not already been added to our internal support system.

 

Users without elevated permissions or Administrators requesting assistance/data outside of their assigned roles and permissions in the LMS will need to contact their organization's System Administrators for further assistance.

 

Effective Ticket Subject Lines

When creating a Support Request please consider using the following subject format as this will more effectively allow our Support Team to investigate:

1. Parent Organization Name and/or LMS Portal Name.
2. A short summary that effectively describes the issue/concern and allows our team to focus on the core problem.
3. Admin or Learner Experience.

 

As an example

• Company Name | Department Name Has Odd Characters | Admin Experience Only

 

Contents of the Ticket and Required Information

When contacting our Support Team, we will start by clarifying the issue to ensure we have a good understanding of the problem, its impact, and steps to reproduce.

Specific information and/or permissions may be needed in order to progress with any investigation and this may change depending on the nature of the issue, who it impacts, which features, and more.

Below is a list of example topics and checks along with what information may be required. Please be sure to provide the following information (if applicable) to help our Support Team effectively and efficiently address your request:

• Examples of Users affected.
  • Include Usernames or User ID whenever possible.
• Example of Curricula and/or Courses affected.
  • Course Name and Course ID are valuable.
• Screenshots of errors or odd behavior.
• Applicable attachments (e.g., .csv file, course file, etc.).
• Steps to replicate the issue.
  • Steps to reproduce include every possible step taken, to reproduce the issue. Consider all elements, such as how the system is accessed or the browser used.

 

Screenshots and Screen recordings

Provide clear screenshots and/or screen recordings of the issue and steps to reproduce when possible. This ensures that the agent and any other teams involved have a clear and concise understanding of the issue and exactly how to reproduce it.

This can also help identify any unique or unknown information that could aid us in the investigation such as the browser used, the user account, URL/address at the time of encountering the issue, unique steps to reproduce, error messaging, etc.

Templates are a way to customize your Learner's experience within the LMS. You can customize colors, images, the Learner Dashboard, the Login Page, add a Public Dashboard, and much more! Only System Administrators have access to Templates.

Templates are tied to Departments, so only Learners with the selected Department will see the Template. The LMS will automatically create a Template that is associated with your top Department. If you decide to add more than one Template for different Departments, this Template will provide a starting point. You can choose to leave the new Template with the same configurations in each section or customize the sections.

 

How to Create a Template

1. From the Admin Interface open the Setup menu and click Templates.
   
2. On the Templates page, click Template under Add New.
   
3. From the Add Template page, click the drop-down menu and select a Department that does not have a Department Template. After selecting a Department click Add under Add Template on the right-hand side.
   
   
   
   • This will take you to the Template Management page, where you can begin customizing the Template. The Department Template you are creating will not be officially added to the list of Templates until a change is made and saved.

 

Department Templates Duplication

The Duplicate Department Template feature allows you to copy the configuration from one Department Template to another, so long as both Departments share the same Parent Department. The Duplicate Department Template feature will only work if the target Department does not have an existing Department Template.

 

How to Duplicate a Department Template

1. From the Admin Interface, navigate to Setup > Templates Report.
2. Select the Department Template to duplicate and click the Duplicate Template button.
3. Choose the destination sibling Department from the drop-down list on the Duplicate Template page.
   • If there are no sibling Departments for the selected Department, the list will be empty. The Admin can't duplicate a Department Template until it has a sibling Department.
   • If the destination sibling Department already has a Template applied, the Admin will see an error message that the destination Department must not have a Template applied.
4. Click the Continue button.
5. The Admin is taken to the Learner Experience (LE) editor with the Duplicated Template.
   
   • It's important to consider that Enable Public Dashboard setting value is not duplicated from the Parent Department.
6. After making the changes to the new duplicated Department (if needed), the Admin then must click the Save Template button. If it's not clicked, the duplicated Template will not be saved.

 

Department Template Tabs

From the Template Management page there are six tabs, each of which manage a different component of the Department Template.

