This is followup from a question asked during the April Face-to-Face. -Anne ------- start of forwarded message ------- 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 ------- end of forwarded message ------- -- 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