[xacml] Re: SAML qualification of names. Forwarded message from Eve L.Maler.

[Anne Anderson <Anne.Anderson@Sun.com>]

This is followup from a question asked during the April
Face-to-Face.  -Anne

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From: "Eve L. Maler" <eve.maler@sun.com>
To: Anne.Anderson@sun.com
Subject: Re: SAML qualification of names
Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 18:45:38 -0400

Hi Anne-- I wonder if some folks have gotten a misimpression about what 
SAML does.  It has an AttributeNamespace XML attribute containing a URI, 
but the use of the word "namespace" is metaphorical only.  We don't use 
the XML namespace mechanism at all for this.  I suspect that our 
AttributeNamespace is much like the XACML AttributeFamily; certainly 
"family" is the semantic that this URI is supposed to have.

Now, SAML does use QNames (names qualified with a namespace prefix) for 
its status codes, and I'm not crazy about "QNames in content" because it 
can be a barrier to efficient processing.  But we were following SOAP's 
lead in this, and you buy this problem anyway if you allow XML Schema 
extension because of the xsi:type attribute (which contains a QName in 
its value).

Let me know if you want to chat about this, now that I'm back in the 
office (I was at WWW2002).

	Eve

Anne Anderson wrote:
> In the XACML TC concall this morning, a proposal was made that
> attribute names have an associated URI that would indicate
> "AttributeFamily".  Various organizations could define attributes
> under a given AttributeFamily that are relevant to their
> enterprise.
> 
> This method was contrasted with what SAML chose to do - using
> namespace qualifiers - and the statement was made that many XML
> people don't like the SAML approach.
> 
> XACML TC would like to know the rationale for why SAML chose to
> use namespace qualifiers rather than this other technique.
> 
> I may have misconstrued the discussion, but you may know of the
> difference of opinion to which I am referring.
> 
> Can you shed any light on the SAML rationale?
> 
> Anne


-- 
Eve Maler                                    +1 781 442 3190
Sun Microsystems XML Technology Center   eve.maler @ sun.com


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-- 
Anne H. Anderson             Email: Anne.Anderson@Sun.COM
Sun Microsystems Laboratories
1 Network Drive,UBUR02-311     Tel: 781/442-0928
Burlington, MA 01803-0902 USA  Fax: 781/442-1692