 

To open a Department Template Tab click the tab itself and the section will open. Each Tab contains a variety of options, and toggles. For more information about each Department Template Tab, please advise the following articles:

• Department Templates: Public and Private Dashboards
• Department Templates: Courses Tab
• Department Templates: Login Tab
• Department Templates: Settings Tab
• Department Templates: Theme Tab

The Absorb Integration API has been designed to allow customized interactions with your LMS data, including Learners, Courses, Departments, Grades, etc. You can also use it to build specialized interfaces, unique reports, integrations, and so on. The use of the API will require technical web experience on your part, but this guide should serve as a jumping-off point for those interested. For more information on the terminology used in this article, please see the Integration API Glossary.

 

What You'll Need to Get Started

REST Client

For this guide, we will use the Postman app for Chrome as our REST client. This article will cover everything you need to know to use with the Absorb Integration API, but you can visit Postman - Getting Started if you'd like to learn more about this app. While the workflow in this guide may not be step-by-step the exact same as in your software, the concepts discussed should be universal.

Your API Private Key

If you are an Absorb LMS Integration API customer, you will have been provided with an API Private Key that is tied to your LMS portal. This key is used to authenticate prior to any requests via the API. If you do not yet have a key, please contact us to discuss purchasing one.

The Service Gateway

All Integration API endpoints will need to go through the service gateway, meaning you’ll put the service gateway URL before all requests in your portal listed in the Integration API documentation.

Absorb offers region-specific access, which would align with the region where your portal is hosted.

• US – https://rest.myabsorb.com
• CA – https://rest.myabsorb.ca
• EU – https://rest.myabsorb.eu
• AU – https://rest.myabsorb.com.au

To connect to a sandbox environment, you must use one of these four additional endpoints.

Note: A sandbox environment must be created, not all portals contain an active sandbox.  

• US – https://rest.sandbox.myabsorb.com
• CA – https://rest.sandbox.myabsorb.ca
• EU – https://rest.sandbox.myabsorb.eu
• AU – https://rest.sandbox.myabsorb.com.au

Your Admin Credentials

Your LMS Admin credentials will be used as part of the authentication process. Similar to the Admin Interface, your Admin role will determine which areas of the LMS you are permitted to access through the API. 

Integration API Documentation

Your System Admin will be able to access the API documentation by navigating to https://docs.myabsorb.com/ after subscribing to our API service. The Integration API documentation contains general API information and lists the resources. Each resource has its own URL that defines the API operations on it. Meanwhile, the Integration API documentation describes a resource, including its API calls and models. There is one file per resource.

• For more information about our API technical documentation, please click here.

 

Generating an API Token

All requests to the LMS must include an API Token as authentication. This Token is generated using your API Private Key and your Absorb Admin credentials and will be used to verify both client access to the API as well as a specific Admin's access to certain LMS data (based on their Admin Roles set up in the LMS). 

It is important to note that requesting an API Token will invalidate any previous token that existed for that user. If you require multiple API workflows we recommend creating one Admin User for each workflow to prevent workflows from invalidating each other's Tokens. 

To generate a Token you'll need to make a POST request to the following request URL:

.../authenticate 

1. Add the service gateway URL of your environment to the beginning of the above string. 
2. Change your request type to “POST”.
3. The POST will contain the authentication data in the body of the request. Before you can do this, you'll need to specify a content-type as a header in the request or from the content-type dropdown.
4. Enter "Content-Type" in the HEADER field and "application/json" in the VALUE field.
5. You will also need to include the “x-api-key" in the https header by adding “x-api-key" as the key in the header type and the value of it is the private API key.
   
6. While on the body tab in Postman click on the content-type dropdown and select JSON (application/json).
   
7. Enter your credentials and privateKey as they are shown below:
   
8. Click SEND.
9. Your API Token will be returned in the body of the response below:
   

 

Making a GET Request

GET requests pull data from the LMS and display it in the body of the API response. For example, you could make a request to return a list of all enrollments for a particular User or return information on a particular resource.
In this example, we'll send a GET request to return all the information for a particular User. This request can be made to the following request URL:

.../users/{userId}

1. Add the service gateway URL of your environment to the beginning of the above string.
2. Change your request type to GET.
3. Add your API token as a header to authorize the request. In Postman you can enter this after clicking the HEADERS button in the top-right. Enter "Authorization" in the HEADER field and your API Token in the VALUE field. 
   
