PingOne Advanced Identity Cloud

Unmanaged applications

An unmanaged application (or disconnected application) is any application that lacks a live connector to Advanced Identity Cloud. Instead, administrators manually import governance data, such as accounts and entitlements, using APIs or .csv file uploads. Fulfillment uses an IT service management (ITSM) workflow instead of automated provisioning through a live connector.

Identity Governance lets application owners and administrators onboard and govern unmanaged applications directly, eliminating the need for central governance teams to manage individual service credentials or direct system access.

This section explains how to register an unmanaged application, import resource and account data, verify entitlements, and offboard the application.

Core concepts

Term Meaning

Application

An unmanaged app registered in Identity Governance, owned by one or more identities.

Account object type

Represents the account object structure for the app (for example, a Salesforce user account).

Resource object type

Represents any non-account object: an entitlement (group, role, permission set) or an application resource (service principal, API key, cloud resource).

Roles attribute

A multi-valued account attribute holding the entitlements granted to that account, referencing a Resource object type.

This page refers to the roles account attribute as "roles" in the text, but you can call it anything you want as long as it points to the id of the resource object. For example, the reference property refers to the id of the resource object type. Learn more in 4b. Add resource object type for the full object type.

"entitlement_grants": {
    "items": {
        "type": "string"
    },
    "required": false,
    "type": "array",
    "userSpecific": true,
    "order": 2,
    "displayName": "Roles",
    "isEntitlement": true,
    "reference": {
        "objectType": "Roles"
    }

Delete detection

The process of identifying records to remove by comparing a new upload against existing data. Any record absent from the new upload is marked for removal.

Relationship

The link between an account and the Advanced Identity Cloud user identity who owns it.

Key differences between managed and unmanaged applications

The following table compares the capabilities of managed and unmanaged applications.

Managed and unmanaged application capabilities
Capability Managed applications Unmanaged applications

Governance system

Governed by Advanced Identity Cloud and Identity Governance.

Governed exclusively by Identity Governance.

Provisioning

Automated provisioning through the application catalog and live connectors.

Workflow-based fulfillment, such as through ServiceNow or manual IT tasks. Live connectors and the application catalog aren’t supported.

Environment promotion

Requires promotion between environments.

Doesn’t use promotions.

Role-based provisioning

Fully supported through Advanced Identity Cloud roles (Identities > Manage > Roles).

Not supported. Entitlements from unmanaged applications are excluded from role LCM modals but appear in access details.

Important tips

  • Required attributes: Every object (account or resource) must define id and displayName attributes.

    Ping Identity plans to remove the id and displayName attribute requirements on all objects and the admin access token requirement in an upcoming release.

  • Multi-valued attribute notation: Multi-valued attributes (for example, entitlement_grants) must be represented as a JSON array encoded as a string: ["value1","value2"]. In a .csv file, this appears as a quoted cell, for example, ["0PS000000000001","0PS000000000007"].

  • When userId isn’t available at upload time: If you can’t include userId in the account .csv file, use the Link API step to associate the account with an Advanced Identity Cloud user afterward.

Prerequisites

Before you start, review the following:

  • Identity linkage: Identities referenced by an account must already exist in Advanced Identity Cloud. Your account .csv file must include a userId column mapped to the corresponding Advanced Identity Cloud user ID.

  • Access token: Unmanaged app onboarding APIs require the tenant access token.

Workflow

Follow the onboarding steps in order; the offboarding steps are independent.

Onboarding an unmanaged app

  1. Step 1: Get an access token.

  2. Step 2: Create the application

  3. Step 3: Verify the application was created

  4. Step 4: Add object types.

    1. 4a. Add account object type.

    2. 4b. Add resource object type.

  5. Step 5: Verify the schema.

  6. Step 6: Upload, poll, and verify resource (entitlement) data

  7. Step 7: Upload account data and poll status

  8. (Optional). Link accounts to Advanced Identity Cloud users individually

Offboarding an unmanaged app

  1. Step 1: Run delete detection

  2. Step 2: Delete the application

Step 1: Get an access token

The unmanaged applications APIs require a tenant access token for authorization. Pass this token as a bearer token in the Authorization header of every subsequent API call in this workflow. Learn more in Authenticate to the REST API with an access token.

Step 2: Create the application

Register the unmanaged app in Identity Governance. This call creates the application record and returns the applicationId you’ll use in every subsequent step.

