org.osid.authentication

Interface Summary
Interface	Description
Agency	An agency defines a collection of agents.
AgencyAdminSession	This session creates, updates, and deletes `Agencies.`
AgencyForm	This is the form for creating and updating agencies.
AgencyHierarchyDesignSession	This session defines methods for managing a hierarchy of `Agency` objects.
AgencyHierarchySession	This session defines methods for traversing a hierarchy of `Agency` objects.
AgencyList	Like all `OsidLists,` `AgencyList` provides a means for accessing `Agency` elements sequentially either one at a time or many at a time.
AgencyLookupSession	This session provides methods for retrieving `Agency` objects.
AgencyNode	This interface is a container for a partial hierarchy retrieval.
AgencyNodeList	Like all `OsidLists,` `AgencyNodeList` provides a means for accessing `AgencyNode` elements sequentially either one at a time or many at a time.
AgencyNotificationSession	This session defines methods to receive notifications on adds/changes to `Agency` objects.
AgencyQuery	This is the query for searching agencies.
AgencyQueryInspector	This is the query inspector for examining queries.
AgencyQuerySession	This session provides methods for searching among `Agency` objects.
AgencyReceiver	The agency receiver is the consumer supplied interface for receiving notifications pertaining to new, updated or deleted `Agency` objects.
AgencySearch	The interface for governing agency searches.
AgencySearchOrder	An interface for specifying the ordering of search results.
AgencySearchResults	This interface provides a means to capture results of a search.
AgencySearchSession	This session provides methods for searching among `Agency` objects.
Agent	An `Agent` represents an authenticatable identity.
AgentAdminSession	This session creates, updates, and deletes `Agents.`
AgentAgencyAssignmentSession	This session provides methods to re-assign `Agents` to `Agencies` An `Agent` may map to multiple `Agency` objects and removing the last reference to an `Agent` is the equivalent of deleting it.
AgentAgencySession	This session provides methods to retrieve `Agents` to `Agency` mappings.
AgentForm	This is the form for creating and updating `Agents.`
AgentList	Like all `OsidLists,` `AgentList` provides a means for accessing `Agent` elements sequentially either one at a time or many at a time.
AgentLookupSession	This session provides methods for retrieving `Agent` objects.
AgentNotificationSession	This session defines methods to receive asynchronous notifications on adds/changes to `Agent` objects.
AgentQuery	This is the query for searching agents.
AgentQueryInspector	This is the query inspector for examining agent queries.
AgentQuerySession	This session provides methods for searching `Agents.`
AgentReceiver	The agent receiver is the consumer supplied interface for receiving notifications pertaining to new, updated or deleted `Agent` objects.
AgentSearch	`AgentSearch` defines the interface for specifying agent search options.
AgentSearchOrder	An interface for specifying the ordering of search results.
AgentSearchResults	This interface provides a means to capture results of a search.
AgentSearchSession	This session provides methods for searching `Agents.`
AgentSmartAgencySession	This session manages queries and sequencing to create "smart" dynamic catalogs.
AuthenticationManager	The authentication manager provides access to authentication sessions and provides interoperability tests for various aspects of this service.
AuthenticationProfile	The `AuthenticationProfile` describes the interoperability among authentication services.
AuthenticationProxyManager	The authentication proxy manager provides access to authentication sessions and provides interoperability tests for various aspects of this service.

Package org.osid.authentication Description

The Open Service Interface Definitions for the org.osid.authentication service.

The Authentication OSID manages authenticated entities.

Agent

The Authentication OSID defines an Agent to represent the identity of the authenticated entity. An Agent may map to a specific authentication principal while some providers may elect to hide multiple authentication principals behind a single Agent. Because principal identities tend not to be durable and persistent, consumers should always persist the Id.

Resource Mapping

An Agent may be mapped to a Resource in the Resource OSID. A Resource may map to multiple Agents but an Agent may only map to a single Resource. In the case of a person, a person may be utilize a number of authentication technologies each with a different authentication identity. Decoupling the authentication identity from that of ther person is to provide a means of integrating multiple services where different authentication identities exist for a person that impact the handling of authorization.

Authorization

Authorization is a separate service. The Authorization OSID manages what functions the Agent is authorized to perform and references the Agent Id. The Authentication OSID is only responsible for identity management of the Agent.

Each Agent of a Resource may be used to define distinct security levels of assurance (although the paranoid may opt for defining a pseudo-resource for each Agent ). These security levels of assurance can be linked to the Agent Type and managed in the Authorization OSID. The Agent Type would be an indicator of the authentication strength and although it may correlate to a specific authentication technology, coupling it too tightly to a particular technology may limit flexibility.

Certain consumers may wish to be notified of changes within the service. Authentication supports notifications via an AgentNotificationSession.

      
      
      if (manager.supportsAgentNotification()) {
          AgentNotificationSession ans = manager.getAgentNotificationSession(receiver);
          ans.registerForNewAgents();
          hangAround();
      }
      
      AgentReceiver receiver {
          newAgent(Id agentId) { print("new agent"); }
          changedAgent(Id agentId) { print("updated agent"); }
          deletedAgent(Id agentId) { print("deleted agent"); }
      }

Agency Cataloging

Agents are organized into federateable Agency OsidCatalogs.

Sub Packages

The Authentication OSID includes an Authentication Key OSID for managing private keys associated with an Agent and an Authentication Process OSID for acquiring and validating authentication credentials. It slaos includes an Authentication Batch OSID for managing Agents and Agencies in bulk.

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