Earlier this year, I put together the omniauth-cognitiveclass gem for integrating Rails apps with Open edX SSO (single sign-on). OpenEdX is an open source platform for running massive online open courses (MOOCs). Ruby on Rails is a web application framework. I develop the services and infrastructure for IBM Cognitive Class which is partly based on Open edX.
Cognitive Class
Cognitive Class has a whole bunch of learning paths and courses covering topics like data science, deep learning, and machine learning. My role on the team is to architect and develop the hands-on labs environment, which I think is one of the best in the industry. We provision a full suite of industry tools on demand for any student looking to do data science exercises.
Open edX
I’m assuming that your Open edX online course system is set up as an Oauth2 authentication provider.
Ruby on Rails
Behind the scenes at Cognitive Class, we use a mix of micro-services and web applications built in Ruby, Python, and Node.js to manage the infrastructure. Rails is a great framework for creating web services or web applications.
The usual way to add authentication to Rails is using the devise and omniauth gems.
Open edX SSO
The omniauth-cognitiveclass gem is a plugin for that extends omniauth to support Open edX SSO with Oauth2 as an authentication provider. I’ve deployed it in production with Cognitive Class, but it should work generally for all Open edX. Let me know if you run into any issues.
Leo on Tech 