Using Okta for Social Sign On
Do you want your users to sign into your Lite Tuition platform via an identity provider that they may already be using such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Okta? This tutorial is going to cover how to set up Okta the SSO (Social Sign On) feature on the Lite Tuition white label platform.
Okta is the identity provider service that you will need to use in order to add the identity providers as mentioned earlier. This will be mandatory to sign up for and set up if you would like to be using the other providers to sign into the platform.
Step 1. Sign up for Okta
Go to developer.okta.com to sign up for a new account. Be sure NOT to sign up for an okta.com account as the pricing for these accounts is different and will also provide a different dashboard user interface.
Step 2. Enable the Okta feature
Log into your Lite Tuition platform as a portal admin and do the following:
Go to the admin dashboard –> Portal Settings –> Website Settings –> Social Login –> Enable Social Login.
As you can see, you will need to paste information into the fields as shown above in order to connect with Okta and enable this feature.
Step 3. Create a new application on Okta
Once you have created the developer Okta account, you will need to create a new application on Okta. Simply log into Okta and go to the admin dashboard. Next, click on Applications.
Applications option in the left menu
You can create the new application by clicking on the blue Add Application button.
Add application
You will be directed to another page. On this page, click on the blue Create New App button in order to create the new app.
Create New App
You will then need to choose the type of app that you want to create. Choose Single Page App (SPA).
Now that you have created the new app, you will need to add the correct Login/Logout URI’s. This will be your Lite Tuition Platform URL, for example, if your platform is hosted on https://platform.litetuition.com then you should add this URL.
Step 4. Add the Client ID and Okta Domain into your Lite Tuition Platform
Now that you have created a new SPA, paste both the Client ID and the Okta domain into the Lite Tuition Platform social login settings.
Application UI
First, you will need to copy the Client ID and paste it into the Atlas dashboard.
Once you have done that, you can then copy the Okta domain and paste it into the Atlas dashboard.
PLEASE NOTE that you will need to include https:// when pasting the Okta domain into the Lite Tuition dashboard.
Step 5. Create and paste the new API token
Now that you have the client ID and Okta domain added into the Lite Tuition dashboard, you will need to add the API token from Okta. To do this, go back to the Okta admin dashboard.
Click on the Security item in the left menu, then click on the API option.
Click on the Tokens tab, then click on Create Token button.
Add a name for the new token.
You will be presented with the one-time API Token. Copy this and paste it into the Lite Tuition dashboard.
PLEASE NOTE if you have a custom login URL for Okta, you will need to make sure that this custom login URL is reflected in the issuer area when going to Okta API –> Security –> API –> edit the default API (click on blue pencil icon) –> Issuer URL. If you have not created a custom URL for Okta login then this does not apply to you.
Step 6. Adding Claims
Since you are already on the API page, click on the Authorization Servers tab, then click on the edit button (blue pencil icon).
Next, click on the Claims tab, then Add Claim.
You will need to add 2 claims. The first name and the last name. Please see the below screenshots for the correct configuration.
Remember to save the claims.
Step 7. Adding groups
You will need to add the users that you would like Okta to be using for the app. In this example, we will be using everyone. Go back to the SPA app by clicking on the applications item, the left menu.
Then click on the assignments tab. Here you can assign users to the app.
Choose Assign to Groups, then click on the Assign button to assign everyone.
That’s it! You have now connected Okta to your platform.
Now that you have followed the above steps and have successfully connected Okta to your platform, you can try adding one of the following identity providers:
The importance of a pre-launch campaign
Are you considering running a Lite Tuition campaign? If so, you will need to know the best practices that separate the campaigns that get 5 – 10 supporters from the ones that surpass their funding goal.
One of the biggest advantages is conducting a pre-launch campaign. This may be one of the biggest factors that play into your Lite Tuition campaign. Many people decide to go out on a limb and simply post their Lite Tuition campaign on a platform, and expect the platform to generate all of the support for them. This does not work! Most of the support that you receive are from your own marketing.
