In order to better position REFEDS schema definitions for future evolution, the Schema Editorial Board proposes the adoption of a standard that normative REFEDS Schema documents avoid protocol and syntax specific terminology. This will enable documents that define schema attributes and values to do so independent of any transport level or syntax considerations. Specifics would be spelled out in separate "auxiliary" documents. For example, excluding SAML specific language from various person schema specifications will help avoid ambiguity or confusion if the "same" schema were then expressed in OIDC.
The Board proposes that new schema documents must meet this standard as part of their incubation process. Existing schema documents may be updated over time.
Examples: VoPerson Object Class Definition for the LDAP Protocol and VOperson, SAML profile.
For discussion: The normative form of most existing schemas is LDAP object classes. The Internet2 Software Integration Working Group is working toward a more abstract specification language for schema. This work is introduced in the document TAP Attribute Terminology. These normative specifications will be collected into A TAP Attribute Dictionary. For implementation in code, subsets of the attributes in the dictionary can be mapped to a choice of syntaxes, representations, and/or protocols as needed.
Proposed Document Relationships
| Code Block |
|---|
Schema Editorial Board | +-REFEDS/TAP Attribute Dictionary * | | | +-Representations | | | +-JSON | +-XML | +-RFC4512 | +-YAML | +-REFEDS Profiles | | | +-eduPerson * | | | | | +-Protocols | | | | | +-LDAP | | | | | +-LDIF | | +-SAML | | +-OIDC | | | +-SCHAC * | | | +-Protocols | | | +-LDAP | +-SAML | +-OIDC | +-TAP Protocols | +-TAP ID Match Protocol * |
(This diagram includes Internet2 TAP work that could ultimately be merged with/into the SEB management structure.)
Items denoted with a * get their own git repositories for versioning.