Cannot resolve 'ExternalAuthn' to a type definition for element 'LoginHandler'.

[Brent Putman]

On 10/31/11 3:34 PM, Kaustubh Nagraj wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> I was not clear about how the external authentication system works. When
> we use the ExternalAuthn login handler in the handler.xml, does the
> externalAuthnPath refer to the URL to which the IdP gets redirected to?


There's no redirect; the request is forwarded to that endpoint, in the
Java Servlet spec sense of the term forward.


> 
> Or does it go there to find out login information about whether or not
> user is already logged in.


The *IdP* itself doesn't "go there"; the HttpServletRequest is forwarded
there.  The code at that endpoint (Servlet, Filter, JSP, etc) does
whatever it's going to do to authentication the user.

Once the user is authenticated, the code returns control back to the IdP
using the mechanism described on the wiki page, and also on the
LoginHandler interface docs:


http://svn.shibboleth.net/view/java-shib-idp2/branches/REL_2/src/main/java/edu/internet2/middleware/shibboleth/idp/authn/LoginHandler.java?view=markup

> 
> I was imagining it to be setup such that the IdP goes to the URL
> specified and the servlet at the said URL then can be used to log the
> user in and then can set the properties required by the IdP before
> coming back to the IdP endpoint.


Sort of, except the IdP doesn't "go to" that URL, depending on what you
mean by that.  It's an internal Java servlet forward.  And yes - that
endpoint must set some properties as required by the LoginHandler
interface contract and returns controls back to the AuthenticationEngine.