The process
Now that you understand, you will not receive support simply by adding your campaign to the platform of your choice. Instead, you want to generate all of your own supporters and let the platform give you additional supporters in the process. Where do you find potential supporters? This age old question is the key to a successful Lite Tuition campaign. You need to conduct research into your potential supporter and target those who are most likely to support your campaign.
Next, is when you will decide to market to the potential supporter. This starts before you actually launch your Lite Tuition campaign. That is why it is called a pre-launch campaign. You need to share your story to the ones that will potentially support your campaign before it launches. Many companies decide to host a contest online, or another form of marketing campaign. However you decide to market the campaign, you need to keep in mind the end goal. Furthermore, the end goal is to gain access to a potential supporter, this can be in the form of gathering email addresses, or likes on social media, etc. You need to find the identities of those who may be interested in supporting your campaign.
Once you gain that access to your target market, you need to keep their interest. So if you have created a social media page, or gathered email addresses, you need to send them periodic updates about the launch of your Lite Tuition campaign.
Advantages of the pre-launch campaign
The pre-launch campaign will be your biggest asset. The whole idea is to generate the initial supporters for your Lite Tuition campaign. Keeping this in mind, you will also have to utilize your existing social circle including friends and family that may want to help with the campaign. These first supporters will be the backbone of your campaign, as it will reassure others that your campaign is actually legitimate!
People are more apt to support something that other people have supported to. Would you support a campaign that has only 2 supporters? Probably not. If you see that 30 others have contributed their money to a campaign, you would likely think that it this may actually be something of interest. This is the entire focus of the pre-launch campaign. It will make others want to support. This is a HUGE consideration for people when they are giving their money to a complete stranger.
Another major asset that the pre-launch campaign will provide, is getting your campaign noticed on the Lite Tuition platform. If you create a campaign and you receive a large percent of your fundraising goal within the first week, you get featured on the site, and this is what separates the good campaigns from the great campaigns. If you are featured on the front page of Lite Tuition or any other major social media platform, you can guarantee that all eyes are on your campaign. This is how campaigns surpass their funding goals. Being featured on the homepage is a major advantage, as other media sites may write articles about your campaign, giving it more coverage on the net.
How to start
After reading this article, you need to make the first step and define your potential supporter. This means you need to find all of the similar successful fundraising campaigns to yours and deploy similar marketing campaigns. As simple as this process sounds, you may be in the research phase for several months before you decide to launch your pre-launch campaign. The most important step in the whole process is your research. The rest is straightforward. In a nutshell, you can begin your pre-launch campaign and deploy your specific marketing strategy. Once you have launched, your supporters will be ready to contribute, and start your campaign off on the right foot.
Balancing work and school can be a difficult task. It requires skillful time management and organization, as well as the ability to effectively set priorities. It can be hard to stay on top of things, but with the right strategies, any student can achieve a healthy balance. In this blog post, we’ll go over 5 tips for effectively balancing work and school.
Make a Weekly To-Do List
Starting off with a to-do list each week can help you plan out your tasks and keep yourself organized and on track. Make sure to include school work, work tasks, and personal errands on your list so you can keep track of everything that needs to be completed.
Prioritize Your Work
Once you have a to-do list, you can start to prioritize your tasks. Decide which tasks need to be done first, and which ones can wait. This will help you to stay on top of deadlines and ensure that everything gets done.
Break Large Tasks into Their Smaller Components
One way to tackle large tasks is to break them down into smaller, more manageable pieces. This will make completing the task seem less daunting and it will be easier to stay on track.
Set Goals and Deadlines for Projects
Setting goals and deadlines for projects will help you stay on track and motivate you to finish tasks on time. Remember to be realistic about the goals you set and to give yourself plenty of time to complete tasks.
Honestly Assess How You are Spending Your Time During the Day
One of the most important things you can do is to honestly assess the amount of time you waste. If you find that you are wasting too much time, you can start to make changes in order to be more productive.