4. You will also need to include the “x-api-key" in the https header by adding “x-api-key" as the key in the header type and the value of it is the private API key.
5. Fill in the Absorb userId for the User you are returning data for. This can be found in the Id column in Absorb's Users Report, or alternatively returned via the API in other GET requests.
6. Click SEND.
7. A list of Learner data will be returned in the body of the response:
   

 

Making a POST Request

POST requests add new data to the LMS and display a confirmation in the body of the API response. For example, you could add a new Department or enroll a User in a Course.
In this example, we'll send a POST request to add a new User to our LMS. This request can be made to the following request URL:

.../create-absorb-account

1. Add the service gateway URL of your environment to the beginning of the above string
2. Change your request type to POST
3. Add your API token as a header to authorize the request. In Postman you can enter this after clicking the HEADERS tab just below the address bar. Select "Authorization" in the KEY field and your API Token in the VALUE field.
4. Similar to the authentication, select content-type for the KEY field and the Value to application/json.
5. You will also need to include the “x-api-key" in the https header by adding “x-api-key" as the key in the header type and the value of it is the private API key.
6. Please refer to our Integration API documentation for a full list of body parameters that can be sent with this request, but to create a new Absorb User we only need a handful of required parameters. The departmentId can be found in the ID column in Absorb's Departments Report, or alternatively returned via the API in other GET requests. The rest of these parameters will be the data you are entering for this User.

   {
   "departmentId": "613048f5-87c9-442a-915e-edf63cf517b2",
   "firstName": "Sample First Name",
   "lastName": "Sample Last Name",
   "username": "Sample.user",
   "password": "Absorb2022!"
   } 

7. A confirmation will be returned in the body of the response containing the ID of the newly created User, as well as their username. You can verify that this User has been added by checking the USERS report in the Admin Interface.
   
   

These are some commonly seen HTTP status codes for the API calls:

HTTP Status Code	Description
200 OK	This means that the call was successful.
201 Created	This means a post to create a User, Online Course or etc., was successful.
401 Unauthorized	This means that the User has not been authorized, e.g., the Token is expired or invalid.
403 Forbidden	This means the User is authorized; however, the User does not have the correct permission to access the requested content in LMS.
422 Unprocessable Entity	The server understands the content type of the request entity, and the syntax of the request entity is correct, but it was unable to process the contained instructions
429 Too Many Requests	This means that the caller has exceeded the API rate limit and should slow its traffic.
500 Internal Server Error	This means that there is an error on our end; please contact support if you see this. Note: Please note that re-enrollment API Endpoints will not send enrollment emails.

 

How to Use Integration API Documentation

Our Integration API documentation lists every API request we currently have in our system, as well as detailed information on all request and response parameters. This page is divided up based on different areas of functionality. For example, all course related API requests are contained in the Courses section. In each section, you'll find a list of available request URLs as well as a description.

 

This documentation can be found here.

• You can find the list of the functional areas on the left navigation and each one of them has its own section.
  
• Each functional area has a list of the endpoints underneath it. Select the top-level section in the documentation and you will be presented with all related endpoints.
  
• Clicking each one of the endpoints redirects to the location of the endpoint in the page. The endpoint path and sample responses will display on the right side of the page
• The query parameters, header parameters, body schema and attributes needed are shown in the center of the page.

Error Messages

Error messages for Integration API endpoints will include a message so that you know what action is needed to resolve the problem. The following is an example of an error message:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• Is there a limit to the number of Users I can set up with API access?
  • No, you can set up as many Users as you wish. We recommend creating a User for each unique workflow that is in place.
• Does Absorb provide webhooks?
  • Yes, Webhooks are currently available with Integration API.
• Is there pagination or limits for API calls?
  • Some endpoints support Pagination using the “_limit” and “_offset” parameters. The limit parameter determines how many records will be returned, and the offset parameter determines the page of results (starting with 0) to return. For endpoints that don't support Pagination, a useful alternative is to use the ModifiedSince parameter, which is available for most of the larger API calls, to effectively paginate the data (i.e., first return all records modified since 2019-01-01, then 2020-01-01, etc.)
• Can I request a token or carry out API calls from another domain that's not Absorb?
  • This is known as Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS). Absorb's Integration API does not support CORS.
• What date formats are supported by Absorb's API?
  • Any date fields will accept a 'plain' date in the yyyy-MM-dd format.
  • EX: "2021-01-21" or optionally yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.fff, e.g. "2021-01-21T18:25:13.000".
• Does Absorb have an API call limit?
  • Yes. The Absorb Integration API uses a number of safeguards against bursts of incoming traffic to help maximize its stability and reliability. Consumers who send many requests in quick succession might see error responses that show up as status code 429 - Too Many Requests.
  • Requests to the API are limited to 200 calls per second.

