RequestMapper

The <RequestMapper> element configures the component used by the SP to map incoming requests to the set of configuration options that should be applied. You can think of it as a portable equivalent of the Apache <Location> feature, which associates Apache directives with specific URLs. Like that feature, the request mapper operates based on URL, not on the physical path of files.

Another critical role of the request mapper is to map each request to the appropriate Shibboleth application, thereby connecting the resource-oriented settings to the more general behavior defined per-application.

For a general overview with examples, see the request mapper HOWTO.

While Apache-based deployments can rely entirely on Apache functionality for this purpose, IIS provides no such capability. The request mapper allows the SP to insulate itself from the differences between servers.

Omitting this element will result in a "Native" plugin with an empty/default configuration. This empty configuration maps all requests to default application settings and adds no other settings, unless overridden by web server-specific options.

The RequestMapper is a Reloadable XML File.

Types

Two different type of Request Mapper are available

type	Function
Native	A request Mapper which integrates with the native web server.
XML	An internal (to the SP) request mapper.

Attributes and Child Elements

These are detailed in for each Mapper type.

Properties

The general function of the request mapper is to associate "properties" with a request. These properties are named and typed and provide the basic interface between the configuration of the software and the software itself. Obviously similar to XML attributes, these properties may in fact be expressed with XML, but do not have to be.

The set of supported properties is as follows:

Name	Type	Default	Description
authType	string		Analogous to Apache's AuthType command, just set this to "shibboleth" unless you want to bypass any processing by the SP.
applicationId	string		Overrides the application associated with the resource by matching the id attribute in an <ApplicationOverride> element.
requireSession	boolean	false	Master trigger that will require an authenticated session. If none exists, the SP will try to automatically establish one using the default Session Initiator.
requireSessionWith	string		Same as requireSession, but uses the Session Initiator with the specified id attribute instead of the default.
exportAssertion	boolean	false	If true, special attributes are exported to provide applications with access to the underlying SAML assertions that are cached with the user's session. See the AssertionExport topic.
redirectToSSL	integer		A port to redirect non-SSL GET or HEAD requests to. Other HTTP methods like POST will result in an error. Used to automate the blocking of non-SSL requests in a portable way. Most servers can do this anyway, but some like IIS won't enforce the rule until it's too late to prevent problems with the Shibboleth filter.
entityID	URI		The name of a specific IdP to use when automatically requesting authentication because a session does not exist. Allows for resource-based selection of an IdP to use, and overrides the entityID attribute of a Session Initiator.
isPassive	boolean	false	Sets the value of the IsPassive attribute of any SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest messages issued automatically as a result of accessing the resource. Has no effect for other SSO protocols. Overrides the isPassiveattribute of a SessionInitiator. Also have a look at the page in order to see what isPassive can be used for.
forceAuthn	boolean	false	Sets the value of the ForceAuthn attribute of any SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest messages issued automatically as a result of accessing the resource. This asks for forced reauthentication by the IdP (bypassing SSO). Has no effect for other SSO protocols. Overrides the forceAuthn attribute of a Session Initiator.
authnContextClassRef	whitespace-delimited URI List		Specifies a SAML 2.0 AuthnContext class reference to request in any SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest messages issued automatically as a result of accessing the resource. Has no effect for other SSO protocols. Overrides the authnContextClassRef attribute of a Session Initiator. This can be a whitespace-delimited list of classes to request.
authnContextComparison	"exact", "better", "minimum", "maximum"		Specifies the SAML 2.0 AuthnContext comparison operator to use in any SAML 2.0 AuthnRequest messages issued automatically as a result of accessing the resource. Has no effect for other SSO protocols. Overrides the authnContextComparison attribute of a Session Initiator.
redirectErrors	URL (relative or absolute)		Location to redirect to when errors occur, instead of using a generated HTML template. Particularly necessary when using passive SSO. Overrides the redirectErrors attribute of the <Errors> element.
sessionError	local pathname		Error template to use for general processing errors. Overrides the session attribute of the <Errors> element.
metadataError	local pathname		Error template to use for general processing errors. Overrides the metadata attribute of the <Errors> element.
accessError	local pathname		Error template to use for general processing errors. Overrides the access attribute of the <Errors> element.
sslError	local pathname		Error template to use for blocking non-SSL requests that could not be redirected. Overrides the ssl attribute of the <Errors> element.
REMOTE_ADDR	string		Optional name of an HTTP request header to use for the IP address of the client. Used to divert this lookup from the REMOTE_ADDR variable to a header set by a proxy, such as "X-Forwarded-For". If you rely on this feature, you'd better ensure that the header can't be spoofed by a client.
target	URL		Allows the resources to return to after SSO to be "locked" to a specific value, even when running as a result of active protection of other resources. In other words, this value overrides the actual resource location when SSO redirection is automatic, including initial access and after a timeout.
encoding	string		Controls the encoding of attribute values exported to headers or environment variables. If omitted, the default is to encode the data as UTF8. The only supported value is "URL", which applies URL-encoding to the UTF8 data before export.
NameIDFormat	URI		NameIDPolicy Format attribute to use in authentication request. Overrides the NameIDFormat attribute of a Session Initiator.
SPNameQualifier	string		NameQualifier to use in authentication request. For instance, entityID of an EntityDescriptor with an AffiliationDescriptor.
exportStdVars	boolean	true	If true, causes the SP to export a built-in set of standard variables based on the users' session. This set includes "Shib-Identity-Provider", "Shib-Authentication-Instant", "Shib-Authentication-Method", "Shib-AuthnContext-Class", "Shib-AuthnContext-Decl", and "Shib-Session-Index". A future version of the SP may remove these built-ins in favor of explicit configuration using the Attribute Extractor of type="Assertion".
exportCookie	boolean	false	If true, causes the SP to export a variable called "Shib-Cookie-Name" with the algorithmically-generated portion of the implementation-specific cookies used by the SP to maintain sessions with users and track other state. Applications that want to unilaterally dispose of SP state and session information can delete any cookie whose name contains the value of this variable.
discoveryURL	URL		Overrides the default location used by "discovery" session initiators. Advanced option that can be used to direct the user to different discovery interfaces based on the resource accessed.
discoveryPolicy	string		Used as input to some discovery protocols that take parameters modifying discovery behavior. In the case of the type="SAMLDS" Session Initiator, this is passed as a policy parameter value.
requireLogoutWith	URL		Used in conjunction with passive protection of a resource, this property will automate a redirect to the URL specified (usually the SP's logout handler) and then a return to the location being accessed, passing control to it. Assuming SP logout proceeds successfully, this will invoke that mechanism and pass control to this resource with the SP session disposed of, enabling application logout to proceed.
exportDuplicateValues	boolean	true	If set to false, the export of attribute values to variables or headers will filter out duplicate values. This occurs per-header, so accounts for aliasing and multiply-sourced headers, but also adds some overhead to the processing of every request for larger attribute sets.