Bringing reading materials and financial literacy to the people of West Pokot, Kenya
This morning as I sit in bed with a cup of coffee waiting for the sun to rise, I feel incredibly grateful. Soon I’ll hear the beautiful noise that is my two young daughters awakening from their sleep, ready to take on the day with an enormous amount of energy.
I realized something this morning. I had started to take for granted many of the basic resources at my disposal that make the pursuit of a quality education accessible to myself and my family. It’s not that I’m ungrateful for these resources, but rather I had let the chaos of my day to day life distract me from being consciously mindful of these blessings.
As my daughters continue to sleep, I begin to plan out the day ahead. After breakfast, we’ll start by going to a Mommy & Me storytime event that our local public library hosts weekly. After that I’ll take my daughters to one of the many parks within our community so that my oldest can play with other kids her age and let out some much needed energy before naptime. In the afternoon, I’ll help guide her through some worksheets from a preschool activity book that I purchased at my local bookstore as a way to compliment her current school’s curriculum, followed by reading with them both from several of the numerous educational books that we have in our home library.
In contrast, nearly half way around the world and roughly 270 miles northwest of Nairobi, Kenya, lies the rural village of West Pokot. This is a place relatively untouched by technology, as evidenced through its severely lacking healthcare systems and illiteracy level of 90%. West Pokot is also a place where power relations between men and women are greatly unequal, and education for the well-being of women is not valued.
I’d like to introduce you to Josie, our fellow advocate, friend, and inspiration for the Manyatta Library renovation. She was born and raised in Kenya, in a tribe where, instead of aspiring to achieve an education, girls are born with the aspiration of being married off at a young age in order to provide the most financial support for their family. In fact, it’s quite common for girls as young as 10 years old to be married off if their family cannot afford to pay for their education costs.
Insecurity and lack of access to information regarding schools in this community are some of the many factors that restrict these children from accessing education, thus leaving them in a vicious cycle of poverty and illiteracy. Josie was fortunate enough to come from a family who was able to afford to provide her with a quality education in the United States. Because of this, she was able to eventually earn her masters degree in public health, and is Director of Programs and Development at Color My Dreams. A small non profit that was founded by Edith Cherotich. Through the nonprofit, Josie and her team work to promote literacy in the form of libraries, to ensure that every disadvantaged child has access to books and other educational materials that they need to reach their full potential.
By partnering with Color My Dreams Africa, Lite Tuition was able to renovate the main library within the Lokna village in Pokot—the Manyatta Library. The renovation was led by a group of 15 local West Pokot women who will also be responsible for maintaining the library with guidance from the CMDA team.
Unlike traditional libraries, books from the Manyatta Library are dropped off and picked up from villages within West Pokot so that students and teachers are not required to abandon their lifestyle or daily tasks in order to access the materials they need. To accomplish this, Little Tree libraries will be installed in 10 schools within 4 different villages in Pokot. The Little Tree libraries will be used to house books and other relevant materials within the schools themselves. Stewards have been appointed to each Little Tree library, and are responsible for its general maintenance and operations, including picking up and dropping off books from the Manyatta.
Lite Tuition’s mission is to help make education more accessible to anyone who seeks it, and we are thrilled to be able to partner with Color My Dreams Africa to work to make this mission a reality for the people of West Pokot!
Visit our website to learn more about how you can create your free educational savings campaign, or support some very hardworking students on their path to a debt-free education!
In this tutorial, we will cover how to set up your stripe account and connect it to your crowdfunding site.
Step 1: Create a Stripe account
Step 2: After logging in, access your API Keys
Go to the Stripe Dashboard and click on the Developers option at the top right corner of the page.
You will see a set of keys. To switch between TEST and LIVE keys, toggle the “Viewing test data” on the side. TEST keys are used for testing (Test Secret Key and Test Publishable Key) and the other for the actual live transactions (Live Secret Key and Live Publishable Key).
Note: If you want to use live data you have to make sure that you have activated your account. You will need to also fill out a form to connect your bank account.
Step 3: Copy and paste your API keys to your crowdfunding platform. It is located under Administrator Dashboard > Portal Settings > Payment Settings tab > Secret/Publishable key fields.
