Grouper Users - Open Discussion List

Tom Barton wrote:
> The Subject API v0.2.1 wiki page has this to say:
I've seen this... but it didn't help enuf....
> --
>
> The "getSubject" method is used to select a specific subject from 
> the back-end identity store, for example, to show the name and 
> department of a person belonging to a group.

in what context is this selection being done? Here's my guess... 
inside the Grouper backend, a member of a group is defined by the 
triple ( subject id, source, and type ... I think). So, is getSubject 
(subject id) used to retrieve detailed attribute info about that 
entity from "source"?

So.... subject id should be persistent and non-reassignable? (which 
you'd suggested in a previous note...)

> The "getSubjectByIdentifier" method enables identifying a subject by 
> means of a column or attribute different from that used as the 
> subjectId. For example, if a UI user authenticates with a loginId, 
> but the subjectId is an opaque registryId, this method is used to 
> identify the subject given their loginId.

so, this refers to an alternate unique identifier, that exists ONLY 
in a source? and is probably human-readable? is it ever used by 
Grouper? not that I see on the screen...?

I'm presuming authn is done external to grouper... does Grouper use 
this method to obtain my subject ID after I login? so it can show me 
"my groups"?