POST {protocol}://{host}:{port}/iga/governance/application?_action=create
{
    "applicationId": "<generated-uuid>",
    "name": "Salesforce",
    "isDisconnected": true,
    "datasourceId": "disconnected",
    "description": "This is a disconnected application",
    "ownerIds": [
        "<_id of the managed user>"
    ],
    "icon": "https://example.com/salesforce-logo.png"
}

To find a managed user’s ID (_id), query the identities API: GET /openidm/managed/user?_queryFilter=userName+eq+"<username>". The _id field in the response is the value to use in ownerIds.

Step 3: Verify the application was created

Confirm the application is created and is flagged as disconnected:

GET {protocol}://{host}:{port}/iga/governance/application?disconnected=true

Step 4: Add object types

Two object types are required: Account and Resource.

4a. Add account object type

Account object types represent the account structure for the application (for example, a Salesforce user account). The entitlement_grants property is multi-valued and references the Resource object type representing the entitlements granted to that account.

POST {protocol}://{host}:{port}/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}/objectType?_action=create
{
    "id": "User",
    "type": "account",
    "properties": {
        "user_name": {
            "type": "string",
            "userSpecific": true,
            "order": 9,
            "displayName": "User Name"
        },
        "entitlement_grants": {
            "items": {
                "type": "string"
            },
            "required": false,
            "type": "array",
            "userSpecific": true,
            "order": 2,
            "displayName": "Roles",
            "isEntitlement": true,
            "reference": {
                "objectType": "Roles"
            }
        },
        "id": {
            "type": "string",
            "userSpecific": true,
            "displayName": "ID",
            "required": true,
            "flags": [
                "NOT_UPDATEABLE"
            ]
        },
        "displayName": {
            "type": "string",
            "order": 10,
            "displayName": "Display Name"
        }
    }
}

4b. Add resource object type

Resource object types represent the entitlements or resources associated with the application, such as Salesforce permission sets, roles, or API keys. Create one resource object type for each category of entitlement your application provides.

POST {protocol}://{host}:{port}/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}/objectType?_action=create
{
    "id": "Roles",
    "type": "resource",
    "properties": {
        "id": {
            "type": "string",
            "required": true,
            "order": 9,
            "displayName": "ID"
        },
        "displayName": {
            "type": "string",
            "order": 25,
            "displayName": "Display Name"
        },
        "applicationId": {
            "type": "string",
            "order": 1,
            "displayName": "Application ID"
        },
        "entitlement_type": {
            "type": "string",
            "order": 1,
            "displayName": "Entitlement Type"
        },
        "criticality": {
            "type": "string",
            "order": 1,
            "displayName": "Criticality"
        },
        "description": {
            "type": "string",
            "order": 1,
            "displayName": "Description"
        }
    }
}

The reference.objectType value, Roles, refers to the Resource object type you create in Step 4b. Update this value if you name your Resource object type something other than Roles.

Step 5: Verify the schema

Confirm each object type is created as expected. The response includes the id, type, and properties you defined in Step 4: Add object types. For example, for the User object type, verify that "id": "User", "type": "account", and the entitlement_grants property with "isEntitlement": true are present. If a property is missing or type is incorrect, rerun the relevant object type creation call in Step 4: Add object types.

GET {protocol}://{host}:{port}/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}/objectType/{objectTypeId}

Step 6: Upload, poll, and verify resource (entitlement) data

Load entitlements one entitlement type at a time.

curl --location '{protocol}://{host}:{port}/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}?_action=upload' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {accessToken}' \
--form 'file=@"/path/to/file"' \
--form 'objectType="Roles"'

The sample .csv file is as follows:

id,displayName,applicationId,entitlement_type,criticality,description
0PS000000000001,Sales User Basic,d76e8926-078f-4e82-a0ec-8bc4e73d093b,PermissionSet,Low,"Baseline Salesforce access for sales users..."
0PS000000000002,Sales Manager,d76e8926-078f-4e82-a0ec-8bc4e73d093b,PermissionSet,High,"Expanded sales access for managing pipelines..."

Response:

{
    "message": "File uploaded started for application d76e8926-078f-4e82-a0ec-8bc4e73d093b",
    "uploads": [
        {
            "extractionId": "fd12a94d-53fb-4426-aaaf-9cadaafc8072",
            "type": "resource"
        }
    ]
}

Use the extractionId from the response as {uploadId} in the following endpoint:

GET {protocol}://{host}:{port}/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}/upload/{uploadId}

The response reports status, processed, inserted, and failed counts.