Step 4: Go back to your Stripe dashboard, add a redirect URI and copy/paste your Client ID to your platform.
Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen. In the Stripe admin dashboard, then scroll down and click on the connect settings. Make sure you turn the OAuth for Standard accounts setting ON.
Copy the Redirect URL that is shown in the payment settings page:
Also, don’t forget to copy your Client ID and paste it back to your crowdfunding platform’s payment settings as shown on the screenshot below.
Once these steps are done you are all set and ready to go!
Do you want to use PayPal to accept payments on your CrowdFunding platform? If so, this tutorial will show you how to set up and configure PayPal payment gateway for your CrowdFunding instance.
PLEASE NOTE that currently you are not able to use marketplace mode when configuring the platform to be using PayPal as the payment gateway. This means that all of the donations on the platform are going into one single PayPal account. If you would like to use marketplace mode, please read this blog article.
Let’s get right into the steps!
Step 1. Go to the payment settings and choose PayPal in the dropdown
Log into your platform as a portal admin and go to the admin dashboard –> Portal Settings –> Payment Settings –> in the Payment Gateway section, choose PayPal in the dropdown.
Step 2. Create the PayPal account
In this configuration, you will need to use a Business PayPal account to connect your account to the platform.
For this tutorial, we will be using a sandbox account in order to test the transactions without using any real money. You can also create a sandbox account if you would like to test the payments first before using a live account. You can create a sandbox account using the following URL: https://developer.paypal.com/
Step 3. Retrieve and paste the Client ID and Secret Key
Once you have created an account, you can log in and go to the accounts page. You will want to view the details for the account. Hover over the 3 dots and click on View/edit account.
Go to the API Credentials tab for the account, then click on the Default Application link.
Here, you can see the Client ID and Secret Key to add in the Payment Settings in the Atlas admin dashboard.
You can paste these values into the correct fields.
Step 4. Save the settings and test the payments
You can now save the Payment Settings in the admin dashboard and create a new campaign to test the transactions on the platform. When contributing, the user interface should look something like this.
If you are using a test account, you can only pledge using one of the sandbox accounts that you have. So you can go back to the accounts interface that you navigated to earlier in step 3, and click the View/edit account link for the account that you want to pledge with. If you would like, you can also create a new account to pledge with on that same page. When you click on the View/edit account button, you will see there is a Funding tab. In this funding tab, you can see the credit card information to add when making a test pledge.
Once you have made a successful pledge, be sure to check that the pledge has been captured into the correct account.
You will need to log into the account that is connected to the platform via the following link if you are testing: https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/
You should see that the pledge has been captured successfully.
PLEASE NOTE that you cannot use post charge with PayPal, so you will be capturing all donations instantly, without delays, into your PayPal account as soon as the donor makes a pledge.
That’s it, you can now accept donations via PayPal!
Portal Admin – Administration Dashboard Tutorial
This blog post will teach you about some the functionality and provide an overview of how to use the Administrator Dashboard.
- Once you have logged in as Portal Admin you can click on the icon in the top right corner. This will open up the My Dashboard menu, click on Administration.
- Once you have entered the Administrator Dashboard you will see several tabs near the top of the page, the first being Reports.
Users
In the Users tab you can view all of the users that have accounts on your site.
- You can filter through users by clicking on and selecting an option from either of the two drop down menus or search by name or email on the far right.
- To add a user click on the Actions button and then select Add User from the drop down menu. An Add User form will pop up, fill it out with the new user’s information.
- To delete or approve a user you can click on the user’s check box on the left and then click on the Actions button. Select Delete Users or Approve Users from the drop down menu.
- Click on the Edit button on the far right to update a particular user’s information.
- Click on the Export to CSV button at the bottom of the page to download a spreadsheet list of all users.
Categories
In the Categories tab you can view all of the categories on your site.
- To add a category click on the Add New Category button and fill out the form that pops up.
- To delete a category click in the check box beside the categories that you would like to delete, and then click the Delete Selected Categories button.
