org.identityconnectors.framework.spi.operations

Interface DiscoverConfigurationOp

All Superinterfaces:

SPIOperation

public interface DiscoverConfigurationOp
extends SPIOperation

Operation interface for configuration discovery, check and recommendation. This interface is used for several purposes. Firstly, it can be used to check whether minimal connector configuration is correct (e.g. that username and password are correct), without the need to have a complete connector configuration. Secondly, the connector can use partial configuration to discover other configuration details, and suggest them to system administrator. E.g. LDAP connector can read root DSE and discover base contexts provided by LDAP server, then suggest the base contexts are values for the baseContext connector configuration property. Overall, this operation can support an interactive way for connector configuration.

The discovery process is supposed to work as follows:

1. Create new connector facade with minimal configuration. This usually means just hostname, username and password. Note: Mind the connector pool size when creating this configuration. We really want minimal pool size set to zero. This connector instance is supposed to be very short-lived. We do not want it to stay in the pool for a long time.
2. Invoke testPartialConfiguration() method on the facade. If the method returns without an exception the provided configuration is correct, e.g. connection to the server was established, the username/password is correct.
3. Invoke discoverConfiguration() method on the facade. The connector will try to use the connection to discover additional configuration options, suggesting values for configuration properties.
4. Interact with user. Present the suggested values to the user, let user choose the right values, add additional configuration, etc.
5. Apply the values chosen by the user to a new APIConfiguration, creating a new connector facade. This is supposed to be a fully-configured, production-ready facade.
6. Use the new facade as usual.

The discovery process is usually used only once. Once the correct connector configuration is determined, the discovery is no longer needed.

In theory, the discovery process can be iterative. The configuration suggested by discoverConfiguration() can be used to create another temporary facade, on which the discoverConfiguration() is called again. This process can be repeated as long as the discoverConfiguration() returns empty collection. However, we expect that a single-iteration processes will be the usual case.

Tips for creating connectors with discoverable configuration:

• Allow minimal configuration for the connector. Define only a very small set of mandatory configuration properties. Validate only those properties for presence in validate() method of connector configuration object. (Of course, it is perfectly OK validating proper formats of any property that has a value.) Keep the validations simple.
• Make a more in-depth validations in test() and testPartialConfiguration() methods. These methods are supposed to make a connection to the resource. Therefore, they can validate much more that just data formats. They can validate that a particular value is valid for that particular system.

Since:

1.5.2.0

Author:

Radovan Semancik

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
Map<String,SuggestedValues>	discoverConfiguration() Discovers additional configuration properties.
void	testPartialConfiguration() Tests partial configuration of the connector.

Method Detail

testPartialConfiguration

void testPartialConfiguration()

Tests partial configuration of the connector. It is similar to TestOp, however, it is supposed to be much more forgiving. While the TestOp.test() is supposed to test complete connector configuration, making sure that all features of the connector are working, this method does not make such a completeness requirement. The testPartialConfiguration() is supposed to test the very minimal configuration set, which is usually just a set of mandatory configuration properties. For most connectors this will be probably just a hostname, username and password.

This method returns successfully if the minimal configuration is correct, i.e. the connector could at least establish a basic connection to the resource. Return from this method does NOT indicate that connector is fully operational. This method will raise an appropriate exception in case that the configuration test fails.

Development note: Currently the connector does not have any means to know which configuration properties were explicitly configured, and which were set to default values. Therefore the connector does not know what parts of the configuration should be tested. E.g. CSV connector has "," as default value for separator. Connector has no way to tell whether the "," was explicitly configured by system administrator (hence it should test it), or it was set as a default value (hence it should NOT test it). For now, this is unlikely to be a major problem. There is probably some very basic set of configuration properties that are intuitively understood sa minimal configuration. Later, if that would cause problems, we can add a method to AbstractConfiguration or Configuration that could be used to retrieve a list of properties that were explicitly configured.

Throws:

RuntimeException - if the minimal configuration is not valid or the test failed. Implementations are encouraged to throw the most specific exception available. When no specific exception is available, implementations can throw ConnectorException.

discoverConfiguration

Map<String,SuggestedValues> discoverConfiguration()

Discovers additional configuration properties. The connector is supposed to use minimal configuration to connect to the resource, then use the connection to discover additional configuration properties. Discovered configuration properties are returned from this method (if any).

Only discovered values are present in the map. There is no need to add all configuration properties, or even repeat the configured values. Empty map means no suggestions, i.e. the current configuration is complete. Empty list of values in a specific means that there are no valid values. The connector suggests that the property should be configured with no value at all (null). In that case the connector knows that there should be no values. On the other hand, if a suggestion for a particular property is not present, the connector does not make any suggestion. The connector does not know anything about the property. Note: It may be difficult to distinguish explicitly configured properties and default values. Please see note in testPartialConfiguration() description.

Single-valued configuration properties can have multiple suggestions, e.i a list of suggested values can be returned. Individual suggested values should be considered to be options. One of them (or none at all) should be selected by the user. Similar approach applies to multi-valued configuration properties. However, in that case more than one of the values can be selected. I.e. the user can choose any combination of the suggested values (or no value at all).

Note: So far there is no support for suggesting several combinations of multi-valued configuration properties. This can be added later, by allowing suggested values to be collections (lists). However, this is not supported yet. For now the suggested values must be primitive (i.e. non-complex, non-collection) data types. We do not want to support it now, as it can be confusing in case that the value itself is complex (e.g a map). Therefore we leave this decision for the future when the design for complex values is more mature.

Returns:

Collection (map) of discovered configuration values. If no values can be discovered, empty collection should be returned. Null is not a legal return value.