Login and WAYF design advice for Publishers & Service Providers
Login and WAYF design
A number of UK institutions have commented on the disparity between the terminology used on different publishers’ login pages, e.g. 'Login via Shibboleth', 'Login via the UK federation', 'Login via your home organisation' and publishers' customised WAYFs. JISC has completed a study on the impact of this, and is currently developing a business case in line with the recommendations in the Publisher Interface Report. In the meantime the following general advice and guidance is provided and should be followed by publishers and other service providers.
Login terminology
We do not recommend using the term 'Shibboleth' or 'Federation' because users will not know what these mean, and the terms are misleading for those accessing resources using software other than shibboleth.
For publishers which have both Athens and federated access management users
| 'Login via Athens or your home organisation' or 'Login via Athens or your home institution' |
It should be noted that if all the subscribing institutions to a particular publisher are UK Federation members and have a registered federation compliant solution (which includes Shibboleth and Open Athens), the publisher may consider that having a separate Athens login button and Athens subscription is redundant. The removal of such button and ending of an Athens subscription in that scenario would allow a reduced scope for user confusion and obviously permit cost savings on service provision. If a publisher does take this action, they should however ensure that they have communicated this information to all their subscribers.
For publishers which only have federated access management users
| 'Login via your home organisation' or 'Login via your home institution' |
Where Are You From (WAYF)
UK federation WAYF
As a service provider you can use the UK federation WAYF, which lists all the UK institutions and identity providers that have registered their Identity Provider (IdP) with the UK federation. Institutions will automatically be added to the UK federation WAYF when they register their IdP with the UK federation.
Publisher WAYF
If you provide a service to more than one country we recommend you develop your own WAYF which can be branded according to your corporate guidelines. We recommend the following wording:
|
'Please select your country' [list countries where you have federation membership]
'Please choose your home organisation' [list organisational customers that are members of the federation] |
The user is then redirected to their home organisation login page to authenticate.
Informing your UK institutional customers
It is important to contact your institutional customers to:
- Confirm if they are happy for their organisation to be added to your WAYF
- Provide them with a WAYFless url
- Inform them which attributes you will require in order for users to gain access
- Confirm which access methods you will be providing from 1 August 2008 eg. OpenAthens, OpenAthensSP, Shibboleth, IP, username & pw, referring URL
If you have any questions about this information, please get in touch with the JISC Access Management Team at
jisc-access-management@jiscmail.ac.uk