Re: [higgins-dev] IdAS Attribute data model

["Marc Boorshtein" <mboorshtein@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is a very similar issue that ldap virtual directories have in
dealing with "joined" data.  To stick with the analogy Mary has blue
eyes and blond hair.  Blue eyes may come from one source and brown
hair may come from another.  To the application Mary just has blue
eyes and brown hair, it doesn't much care where the data is coming
from.  There are instances however where the source is an issue
(primarily in updating the user's data).  For this reason a few
virtual directories (Oracle VirtualDirectory and MyVirtualDirectory
off the top of my head) include an attribute that identifies where
data came from if the application or the system needs it.  Then
between the knowledge of the source information and generally some
type of configuration that maps attribute x to source a and attribute
y to source b the virtual directory can make a decision as to where
each attribute comes from when needed.  There are still issues if
values for the same attribute come from different sources, but these
are generally manageable through mapping and are pretty rare.

One thing I've yet to understand about the IdAS is how in fact does it
build relationships between sources?  In a virtual directory there is
generally a "router" that traverses the DIT.  I understand the IdAS is
not an ldap directory but I don't follow how the relationships are
made, or is that the responsibility of a higher up process?

Marc