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Namespace: urn:mace:shibboleth:2.0:metadata
Schema: http://shibboleth.net/schema/idp/shibboleth-metadata.xsd

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titleSpecific XML Elements

Name

Cardinality

Description

<TLSTrustEngine>

0 or 1

A custom TrustEngine used to evaluate TLS server certificates. This element conflicts with and is overridden by the httpClientSecurityParametersRef attribute. It contains a single <security:TrustEngine> element.

<MetadataQueryProtocol>


0 or 1

Constructs the metadata request URL based on the requirements of the Metadata Query Protocol

<Template>

Constructs the metadata request URL by means of a simple transform based on substitution

<Regex>

Constructs the metadata request URL by means of a complex transform based on a regular expression

At most one of the <MetadataQueryProtocol><Template>, or <Regex> child elements is allowed. If none are configured, the provider constructs the metadata request URL directly from the entityID. This corresponds to the "well-known location" mechanism defined in the SAML 2.0 Metadata specification, section 4.1.

Warning

Don't forget to configure a child element

If you forget to configure a child element, the provider will default to the well-known location strategy. This constrains the entityID to be an URL (not an URN) but the provider does not check the URL scheme. If the scheme on the entityID is "http:", the metadata exchange will be vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. For this reason, the well-known location strategy should be avoided in most cases.

<MetadataQueryProtocol>  Child Element

If the <MetadataQueryProtocol> child element is used, the metadata request URL is constructed according to the SAML Profile for the Metadata Query Protocol, which itself is based on the Metadata Query Protocol specification. The content of the <MetadataQueryProtocol> child element will be used as the "Base URL" defined in that specification.

The <MetadataQueryProtocol> child element has the following optional attribute:

Name

Type

Description

transformRef

Bean ID

A reference to a transform function for the entityID. If used, the child element must be empty.

<Template> Child Element

If the <Template> child element is used, the metadata request URL is constructed by means of a simple transform. Specifically, the value of the entityID is substituted into the template parameter "${entityID}".

The <Template> child element has the following attributes:

Name

Type

Default

Description

encodingStyle

"none", "form", "path", or "fragment"

"form"

Determines whether and how the entityID value will be URL encoded prior to replacement.  Allowed values are:

  • "none" : No encoding is performed.

  • "form" : Encoded using URL form parameter encoding (for query parameters).

  • "path" : Encoded using URL path encoding.

  • "fragment" : Encoded using URL fragment encoding.

The precise definition of these terms is defined in the documentation for the methods of the Guava library's UrlEscapers class.

transformRef

Bean ID


A reference to a transform function for the entityID. If used, the child element must be empty.

velocityEngine

Bean ID

shibboleth.VelocityEngine

Bean ID of a custom VelocityEngine to use, generally unneeded

<Regex> child element

If the <Regex> child element is used, the metadata request URL is constructed by means of a regular expression transform. The entityID value is first matched against the regular expression contained in the <Regex> element's match attribute. Then, the <Regex> element's content is treated as a replacement expression to run based on the results of the match.

The <Regex> child element has the following required attribute:

Name

Type

Req?

Description

match

String

Y

A regular expression against which the entityID is evaluated

Note that only numeric/positional group references (e.g., $1) are supported.

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titleHTTP XML Attributes
Include Page
MetadataProviderHTTPAttributes
MetadataProviderHTTPAttributes

For a DynamicHTTPMetadataProvider, the HTTP Connection Attributes each have an aggressive 5 second timeout default. These may be tightened further if desired.

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titleProperties
Include Page
VelocityTemplateProperties
VelocityTemplateProperties

Examples

A typical use case is to load entity metadata dynamically from a metadata query server (i.e., a server that supports the Metadata Query Protocol). Here is a complete example:

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