Difference between revisions of "Higgins/Solutions"

Revision as of 13:23, 6 June 2007

Overview

A Deployment Configurations is a specific combination of Components that, when assembled and deployed result in an application or service that is identifiable to an end-user as a "whole" app or service. This page is intended to explain how to assemble building block Components into running apps and services. The intended audience is technical, but more about assembling, building and deploying, as opposed to "developing."

Deployment configurations documented here include web apps, web services, and some where some or all of the code runs on a local client machine. Some require the Higgins Browser Extension (aka HBX). Some have been deployed to Eclipse Foundation servers and can be used for testing and and development-related purposes. Examples include a CardSpace-compatible IdP service (what Microsoft would call a "Managed Card Provider" (not to be confused with our use of the term provider)), or a MediaWiki app that supports OpenID sign-in, etc.

Higgins Configurations

Higgins Configurations are combinations of Higgins Components all of which are available from the Higgins Eclipse CVS.

Configuration Summary

The following table is intended to give an overview of the various deployments by listing what Components comprise them.

Notes:

1. At present we've been using Kevin Miller's Perpetual Motion browser add-on to launch the ISSd daemon. Kevin's add-on uses an xp-com (native code) plug-in to launch a local Identity Agent (currently called ISSd). The plan is to incorporate equivalent functionality within HBX either by a fresh implementation or by getting Kevin to agree to contribute some of his code.
2. Process 2 is currently named "ISSd" it is a single native executable
3. How HBX directly talks to RPPS Core is still under discussion
4. H4 above is most similar to Microsoft CardSpace's architecture

H1 Identity Agent (HBX + remote process)

Local:

• Higgins Browser Extension --uses embedded ISS Web UI

Remote:

• RPPS web service (see Building Blocks section)
• I-Card Manager webapp (see Building Blocks section)

H2 Identity Agent (HBX + local/remote native processes(2))

Local

• Higgins Browser Extension --launches the ISS Client UI
• ISS Client UI - relies on local RPPS web app

Local or Remote:

• RPPS web service (see Building Blocks section)
• I-Card Manager webapp (see Building Blocks section)

H3 Identity Agent (HBX + local java process)

Local:

• Higgins Browser Extension
• RPPS web service (see Building Blocks section)
• I-Card Manager webapp (see Building Blocks section)
• Requires local JVM, Tomcat (this is under discussion)

H4 Identity Agent (HBX/PM + local native process)

Local:

• Higgins Browser Extension --HBX or Perpetual Motion launches the executable
• Single executable containing following:
  • ISS Client UI
  • I-Card Registry
  • CardSpace Managed I-Card Provider
  • CardSpace Personal I-Card Provider
  • Identity Attribute Service
  • ...others

H5 Identity Agent (OSGI bundles)

Local:

• Higgins core Components packaged as OSGI bundles (Eclipse plug-ins)

CardSpace-interoperable Identity Provider/STS

.

RP Enablement: RSS-SSE RP Test Application

.

Higgins-based Configurations

Higgins-based Configurations are configurations that incorporate non-Higgins 3rd party code (usually also open source) as well as one or more or all of the Higgins Components

CardSpace-interoperable Identity Provider/STS

.

Building Blocks

The following sections describe services that are used by top level deployment configurations described in the previous sections.

I-Card Manager Web App

.

RPPS Web Service

.

Nightly Builds

Though certainly not a "deployment" in the usual sense, the Higgins project automatically builds some of the Components every night.

.

Conventions Used on This Page

Each Deployment Configuration is documented by a table. In cases where this is a multi-row table, there should be a short paragraph on this page that describing how the multiple machines are used together. For example: if row/machine#1 is running Firefox with HBX and row/machine#2 is running the I-Card Manager then using the browser you'll be able to do <something>.

• The deployment owner is responsible for maintenance of this table
• Each computer involved has its own row. This row describes that computer's configuration (OS, runtime, etc.).

Table Columns

1. Deployment Configuration - link to wiki page describing deployment configuration (see "Deployment Description" section below)
2. OS - OS that this machine either (a) runs on (see URL column) or (b) has been tested on. Put in parens the OS number if more than OS instance is involved
3. Runtime - Runtime environment for this machine (e.g. JVM & version, Tomcat & version, etc.)
4. Binding - how will the service running on this machine be consumed
5. Open - open enhancements and bugs (Bugzilla) for this deployment configuration: (Note: none are currently defined)
6. URL - endpoint that hosts a test version of the service (hosted by Eclipse Foundation)
7. Owner - person with overall responsibility for this deployment configuration (not individual components)

Example Table

Deployment Description

This wiki page must contain the following sections:

1. Overview --describes briefly the service running on this machine
2. Assembly and Build
   • A table with a row for each Higgins component required and a row for each non-Higgins component JAR, etc required. Each row has these columns:
     1. Name of component/jar
     2. Link to description --in the case of Higgins components and projects this should be a link to the Componentspage#<component-name> AND the row prefix (e.g. "A" or "B")
3. Deployment
   • Deployment "hints": things you might have had to do to "configure" the files. For example the STS and LDAP CP have several configuration files that need to be explained a little for anyone wanting to replicate the deployment to their own servers. Another example: Tomcat configuration
   • Any unusual steps related to configuring non-Higgins components

The Assembly and Build instructions section would start off with a bulleted list of components and other external stuff that you'll need. We can include links to the various required rows on the Components page tables as we've started doing.

See Also

• Higgins Home