Absorb LMS is a web-based service that requires both an active internet connection and a modern computer or mobile device. When accessing a Portal you will be required to enter a Username and Password. This article is focused on logging into Absorb, and addresses potential concerns.

 

Logging in to Absorb

The process of accessing a Portal with a set of credentials is called logging in. After logging in, access to the Learner Experience and potentially more is provided. At its most basic logging in requires three components:

• A Portal Route.
  • This is the URL of the Portal in question.
  • EX: https://exampleportal.myabsorb.com/#/login
• A Username.
  • This is an account specific string. It is often Email Address or FirstName.LastName.
  • EX: Example@Example.com or Example.Smith.
• A Password.
  • This is an account specific, private string. A Password may be restricted to a specific length, or complexity depending on the Portal settings.
  • A Password should not be shared, but should be something you can remember.

 

With the required elements, the following steps indicate how to log in to a Portal:

1. Navigate to the Portal Route in your web browser. You will see a Login section to the right side of the screen.
   • Make certain you are using the correct Portal Route as some organizations have multiple Portals with unique Portal Routes.
     
2. Click the field underneath Username and enter a valid Username.
   
3. Click the field underneath Password and enter a valid Password.
   
   
   • A Password may have length, or character complexity requirements.
   • A Password when entered will be transformed into dots to hide the value you are typing. The Password will be exactly as you type it even if it appears as dots in this field.
     
4. Click the Login button. If the Username and Password have been entered correctly, you will be navigated to the Learner Experience or Admin Interface depending on where you logged in.
   

 

Resetting a Password

Every Absorb User is associated with credentials such as a Username and Password. It is possible to trigger a reset of a Password so that access to a specific account can be reclaimed. This option is intended for usage by a legitimate User that has forgotten the Password required to access their account.

The standard method of Resetting a Password is by clicking the Forget Password? button under the Login section of a Portal.

 

After clicking Forgot Password? the Forgot Password page will open. On this page there are two different fields available.

 

The Forgot Password page offers two options to reset a Password. The first option is to enter a Username, the second is to enter an Email Address. It is important to note that the Forgot Password function will not work if the User account does not have a valid Email Address.

When entering a Username or Email Address make sure the spelling is absolutely correct. Make sure there are not any additional spaces, or missed characters. The Reset Password feature requires a perfect match and any mismatching characters will not successfully reset a Password.

After entering either a Username or Email Address click the Reset Password button.

 

After clicking the Reset Password button you will see the following confirmation:

 

This success confirmation will always appear as a security measure. The intention of an always positive response is to prevent manual attempts to guess the Password of an account. This means that if you enter an incorrect Email Address or a completely random Username; a positive confirmation will still appear. This is why it is essential to confirm the value being entered as a Email Address or Username is exactly correct without any errors.

 

Admin Login Assistance

As an Administrator there are additional levels of access that may be utilized to benefit Learners in your organization. The following sections may be used independently, or together in effort to resolve login issues experienced by your Users.

 

Logins Report

The Logins Report is available from the Admin Interface. This report offers insight into when a User has logged in and whether or not it was successful. Failed login attempts may be tracked, or observed to determine the cause of a login issue. 

 

Located under the Setup menu on the left-hand side. By default the Logins Report will showcase the most recent login attempts moving back in time. More information about the Logins Report is located here.

 

Admin Password Reset

It is possible for an Administrator to trigger a Password reset. This option is only available to an Administrator that has the required permissions. The following steps showcase how to trigger a Password reset as an Admin:

1. From the Admin Interface access the Users Report.
   
2. Select the intended User and use the Edit User Action from the right-hand side.
   
3. Click the Reset Password button from the right-hand side. The Send Reset Password page will open.
   
4. You may modify the message as required, or simply click the Send button from the right-hand side.
   

 

Temporary Passwords

Alternate to resetting a Password a Temporary Password is an Administrator set Password that allows a User to access their account, after which they will be immediately prompted to create a new Permanent Password. The following method indicates how to set a Temporary Password:

1. From the Users report, select and Edit a User.
2. Navigate to the Password section of the Edit User page.
   
3. Enter the exact same value as a Password in both the New Temporary Password and Confirm Temporary Password fields. Confirm the value you have entered, or copy/paste it somewhere safe.
   
