>
> > With so many possible variants of authentication
> > methods (Classic Athens, AthensDA, UK Federation via
> institutional IdP, UK
> > Federation via Athens-to-Shibboleth gateway, non-UK
> Federation), many
> users
> > would just not know which login button to choose in the
> first scenario.
> > Describing how the user should choose correctly would be a
> nightmare.
>
> Yes, in the abstract. However, isn't any particular user likely
> to be told (locally on site) to "do <this>" to access a particular
> resource?
>
I think we should try to make things as clear for the users as possible,
and not rely on them having been told to follow a route that they don't
necessarily understand. Would any user understand why they had to change
from using an "Athens" button to a "UK Federation" button when the SP
removed their native Athens interface and their institution started using
the Athens-to-Shibboleth gateway, only to be taken back (eventually) to
the same Athens login page ?
> > It's likely that we will adopt the solution of a customised
> WAYF for all
> > users for remote login to the MIMAS CrossFire service when
> we release the
> UK
> > Federation route to CrossFire shortly. We will have to keep
> a record of
> > which institutions are using which authentication route so
> that we can
> > present the correct one to the user, but that's not too
> difficult with a
> > service like Crossfire where we have a limited number (about 80) of
> > subscribing institutions.
>
> Are you in the happy position that each institution is guaranteed to
> want to use only one access mechanism at a time? E.g., consider
> an institution where most users are using Athens but they have a
> pilot-stage Shibboleth IdP as well, and they want to be able
> to use both.
> "Knowing" the required access mechanism for the University of X from
> a list implies there is only one. That was one reason we didn't go
> for an Athens-enabled WAYF like this.
>
> Fiona.
>
>
In that case we could just add e.g. "<institution name> (Shib test)" as
an additional entry in our customsied WAYF.
Sean
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