1 Using the Identity Governance Framework ArisID API

Benefits to Organizations

Organizations need to maintain control and integrity of sensitive personal information about their customers, employees, and partners. Data related to social security numbers, credit card numbers, medical history and more are increasingly under scrutiny by regulations seeking to prevent abuse or theft of such information. Privacy conscious organizations frequently have reacted to these requirements by enforcing overly strict controls and processes that hinder business operations and impact productivity, flexibility, and efficiency. At the opposite end of the spectrum, some organizations do not take the care needed to safeguard this information, potentially putting identity-related data at risk without sufficient oversight and control. The Identity Governance Framework enables a standards-based mechanism for enterprises to establish "contracts" between their applications so that identity related information can be shared securely with confidence that this data will not be abused, compromised, or misplaced. Using this framework, organizations have complete visibility into how identity information is stored, used, and propagated throughout their business. This enables organizations to automate controls to streamline business processes without fear of compromising the confidentiality of sensitive identity related information.

Benefits to Developers

The Identity Governance Framework is an agreed-upon process for specifying how identity-related data is treated when writing applications. This provides developers a standards-based way to easily write applications that use this data so that governing policies can be used to control it. This will result in faster development of privacy aware applications.

IGF enables the decoupling of identity-aware applications from a specific deployment infrastructure. Specifically, using IGF enables developers to defer deciding on how identity related information will be stored and accessed by their application. Developers will not need to worry about whether they should use a SQL database, an LDAP directory, or other system. In the past, developers were forced to write highly specific code, driving technology and vendor lock-in. By using a Client Attribute Requirement Markup Language (CARML) file and declarations, applications will support flexible deployment in a wide range of environments without the need for ongoing specialized developer enhancements. The ArisID API handles the hard work of data retrieval, transformation, and policy-enforcement when it comes to identity-based information.

Configuring CARML Files

Determine whether the existing ArisID beans meet your application's needs by examining the CARML files idxuserrole.xml (read-only operations) and userrole.xml (read-only and read/write operations). These files are located in DOMAIN_HOME/config/fmwconfig/carml. If you need additional attributes or other customizations, create a new CARML file and generate beans as described in Chapter 3, "Developing Applications".

Configuring the Identity Repository

The identity repository to be used by the ArisID beans must be available. You can use the Oracle WebLogic Server embedded LDAP-based directory server or any LDAP directory supported by 11g Oracle Virtual Directory. The ArisID API is integrated with Oracle Platform Security Services. It automatically connects to the LDAP-based identity store configured in Oracle Platform Security Services. The identity stores supported by Oracle Platform Security Services. For more information about system requirements and certification, see "System Requirements and Certification".

For more information about Oracle Platform Security Services, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Application Security Guide.

If you must use a different identity store from the Oracle Platform Security Services identity store, then set the following system property:

igf.ovd.config.dir=DOMAIN_HOME/config/fmwconfig/arisidprovider/conf 

Next, edit the adapters.os_xml file to include the host, port and credentials of the directory to be connected to. The igf.ovd.config.dir property can be set to any other directory containing adapaters.os_xml and other configuration files with the right settings.

For OpenLDAP, Role.MEMBER is a mandatory attribute for the following APIs:

• createRole(List<PropertyValue> attrVals, Map<String,Object> appCtxMap)

• createRole(List<PropertyValue> attrVals)

If the Role.MEMBER is not included in the input attrVals list, role creation will fail.

Configuring the Mapping File

When a CARML file is created a corresponding mapping file is created in the same location. The default mapping file has attribute details specific to Oracle WebLogic Server embedded directory server, which is the Oracle Platform Security Services default identity store. If you are using a default CARML file and the Oracle Platform Security Services identity store, you do not need to configure mapping. The configuration parameters in Oracle Platform Security Services override the parameters in the mapping file.

If you are creating your own CARML file with additional attributes, or if you are using a non-Oracle Platform Security Services identity store, you must edit the mapping file. For more information, see Chapter 3, "Developing Applications".