   • An error will appear underneath a field if the Password does not meet complexity requirements, or if the Passwords do not match.
4. Click the Save button from the right-hand side.
   
5. Communicate the Temporary Password to the User. The User will then use the Temporary Password to log in. Once the User logs in they will be prompted to create a new Permanent Password.

 

Troubleshooting Login Issues

When accessing your Portal there are a few troubleshooting methods to consider. Common concerns include having entered an old Password, the wrong Username or not having a valid Email Address to receive the Forgot Password message. If you are a Learner or User, reaching out internally to your System Administrator is often a great strategy to discuss account or login concerns.

Please advise the following:

 

Reset Password Not Working

When a Reset Password request does not work, it is important to double check the following:

• Did you reset the Password with Username or Email Address?
• Can you confirm the value you used was correct, without spelling or typing mistakes?
• Are you accessing the correct Portal Route? Some organizations use multiple portals and each may have a unique Portal Route.
• Would your User account be inactive, or deleted for any reason?
  • This is often a question for an internal System Administrator.

 

It is important to confirm that the Reset Password feature will always provide a positive confirmation, as if it is generating a Password Reset Message to the Username or Email Address that was entered. Regardless of the value entered, a positive confirmation is always given when using the Reset Password feature. It is possible to enter the incorrect value, the correct value with a space in the wrong place or enter an entirely unrelated value and a positive confirmation will still be returned.

In addition to confirming the correct value is used, does the User account have a valid Email Address? If the User does not have a valid Email Address it will be challenging to reset the Password externally. If the account in question does not have a valid Email Address, reach out internally to a System Administrator to manually reset the Password, or set a Temporary Password.

 

Reset Password Email Not Sending

If the Send Password Reset message is appearing in the internal Learner Inbox but not in the inbox of the Email Address associated with the User, the issue may lie on the receiving server side. The first step would be to rule out any of the following:

• Is the Email Address absolutely correct, without any incorrect characters or extra spaces?
• Are there any Spam Filters that may be catching the Send Password Reset message?
• Is the email being moved to Spam or Trash automatically?

If none of the above are the cause of the concern, it may be time to involve your organization's System Administrator. Accordingly the second set of items to investigate would be:

• Are all emails getting blocked, or just Send Password Reset requests?
• Is there a Custom SMTP configuration that may be affecting what gets sent, or what doesn't?
  • Is it possible there are any daily send limits being exceeded by a Custom SMTP configuration?
• Are there any anti-spam measures implemented on the receiving server associated with the target Email Address?

It is possible that the Send Password Reset request is not being received via Email Address because of allow list configurations. Accordingly it may be required that your organization and System Administrator add Absorb to the respective allow list. More information about allow lists is located here.

 

Mismatching Username or Password

When logging into the Portal you are required to enter both a Username and Password. It is possible to mismatch one, or the other when attempting to login and unintentionally create a login access issue. If you are encountering login issues but do not believe there to be any error, please review the following:

• Have you recently changed, or reset your Password? Are you entering the most recent Username and Password without typing or spelling mistakes?
• Are you using a automatic Password option in your browser? Does manually typing the Username or Password resolve the issue?
  • Sometimes the automatic Password captured by a browser is out of date, or failed to update correctly. It is possible it captured a similar password from another website, or includes a typing or spelling mistake.
• Do you use Email Address or Username to login? Some organizations use one over the other. It may be you used Username to reset a Password, but the Portal is expecting you to use your Email Address to login.
• What toggles are enabled for the affected User, in their User Profile? Users can only access URLs they've been granted access to. For example:
  • A Manager without the Admin toggle enabled will receive an error if they attempt to log in to the Admin Experience.
    • https://exampleportal.myabsorb.com/admin/login
  • An Admin without the Manager toggle enabled will receive an error if they attempt to log in to the Manager Experience.
    • https://exampleportal.myabsorb.com/manager/login

 

Duplicate Email Addresses

When requesting a Password Reset, if the User in question has the same Email Address as multiple other Users; each of the Users will receive a Send Password Reset request. For this purpose, where possible, it is important to confirm each User account is associated with a unique Email Address.

