View source for IdAS Registry and Configuration

IdAS is a service that enables consumers to access contexts (identity data stores) referenced by abstract identifiers called "contextRefs (URIs)" using a variety of data access methods.   

===Use Case #1===
Description: opening ContextRef 'cref' when IdAS consumer doesn't specify a preferred IContextFactory. 
Notice that the configData returned by canConnect is ignored in this use case.

 Iterable<IContextFactory> factories = idasregistry.getContextFactories((String) null); 
 IContextFactory foundf = null; 
 for (Iterator<IContextFactory> itr = factories.iterator(); itr.hasNext(); ) {
   IContextFactory f = itr.next();
   if (configData = f.canConnect(cref)) {
     foundf = f;
     break;
   }
 }
 if (foundf == null) return;
  
 IContext c = f.connect(cref);
 
 Policy p = c.getOpenPolicy();
 
 ...get a DI that satisfies policy p
 
 c.open(DI);

===Use Case #2===
Description: The IdAS consumer creates a new Context. To do this, the consumer must choose an IContextFactory and is required to know how to configure a new context with this factory with factory-specific configuration data

 ...consumer enumerates available IContextFactories and selects one by
 ...inspecting the metadata of each and ultimately selects 'f'.
 ...or the consumer does f = idasregistry.getContextFactory(<some factory id>)
 List propNames = f.getConfigPropNames();
 
 Properties configData;
 ...set up configData
 
 URI root = f.getRootURI();
 URI cref;
 ...client uses 'root' (which may be null) to construct 'cref'--a presumably a globally unique URI
 
 if (f.canCreate(cref, configData)) {
   IContext c = f.createContext(cref, configData); }

===Proposed Changes to IdAS===

 interface IContextFactory {
 
   // Test to see if this factory can connect to the specified context
   // Returns discoverable metadata (e.g. if the URI is a WS-Addressing
   // EPR then it can return EPR metadata, or if the URI is believed to be
   // an OpenID URI it can attempt to GET XRDS mimetype service
   // description document)
   Properties canConnect(URI contextRef); // formerly called "canAttach" 
 
   // Connect to a pre-configured context
   IContext connect(URI contextRef);   // formerly called "attach"
 
   // Create a new context with given configuration data
   boolean canCreate(URI contextRef, Properties configData);
   IContext createContext(URI contextRef, Properties configData);
 
   // Destroy Context associated with contextRef. Unbinds contextRef.
   void destroyContext(URI contextRef);
 
   // Returns list of property's names required to create/configure new
   // context.
   List<String> getConfigPropNames();
 
   // This method is called when instance of context factory is
   // registered in IdASRegistry. 
   void onRegistration(File config); 
 
   // Returns a common root URI used by all URIs connectable by this
   // factory. May be null. May only contain a URI scheme. May contain more.
   URI getRootURI();
 
   // Returns a unique indentifier for this factory
   string getID();
   ...
 }
 
 class IdASRegistry {
 
   // Create IdAS registry with the specified path to configuration
   // area (path location where configuration files for context
   // factories are located)
   IdASRegistry(String configAreaPath);
 
   // Create IdAS registry with the default path to configuration
   // area (for example ${user.home}/.higgins/idas/)
   IdASRegistry();
  
   // Get persistent config file for a given factory
   // Note: the name of the file is taken from the factory's id
   File getConfigFile(IContextFactory factory); 
 
   // Find and return a factory whose ID matches 'id' (else null)
   IContextFactory getContextFactory(String id);
   ...
 }
 
 interface IContext {
 
   // Return this Context's authentication policy. Format is
   // identical to the "Higgins RP Security Policy" document
   Policy getOpenPolicy();
   ...
 }