- Click on the Edit button on the far right to update the name and description of any particular category.
- You can change the order in which categories appear by clicking and holding down on a particular category row, drag and drop it into the appropriate place in the list.
Campaigns
In the Campaigns tab you can view all of the campaigns that are on your site.
- You can filter through campaigns by clicking on and selecting an option from any of the three drop down menus or search by the campaign name on the far right.
- The Actions button has a few options for updating any particular campaign, (Approve Campaign, Delete Campaign, Feature Campaign, etc.). Click on the campaign’s check box on the left and then click on the Actions button. Select one of the options from the drop down menu.
- You can change the order in which campaigns appear by clicking and holding down on a particular campaign row, drag and drop it into the appropriate place in the list.
- In the table under the Action column you can select Edit from the drop down. This will bring you to the Campaign Basics page. From here you can view and update the selected campaign’s Details, Rewards, Profile, Funding and Preview. This blog post explains how to create or edit a campaign: Create a Campaign Tutorial.
- Click on the Transactions button on the far right to view a breakdown of funding transactions for a particular campaign. Click on the Export to CSV button at the bottom of the page to download a spreadsheet list of all transactions.
Pages
In the Pages tab you can view a list of the website pages that are on your site.
- To add a page you can click on the Actions button and then select Add Page from the drop down menu. An Add Page form will pop up. Fill out the input fields and add content below. Click the Save Page button once you are done editing.
- To publish, un-publish or delete pages click on the user’s check box on the left and then click on the Actions button. Select Publish Pages, Un-publish Pages or Delete Pages from the drop down menu.
- Click on a link in the Path column to view the page. Click Edit on the right to update a page.
Portal Settings
Portal Settings is the last tab in the Administrator Dashboard. We will cover Portal Settings in the separate blog post: Portal Admin – Portal Settings Tutorial.
Website Administration Panel
Below we will show how to access Administration Web Panel for your newly deployed website, in a few quick and easy steps.
Step 1. Please use the administrator credentials and URL as per provided wiki link on nexus.thrinacia.com to log into your website as depicted in a screenshot below.
NOTE: If you don’t have the administrator credentials (username/password) and the login URL for your website then please contact support@litetuition.com and come back to this tutorial when done.
Step 2. Once you have successfully logged into the website please click onto the person icon in the top right hand corner. The menu will open called “My Dashboards” with menu link called “Administration”. Please click on the “Administration” link as depicted in the screenshot below.
Step 3. You will now see the dashboard interface as depicted in the screenshot below.
Invest in Yourself: The Debt-Free Path to Higher Education
Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.
-Malcolm X
‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ This is a question that most of us have heard regularly as a child. Maybe it’s a doctor, a teacher, or even a professional athlete — the possibilities are endless! And while it’s both exciting and magical to dream about the different paths that our lives could one day take, it is also vital that the conversation doesn’t end there.
At Lite Tuition, we believe that creating a plan for how an educational goal will be achieved is just as important as what that goal is. Too often, Americans rely on student loans to pay for education costs, which ultimately ends up stunting their future financial success. In his book, “The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe,” Josh Mitchell eloquently explains how many borrowers are actually worse off for having gone to college, as student loan debt has caused higher education to stop being a ladder to career and financial success, and has instead become a slide downward.
Let’s change this narrative!
Our initiative, #InvestInYourself, empowers hardworking students to showcase and share their unique story with supporters all around the world. Creating a campaign is absolutely free, and to help get you started, Lite Tuition will be contributing $25 to all students who share their campaign on social media (make sure to tag Lite Tuition and include the hashtag #InvestInYourself)!
How to get started:
- Start your campaign
- Create a greeting to welcome supporters to your page
- Share your name, what college you are (or will be) attending, and any other accomplishments related to your education
- Add a picture or video
- Share your story
- Get your story in front of supporters by sharing your campaign through text, email, or social media
- Graduate and pay it forward
- Thank supporters
- Funds raised will be sent directly to your chosen school to be applied to tuition cost
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