 

Page Not Loading

If you have accessed the Portal Route but the page isn't loading, or there is a browser error. Please consider the following:

• Do you have an active internet connection?
• Are you using a VPN, or similar service that encountered a connectivity error?
• Is the Portal Route correct, without any spelling or typing mistakes?

If the issue persists after ruling out the above, please reach out to your organization's System Administrator.

 

Single Sign On and Password Resets

If you and your organization utilize Single Sign On, it is important to note that an account is still associated with a Username and Password even if a User does not use them when accessing the Portal. It is possible to request a Password Reset for a User account that only accesses the Portal via SSO.

If you regularly access the Portal via Single Sign On and this method of access is not working, please reach out to your organization's System Administrator.

 

Too Many Failed Logins

If there are multiple failed attempts to access a User account, a lock will be applied to login attempts for that User account. More information about failed login attempts is available here.

When investigating Account Provisioning errors it can be useful to capture a SAML trace and observe the exact information being transmitted in the SAML assertion. To capture a SAML trace you will need a browser compatible tool which analyzes SAML and network events. A free browser add-on would be:

• Google Chrome:
  • saml-tracer
• Firefox:
  • saml-tracer

With your tool prepared you can now analyze network events and parse out a SAML event. The tool saml-tracer must be open before attempting to capture the event as it does not look back historically. With the tool open, proceed through the following series of steps:

1. Confirm the SAML trace tracking tool is open/capturing.
2. Navigate through your Account Provisioning flow.
3. Encounter the error you are troubleshooting.
4. View the tool and parse for a recent SAML event.
   
5. Select the SAML event you want to investigate. Often this will be a POST pointing at an authentication endpoint. In saml-tracer you will observe SAML on the right hand side as well.
6. Various elements can be observed for the SAML event. Saml-tracer breaks out the different sections of the events into the following sections: HTTP, Parameters, SAML and Summary
   
7. Under the HTTP section, confirm the POST is looking at the correct location.
8. Under the SAML section the following may be relevant:
   
   • The X509Certificate section. Confirm this contains the correct X509/Key.
     
   • NameID Format. Confirm the correct identity property and value are supplied in this section.
     
   • Under AttributeStatement there will be the attributes sent for Account Provisioning. Confirm all required attributes are included, that they aren't derived from a schema, and that the names are exactly as listed in this article.
     
9. Under the Summary section you can observe information from the other panels in a convenient GUI. It can be worthwhile to investigate the SAML section prior to the Summary just in case there are notable differences.

Through the process of analyzing a SAML trace the issue often becomes apparent. Whether that is a missing SAML assertion all together, an out-dated X509 certificate or the attribute statement includes the usage of an XML Schema. Parsing the actual SAML assertion itself to confirm each portion is being communicated as intended is worthwhile.

If you observe a difference between what is configured in your IdP and what is sent in the SAML assertion. This may indicate there are server caching issues and a restart on the side of your IdP is required to POST the intended information during the Account Provisioning process.

 

Things To Look For

While troubleshooting a SAML trace, there are a few items worth reviewing to rule them out. These are as follows:

• If Account Provisioning, are you sending an Attribute Statement as part of your SAML assertion?
  • If you are sending an Attribute Statement, are the required Attribute Names spelled correctly? Attribute Name is a case-sensitive property and must be sent exactly as listed here.
• Absorb can't process an XML schema if it is used to hold an Attribute value. Confirm all Attribute values are being sent without the use of an XML schema.
• The Identity Property must match the Attribute Value, if there is a match.
  • As an example, if Identity Property is set to Email Address, then Identity Property or Name ID (as it may be labelled in your SSO provider) must have the exact same value as the Email Address Attribute included in your Attribute Statement.
• Is the Route/Target the POST is being directed to the correct address?
• When a SAML assertion is made, some special characters get transformed into weird combinations of letters and other special characters, like & will, may become 'W*j9' as an example.
  
  • If you notice odd characters or symbols, this may indicate there is an encoding issue.
  • At times the best fix is to confirm the encoding of the information going into the SAML assertion, and if possible, minimize the use of special characters.