VelocityVariables

Nearly all interaction with the user agent (usually the browser, sometimes a program on the command line) is rendered via the Velocity template engine. This allows significant customizing of the output based on various properties that the IdP (and the Spring framework) make available. Prior to rendering browser pages with Velocity, the IdP makes several Velocity context variables available. Some are available in many views, while some are specific to an individual view (for instance login or attribute release consent).

In addition the Spring framework provides the deployer with the option to use additional macros. Probably the most useful macro is #springMessageText(token,'default value'), which looks up the appropriate (language specific) message property (overrideable via files in the messages directory) and returns that value or the default.

Examples of using variables and message properties can be found in the distributed templates (in the views directory).

Available variables are listed below. Many are advanced and unlikely to be needed by most deployers.

1 Variables Available in All Templates
2 Variables Available to Password Login View
3 Variables Available During Attribute Release Consent
4 Variables Available During Logout
5 Variables Available in Other Circumstances
- 5.1 Terms of Use
6 The attributeHelper
7 Examples

Variables Available in All Templates

Property	Description

Property	Description
encoder	An HTMLEncoder, allows safe HTML encoding of various types. This is further described under HtmlEncoder.
cspDigester ^5.1	A StringDigester configured to produce base64-encoded SHA-256 hashes, suitable for use in generating CSP hashes
cspNonce ^5.1	An IdentifierGenerationStrategy that produces nonces suitable for use with CSP
profileRequestContext	A ProfileRequestContext, primarily used to locate subsidiary contexts: `#set ($rpContext = $profileRequestContext.getSubcontext('net.shibboleth.profile.context.RelyingPartyContext'))` This is an advanced topic and out of scope for this page.
environment	The Spring Environment (javadoc here). This will be most frequently used to resolve properties (defined in idp.properties or other files), by calling the `getProperty` method. For instance: `environment.getProperty("idp.whatever", "default")`
request	The HttpServletRequest.
response	The HttpServletResponse
flowRequestContext	The Spring Web Flow RequestContext (javadoc here). This is an advanced topic and out of scope for this page.
flowExecutionUrl	The URL to redirect to in order to advance the flow (you’ll see this in form actions, typically)
springMacroRequestContext	A help context supplied by Spring. Primarily used to render language specific resources from the message bundles. For instance `$springMacroRequestContext.getMessage("idp.message", "An unidentified error occurred."))`
custom	The Spring bean named shibboleth.CustomViewContext. This can be whatever you define it to be (in global.xml). That bean and its content should be treated as immutable.

Variables Available to Password Login View

During password login, the templates login.vm and login-error.vm are used and have access to additional variables:

Property	Description

Property	Description
username ^5.1	A pre-existing username to populate into the form, generally from an earlier iteration of the form
rpContext ^5.1	A RelyingPartyContext object, providing access to basic information about the SP
rpUIContext	A RelyingPartyUIContext object. This object allows language sensitive rendering of specific information about the relying party (logos and so forth). This is described further here.
authenticationContext	An AuthenticationContext object. This object contains a large amount of information about the state of the authentication process.
authenticationErrorContext	An AuthenticationErrorContext object. When present (which is only after a previous login error), this provides more detailed information on the failure which can then be displayed. The default views/login-error.vm file demonstrates how the contents of this context can be used to drive language specific message lookup (as in messages/authn-messages.properties).
authenticationWarningContext	An AuthenticationWarningContext object. This isn't typically used within this view, but if warnings about account state are detected at the same time an error is also detected, it may be available.
ldapResponseContext	An LDAPResponseContext object. This isn't typically used within this view, but if warnings about account state are detected at the same time an error is also detected, it may be available.
errorMessageFunction ^5.1	A Function<ProfileRequestContext,String> which produces an error message based on the state of the request. This replaces the original login-error.vm template and the logic embedded in that view fragment with Java code but can be overridden via properties, and is backward-compatible

Variables Available During Attribute Release Consent

Property	Description

Property	Description
rpUIContext	A RelyingPartyUIContext object. This object allows language sensitive rendering of specific information about the relying party (logos and so forth). This is described further here.
attributeDisplayNameFunction	A Function takes an IdPAttribute (usually from `$attributeReleaseContext.getConsentableAttributes().values()`) and outputs the DisplayName appropriate to the browser locales.
attributeDisplayDescriptionFunction	A Function that takes an IdPAttribute (usually from `$attributeReleaseContext.getConsentableAttributes().values()`) and outputs the DisplayDescription appropriate to the browser locales.
consentContext	A ConsentContext representing the state of a consent flow (current and previous consents). Further information TBD.
attributeReleaseContext	An AttributeReleaseContext, this can be used to provide an iterable group of those attributes to which consent can be applied via the call `$attributeReleaseContext.getConsentableAttributes().values()`. Specific attributes can be found by direct lookup (`$attributeReleaseContext.getConsentableAttributes().get($attributeId)`). In Java terms, `$attributeReleaseContext.getConsentableAttributes()` is a Map.
attributeHelper	A bean named shibboleth.AttributeHelper. By default this is of type AttributeHelper but this can be set to be any bean via the property name idp.attribute.helper.

Variables Available During Logout

Property	Description

Property	Description
logoutContext	A LogoutContext, contains information to list the services accessed during the session that has been terminated
multi-rpContext	A MultiRelyingPartyContext, allows lookup of the RelyingPartyContext for each service listed in the logoutContext

Typically the RelyingPartyContext is further interrogated to get individual rpUIContexts.

#foreach ($sp in $logoutContext.getSessionMap().keySet())
  #set ($rpCtx = $multiRPContext.getRelyingPartyContextById($sp))
  #if ($rpCtx)
    #set ($rpUIContext = $rpCtx.getSubcontext("net.shibboleth.idp.ui.context.RelyingPartyUIContext"))
  #end
  #if ($rpUIContext) 
    ## Do stuff with rpuicontext - just like the login page
  #end
#end

Variables Available in Other Circumstances

Terms of Use

During terms of use consent the intercept/terms-of-use.vm view template three two properties available :

rpUIContext as used in the login case
termsOfUseId - a ConsentContext representing the state of a consent flow (current and previous consents). Further information TBD.
attributeHelper - see below

The attributeHelper

This variable is present in the ‘hello flow’ and the following intercept flows: attribute-release, expiring-password, impersonate, terms-of-use, warning-flow. It is also available in the error views for the CAS, SAML and Admin flows. By default this is of type AttributeHelper but this can be set to be any bean via the property name idp.attribute.helper. The default implementation gives easy access to the first attribute value for the specified attribute.

Examples

Locating the OpenSAML EntityDescriptor for the Relying Party

The EntityDescriptor is located in the MetadataContext. Finding this requires some navigation:

#set ($outboundContext = $profileRequestContext.getOutboundMessageContext())
#set ($samlPeerContext = $outboundContext.getSubcontext('org.opensaml.saml.common.messaging.context.SAMLPeerEntityContext'))
#set ($metadataContext = $samlPeerContext.getSubcontext('org.opensaml.saml.common.messaging.context.SAMLMetadataContext'))
#set ($spEntity = $metadataContext.getEntityDescriptor())

Show a particular HTML Element depending on the requesting SP's EntityId

#set ($spEntityId = $profileRequestContext.getSubcontext('net.shibboleth.profile.context.RelyingPartyContext').getRelyingPartyId())
...
 #if ($spEntityId.equals("https://sp.examle.org/shibboleth"))
	<a>particular HTML element</a>
 #end

Identity Provider 5