Before proceeding, confirm the uploaded entitlements are visible in the entitlement catalog, the central list of all entitlements available for governance. In Advanced Identity Cloud, go to Governance > Entitlements, and search for the entitlement names from your .csv (for example, Sales User Basic).

The entitlements catalog with the `Sales User Basic` highlighted.

Step 7: Upload account data and poll status

Upload the account records for your application. If your .csv includes userId values, Identity Governance links each account to its Advanced Identity Cloud user at the same time, generating a separate job for those identity relationships.

curl --location '{protocol}://{host}:{port}/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}?_action=upload' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {accessToken}' \
--form 'file=@"/path/to/salesforce_accounts.csv"' \
--form 'objectType="User"'

objectType must be the name of the account object type as defined in 4a. Add account object type (for example, "User"), not the literal string "account".

The sample .csv file is as follows:

user_name,entitlement_grants,id,displayName,userId
aaron.anderson,"[""0PS000000000001"",""0PS000000000007""]",SF-ACCOUNT-00001,Aaron Anderson Salesforce Account,2d637638-366b-4e64-b05b-97c2c2fb8060
abigail.baker,"[""0PS000000000003"",""0PS000000000013""]",SF-ACCOUNT-00002,Abigail Baker Salesforce Account,8bbc1d1b-080f-4dbf-9c52-811aeaa850fe

Because accounts reference both Advanced Identity Cloud identities (userId) and entitlements (entitlement_grants), Identity Governance can return multiple jobs: one for the accounts themselves, and one for the resulting identity relationships. Each extractionId in the response identifies the upload job for that object type.

{
    "message": "File uploaded started for application d76e8926-078f-4e82-a0ec-8bc4e73d093b",
    "uploads": [
        {
            "extractionId": "b74a45b8-8359-41e7-81d1-6f56a6431319",
            "type": "account"
        },
        {
            "extractionId": "009e2f63-8623-463c-92b6-e4c9a508db22",
            "type": "relationship"
        }
    ]
}

Poll both extraction IDs using the same upload-status endpoint from Step 6: Upload, poll, and verify resource (entitlement) data.

If you need to remove the application later, refer to Offboard and delete an application.

If userId couldn’t be included in the account .csv file, associate the account with its Advanced Identity Cloud user identity individually:

POST {protocol}://{host}:{port}/iga/governance/account/{applicationId}/{objectType}/{accountId}/users?_action=add
{
    "applicationId": "{applicationId}",
    "userId": "{AIC user id}"
}

Response:

{
    "message": "Successfully provisioned disconnected relationship",
    "relationship": {
        "id": "937fffd0-b6b4-44a5-9216-4f3291bb2ffa",
        "type": "accountGrant",
        "userId": "ae82f3db-6945-4243-a7ee-71e42befa047",
        "applicationId": "d76e8926-078f-4e82-a0ec-8bc4e73d093b",
        "accountId": "d76e8926-078f-4e82-a0ec-8bc4e73d093b/User/SF-ACCOUNT-00001"
    }
}

Offboard and delete an application

Offboarding permanently removes the application record and all associated schema and account data from Identity Governance. Run delete detection first to mark removed records, then delete the application.

Step 1: Run delete detection

Delete detection identifies records to remove by comparing a new upload against existing data. Resubmit the full current dataset for each object type; any record absent from the new file is marked for removal.

Run the following command once per object type (for example, once for User, once for Roles):

curl --location '{protocol}://{host}:{port}/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}?_action=upload&type=delete' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {accessToken}' \
--form 'file=@"/path/to/file"' \
--form 'objectType="{objectTypeName}"'

Step 2: Delete the application

DELETE {protocol}://{host}:{port}/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}

API quick reference

Operation Method Endpoint

Create application

POST

/iga/governance/application?_action=create

List applications

GET

/iga/governance/application?disconnected=true

Create object type

POST

/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}/objectType?_action=create

Get object type

GET

/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}/objectType/{objectTypeId}

Upload data (resource or account)

POST

/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}?_action=upload

Get upload status

GET

/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}/upload/{uploadId}

Link account to Advanced Identity Cloud user

POST

/iga/governance/account/{applicationId}/{objectType}/{accountId}/users?_action=add

Delete detection (per object type)

POST

/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}?_action=upload&type=delete

Delete application

DELETE

/iga/governance/application/{applicationId}