Shibboleth Developers

[Chad La Joie <>]

Oh, I should also mention that we are going to integrate the SDSS patch 
that cleans up a lot of the existing code and removes the Apache 
Digester and Beanutils stuff.  I'll send a note about exactly what all 
that changes in a few days when I apply the patch and check it in.

Chad La Joie wrote:
> The Shibboleth development team recognizes that a clear direction on the 
>  existing WAYF code is needed, whether it's to discontinue development, 
> continue development of a standalone WAYF component, or integrate the 
> WAYF functionality into the SP.
>
> So, let me share my current thoughts on this issue as a way to hopefully 
> spark discussion.  I'd like to see the Shibboleth team officially 
> develop and maintain WAYF functionality that can be deployed as either a 
> standalone component (probably run by the federation), and integrated 
> with the SP.
>
> The standalone component mode would work as it currently does.  This 
> mode would be easier to support and document as the users would have a 
> consistent UI for choosing their home organization.  Federations would 
> be able to brand it accordingly, which helps them get their name out.  I 
> also think that the use of the _saml_idp cookie could alleviate a lot of 
> the burden of having to sort through a possibly long list of IdPs by 
> allowing recently used ones to be displayed first in the list.  I also 
> think that it needs to easier to change the look and feel of the WAYF 
> UI; the current code wasn't designed for extensive UI changes, as it was 
> just to server as a prototype.
>
> The SP integrated WAYF could be used when the federation did not wish to 
> run a WAYF or if the SP belongs to such a number of federation that 
> providing links to each federation's WAYFs becomes unsupportable.  The 
> SP would determine that number but I argue that the number is anything 
> greater than 1.  An integrated WAYF could also take advantage of being 
> that close to the SP and filter the list of all possible IdPs to just 
> the list the SP allows information from.  This would greatly reduce the 
> number of IdPs listed and the same _saml_idp cookie sorting mechanism 
> mentioned above could be used to further help users choose the right IdP 
> quickly.
>
> Regardless of whether the WAYF functionality is integrated in to the SP 
> or remains standalone, I think that the multi-federation support being 
> worked on by the SDSS folks needs to be incorporated (I'll leave it to 
> them to describe this, if they want).
>
> So please, if you have thoughts and comments on this subject, please let 
> us know.

--
Chad La Joie             315Q St. Mary's Hall
Project Sentinel         202.687.0124