User Interface Elements in Metadata
Meeting Baseline Expectations
As of the implementation of the Baseline Expectations program in 2018, additional user interface elements are mandatory (these are noted below). InCommon, however, recommends adding all user elements to your metadata. For more information, see the Baseline Expectations wiki page.
User interface elements in Federation metadata are used by downstream applications to construct rich, dynamic user interfaces (UIs). Specifically, user interface elements in IdP metadata are used for the discovery and error pages at the SP, while user interface elements in SP metadata are used for the login, consent, and error pages at the IdP. The goal is to unify the various user interfaces associated with cross-domain single sign-on, thereby enhancing the overall user experience.
The InCommon Federation Manager has these input fields for user interface elements:
| User Interface Element | Required? | Recommended? |
|---|---|---|
| Display Name | Yes | Yes |
| Description | No | Yes |
| Information URL | No | Yes |
Privacy Statement URL | Yes | Yes |
| Logo URL | Yes | Yes |
By submitting these fields, the administrator adds the corresponding user interface elements to metadata. See the following help pages for guidance:
REFEDS's Simple Steps for Successful Federated Login also provides good general information for improving your users' experience.
To better understand how the user interface elements are used, the InCommon Federation entity information pages display the values of all user interface elements on dynamic web pages. The information pages are refreshed daily, in parallel with InCommon metadata.
Technical Details
The SAML V2.0 Metadata Extensions for Login and Discovery specification defines an <mdui:UIInfo> extension element in SAML metadata. InCommon supports the following child elements of the <mdui:UIInfo> element:
<mdui:DisplayName><mdui:Description><mdui:InformationURL><mdui:PrivacyStatementURL><mdui:Logo>
An example follows:
<!-- User Interface Elements for InCommon IdPs and SPs -->
<md:Extensions>
<mdui:UIInfo xmlns:mdui="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:metadata:ui">
<mdui:DisplayName xml:lang="en">...</mdui:DisplayName>
<mdui:Description xml:lang="en">...</mdui:Description>
<mdui:InformationURL xml:lang="en">...</mdui:InformationURL>
<mdui:PrivacyStatementURL xml:lang="en">...</mdui:PrivacyStatementURL>
<!-- the actual width and height of the image are input by the user -->
<mdui:Logo width="130" height="80">...</mdui:Logo>
</mdui:UIInfo>
</md:Extensions>