By default eduTEAMS Discovery Service lists all eduGAIN IdPs for user to select from. This is not always desirable and eduTEAMS Discovery Service offers possibility to filter out IdPs. This allows SP admin to craft a list (or several lists) specifically targeting the user base of the SP. If for nothing else, the filtering should be used to hide IdPs not meant to be shown for 'normal' end user i.e. IdPs having entity category http://refeds.org/category/hide-from-discovery.

Creating the filter - eduTEAMS Filter Generator

The filter is generated using eduTEAMS Filter Generator.

https://discovery.eduteams.org/filter.php

The Generator is able to create two types of filters, you may filter entities based on entity categories or based on entity ids.

Allow and Deny lists of entity categories

You may create both allow and deny lists of entity categories.

If allow list is defined, all IdPs not matching at least one of the categories on it are filtered out.
If deny list is defined, all IdPs matching any of the categories on it are filtered out.

Allow or Deny list of IdPs

You may create allow or deny list of IdPs.

If allow list is defined, all IdPs not on it are filtered out.
If deny list is defined, all IdPs on it are filtered out.

This example shows how to list all IdPs not tagged as hidden. This is the main use case to setup list of all eduGAIN IdPs.

Navigate to filter generator, https://discovery.eduteams.org/filter.php.

Click open the 'select entity categories' - accordion. You should now see all the possible entity categories to choose from in a grey box.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 12.31.28.png

Move http://refeds.org/category/hide-from-discovery to red box.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 12.31.48.png

At the bottom of the page you should see the resulting filter and it's plaintext version.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 12.32.03.png

Show all IdPs not belonging to category http://refeds.org/category/hide-from-discovery.

This example shows how to list only IdPs tagged with Research and Scholarship entity category.

Navigate to filter generator, https://discovery.eduteams.org/filter.php.

Click open the 'select entity categories' - accordion. You should now see all the possible entity categories to choose from in a grey box.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 8.34.04.png

Move http://refeds.org/category/research-and-scholarship to green box. Move also http://id.incommon.org/category/research-and-scholarship.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 8.34.41.png

At the bottom of the page you should see the resulting filter and it's plaintext version.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 8.35.11.png

Show only IdPs having atleast one of the categories http://refeds.org/category/research-and-scholarship and http://id.incommon.org/category/research-and-scholarship.

This example shows how to list a specific set of IdPs.

Navigate to filter generator, https://discovery.eduteams.org/filter.php.

Click open the 'select individual IdPs' - accordion. You should now see all the possible IdPs to select from.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 9.01.33.png

Make sure that the radio - button 'Selected IdPs will be visible' is checked. Select the entities you want the user to pick the IdP from.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 9.01.59.png

At the bottom of the page you should see the resulting filter and it's plaintext version. Note that by picking individual IdPs you will easily end up with a large filter and you need to set it by reference.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 9.02.36.png

Show only IdPs https://idp.aalto.fi/idp/shibboleth, https://birk.wayf.dk/birk.php/wayf.au.dk and https://shibboleth.aber.ac.uk/shibboleth-TST.

Merging two filter types

When both entity categories and idp list filters are used together, the list shown comprises of IdPs not filtered out by categories filter with possible additions of IdP allow list or possible deductions of IdP deny list. The assumption is that SP creates the base of the rules using categories filtering and then possible exceptions to those rules by Allow/Deny lists of IdPs.

This example shows how to list all IdPs tagged with Research and Scholarship entity category and a specific set of IdPs.

Navigate to filter generator, https://discovery.eduteams.org/filter.php.

Click open the 'select entity categories' - accordion. You should now see all the possible entity categories to choose from in a grey box.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 12.48.22.png

Move http://refeds.org/category/research-and-scholarship to green box. Move also http://id.incommon.org/category/research-and-scholarship.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 12.49.04.png

Click open the 'select individual IdPs' - accordion. You should now see all the possible IdPs to select from.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 12.49.18.png

Make sure that the radio - button 'Selected IdPs will be visible' is checked. Select Aalto entity (not belonging to mentioned categories at the time of the writing).

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 12.49.29.png

At the bottom of the page you should see the resulting filter and it's plaintext version.

eduGAIN > Filtering IdPs > Screen Shot 2017-08-23 at 12.49.51.png

Show https://idp.aalto.fi/idp/shibboleth and any IdP having at least one of the categories http://refeds.org/category/research-and-scholarship and http://id.incommon.org/category/research-and-scholarship.

Applying the filter in discovery request

The filter generated with the tool is set as query string parameter to discovery request. It can be set either by value or by reference. The maximum length for discovery request query parameters by some browsers is 512 bytes. If the filter is large exceeding that value you should set the filter by reference.

Filter by value - filter

https://discovery.eduteams.org/wayf.php?filter=eyJhbGxvd0hvc3RlbCI6dHJ1ZSwiYWxsb3dIb3N0ZWxSZWciOnRydWV9Cg==

<SSO
    discoveryProtocol="SAMLDS"
    discoveryURL="https://discovery.eduteams.org/wayf.php?filter=eyJhbGxvd0hvc3RlbCI6dHJ1ZSwiYWxsb3dIb3N0ZWxSZWciOnRydWV9Cg==">
    SAML2 SAML1
</SSO>

'default-sp' => array(
    'saml:SP',
    'entityID' => 'https://sp.example.com/simplesaml/',
    'idp' => NULL,
    'discoURL' => 'https://discovery.eduteams.org/wayf.php?filter=eyJhbGxvd0hvc3RlbCI6dHJ1ZSwiYWxsb3dIb3N0ZWxSZWciOnRydWV9Cg==',
    'privatekey' => 'example.key'
),

Filter by reference - efilter

https://discovery.eduteams.org/wayf.php?efilter=www.example.com/filter

where contents of www.example.com/filter would be

eyJhbGxvd0hvc3RlbCI6dHJ1ZSwiYWxsb3dIb3N0ZWxSZWciOnRydWV9Cg==

<SSO
    discoveryProtocol="SAMLDS"
    discoveryURL="https://discovery.eduteams.org/wayf.php?efilter=www.example.com/filter">
    SAML2 SAML1
</SSO>

'default-sp' => array(
    'saml:SP',
    'entityID' => 'https://sp.example.com/simplesaml/',
    'idp' => NULL,
    'discoURL' => 'https://discovery.eduteams.org/wayf.php?efilter=www.example.com/filter',
    'privatekey' => 'example.key'
),