# Initial preparations
This page guides you through the initial preparations needed to establish a connection with itsme® through Signicat and to test your integration before you can go live in production.
Page contents
# Prerequisites
To connect to itsme® and get access to Signicat services, you first need to sign some contractual agreements with us.
In particular, you need to sign:
- An agreement contract
- A data processing agreement (DPA)
If you want to integrate with itsme®, contact us to get started with these agreements:
# Initial preparations
The instructions on this page assume you have completed the following initial preparations:
- Sign up to the Signicat Dashboard (opens new window). An organisation and a sandbox account are automatically created for you.
- Add a domain to your sandbox account as described in the Initial setup instructions. When testing in a sandbox account, you can use both a standard or custom domain.
Sandbox account
We recommend you first use a sandbox account to test our services before implementing them in production. Note that account configuration for itsme® varies depending on the type of account.
To use itsme® in a production account, make sure you follow the steps in the Go to production documentation.
# Add itsme® in the Dashboard
Activating your account
Before you can add itsme® in the Dashboard, you must configure itsme® access with an onboarding manager. To get help with this, contact us (opens new window).
You can now add itsme® as an ID method in the Signicat Dashboard. To do this:
- In the Dashboard, navigate to eID Hub > ID Methods (opens new window).
- To enable the ID method, click Add new in the top right.
- Choose the ID method from the list. Then, click Save.
- Now you can see the ID method listed and enabled with status "Active" in the ID methods list.
# Set up a test environment
To test your integration, you need to:
- Obtain an itsme® test account.
- Install the E2E itsme® test application on a mobile device.
Below, you find more information about each item.
Note
The E2E itsme® test application is necessary to test a connection to itsme® through Signicat because itsme® requires multi-factor verification for every digital identity verification flow.
# Obtaining a test account
To obtain an itsme® test account, contact one of our onboarding managers:
After receiving the account, follow the instructions below to set it up.
# Installing the app
To download the E2E itsme® app, use one of the links below:
After you install the itsme® application, follow the itsme® step-by-step guide (opens new window) to get the app configured.
# Set up a connection with a protocol
To establish a connection between Signicat and your application, you need to use an authentication protocol.
Note that you only need to connect to Signicat (eID Hub) servers. Signicat handles the connection with itsme® separately, therefore acting as a message broker between your application and itsme®.
# Choose a protocol
Supported protocols
Signicat supports the standard OIDC and SAML 2.0 protocols. In addition, we offer the Signicat Authentication REST API.
Choice of protocol depends on what you prefer and what you want to achieve. The Authentication REST API gives you a lot of flexibility and is easy to set up. Between the other two, we recommend using OIDC, since SAML 2.0 is much more complex to implement on your side and usually requires a federation agent already in place. OIDC is industry standard and you do not need to manage user sessions on your own (like with the Authentication REST API).
# Set up the protocol
To follow along an itsme® integration with OIDC or the Signicat Authentication REST API, select one of the guides below:
For information on how to set up an integration with SAML 2.0, see the eID Hub - Set up SAML 2.0 documentation.
For general information on the different protocols, see eID Hub - Overview of authentication protocols.
# Data and attributes
To learn more about attributes, scopes and claims supported by each authentication protocol, visit the Attributes reference page.