MetadataProvider, Loading your own metadata?

[Scott Koranda]

On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 12:40 PM, Cantor, Scott <cantor.2 at osu.edu> wrote:
> On 10/1/13 3:10 PM, "Zmuda, Matthew R" <Matthew.R.Zmuda at td.com> wrote:
>
>>Is it necessary to load your own metadata file in IDP relying-party.xml
>>in MetadataProvider?
>>I noticed our IDP config does load its own metadata which we share with
>>our partners. However I don¹t understand why its there so I removed it
>>and SSO seems to still work as expected.
>
> There are some little used features that unfortunately rely on it but it's
> unlikely you'd run into any of them. The other place it gets used is as
> input to NameID format selection algorithm.
>

When there is time I would be grateful if you could provide details on
how the IdP's
metadata is used as input to the NameID format selection algorithm.

I have read this wiki page

https://wiki.shibboleth.net/confluence/display/SHIB2/IdPNameIdentifier

but I did not immediately understand how the IdP's own metadata is used
as part of the selection algorithm.

What have I missed?

Thanks,

Scott K