Dear all,

I'm very sorry that such a long time has elapsed before I could get back 
to the list with more information about this problem. It took a long 
time for me to get the information I needed.

I now believe that this problem is due to an SSL bug, and is only 
provoked by some combinations of SSL versions at the IdP and SP, so it 
doesn't affect everybody. The IdP doesn't receive the attribute request 
from the SP because an SSL error is raised. I have advised Elsevier as 
to how they might resolve it at their end, but I don't know how long 
that might take.

In the meantime, then, for Shibboleth IdPs you should be able to resolve 
it by updating the Java on the IdP to the latest version (a good idea 
anyway for performance and security reasons). I can confirm that this 
worked for one organisation (the University of Leeds).

If anyone is still experiencing this particular issue and would like 
more information then please email me. I believe that those who reported 
this problem in addition to the University of Leeds were:

University of Liverpool
University of Warwick
University of Strathclyde
Brunel University

I note that De Montfort University also reported a problem, but it 
cannot be the same one, because attribute retrieval works differently 
for OpenAthens LA.

I don't think that this is related to the Science Direct issue that has 
been discussed today on the lis-e-resources mailing list in which users 
see an error message about an invalid username/password combination.

Regards,

Sara Hopkins
UK federation support team

On 22/09/2011 12:29, Jonathan Hooper wrote:
> Is anyone else experiencing problems when accessing Science Direct
> through the UK federation?
>
>
>
> This problem does not show up when we access it directly (we have
> direct access from our campus IP addresses), only when accessed
> through the federation
>
> We can login fine - a search reports the number of matches, and the
> facets on the left-hand side are populated, but the results
> themselves are completely empty
>
> The publishers say they cannot replicate this but we see it
> consistently with different user accounts, different browsers,
> different machines and locations, and I cannot see there could be
> anything at the Leeds end that would explain the service not working
> properly
>
>
>
>
> Jonathan
>
>
>
>
>
> Jonathan Hooper Leeds University Library Systems Team
>

-- 
Sara Hopkins
Support Team
UK Access Management Federation for Education and Research
web:    http://www.ukfederation.org.uk/

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.