Shibboleth SP: Data loss when a POST triggers a redirect to re-authenticate

[Scott Koranda]

> Oh, fantastic.  Thanks for drawing my attention to that.  Looking over the
> docs I'm not fully clear on how it works.  So I will need a StorageService,
> which I specify with the postData attribute.  

You most likely can edit the <Sessions> element and add to it the
attributes

postData="ss:mem"
postTemplate="/etc/shibboleth/postTemplate.html"

After restarting both shibd and Apache HTTP Server give it a try and it
will most likely "just work".

Later you can look in detail at the post template and customize it as
necessary.

> Is the form something generic
> that's called on redirects with POSTs, or is that an example of fields we
> need to build into our app?  I"m fuzzy on how the postTemplate form fits in.

When the POST comes in without a valid SP session the form data will be
saved in memory (the configuration value of 'ss:mem').

Later after the session is established but before returning control to
the application the SP will send your browser the HTML content of
postTemplate filled with the form data that was saved in memory. The
default post template includes Javascript that will most likely just
work and re-submit the form via POST, but this time with a valid SP
session so it should be passed through to your application for
consumption.

If it doesn't "just work" you will need to use some browser tooling and
turn up logging for Apache HTTP Server to examine precisely what is
being sent up and down and adjust the template if necessary.

Usually it does just work.

Scott K