Before adding items to any of the attribute schema managed by the REFEDS Schema Editorial Board, some proof of the utility of that attribute via real-world use cases is desired.


From SCHAC Plan (2018): "The existence of the "experimental" SCHAC branch should be reconsidered. Relying Parties should be spared the configuration work (changing the OID or formal attribute name for a given attribuet) only because it was decided that it turned out to be useful and hence has been copied over to the "production" branch (thereby changing the attribute's formal name, essentially creating a completely different, new attribute)."


Proposed process

New attributes for eduPerson, SCHAC, or any other schema managed by the REFEDS Schema Editorial Board, will require four steps before being considered a production-ready attribute in the associated schema.

  1. A community member must submit their proposed attribute for discussion through the schema-discuss@lists.refeds.org mailing list. If there is enough support, the Schema Editorial Board will form a subcommittee to work out the detailed definition for that attribute.
  2. When the subcommittee has come to consensus on the detailed definition, the proposed attribute will go for community consultation.
  3. At the conclusion of consultation, if the consensus is positive, the Schema Board will add the attribute to the schema, tagging it as "Experimental".
    1. An "experimental" tag indicates the attribute may be changed or removed if there is no evidence that it is meeting the need as described in the initial proposal.
  4. For the attribute to be moved to the production-ready part of the schema, there needs to be at least two instances of this attribute in use as intended between an IdP and an SP.


If and when the attribute is moved to production-ready, the "experimental" tag will be removed; the OID will remain the same.