There is considerable interest in leveraging SAFIRE and eduGAIN to integrate with the various library information providers, such as academic content, journal, and database publishers. Information providers variously term this “Shibboleth”, “SAML” or “Institutional” logins, and in most cases are already integrated with other federations around the world.
The following documents the integration status of various providers in SAFIRE.
Association for Computing Machinery
- Status
- Working
- Login link terminology
- Institutional Login
- Notes
- Libraries can follow the documentation link, or contact ACM support and request Shibboleth access (see documentation).
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
AIP Publishing
- Status
- Tested, Working
- Login link terminology
- Access through your institution
- Notes
American Institute of Physics (AIP) tested.
Libraries can follow the documentation link below, or contact AIP support and request Shibboleth access (see documentation).
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
American Chemical Society (Publications)
- Status
- Tested, Working
- Login link terminology
- Find my institution
- Status since
- January 2021
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
American Chemical Society (CAS/Scifinder)
- Status
- Tested, Working
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact CAS Customer Center to request access. Libraries need to also generate a WAYFless URL of the form https://sso.cas.org/sp/startSSO.ping?TargetResource=https%3A%2F%2Fscifinder-n.cas.org%2F&PartnerIdpId={{idp_proxy_entityid}} using their proxied entity id.
- Status since
- January 2021
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
American Institute of Aeronautics (AIAA | ARC)
- Status
- Tested, Working
- Login link terminology
- Find your institution
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact AIAA / ARC support and request access.
- Status since
- September 2025
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
American Society of Civil Engineers
- Status
- Tested, Working
- Login link terminology
- Find your institution
- Notes
ASCE Library.
Libraries need to contact ASCE Customer Service and request Shibboleth access (see documentation -> Remote Access Options).
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
American Physical Society
- Status
- Tested, Working
- Login link terminology
- Find your institution
- Notes
Physical Review Journals.
Libraries need to contact American Physical Society support and request Shibboleth access (see documentation -> Shibboleth/Institutional Single Sign-on/OpenAthens)
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
American Phytopathological Society
- Status
- Tested, Working
- Login link terminology
- Find your institution
- Notes
APS Online Publications tested.
Libraries need to contact American Phytopathological Society support and request Shibboleth access.
- Status since
- September 2025
American Psychological Association
- Status
- Tested, Working, Discovery problem (See Notes)
- Login link terminology
- Get access via your Institution
- Notes
Psyctests, Psycinfo, Psycarticles.
Libraries need to contact American Psychological Association support to request SAML (Shibboleth) access (see documentation).
Discovery problem - Once your institution is set up, select your institution’s name from the 'OpenAthens' drop-down menu. This list, labelled 'OpenAthens', also includes institutions using SAML (sometimes called Shibboleth).
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
American Society of Microbiology
- Status
- Tested, Working
- Login link terminology
- Institutional Login
- Notes
ASM Journals.
Libraries need to contact American Society of Microbiology support to enable federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access . (see documentation)
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
Anatomy.tv
- Status
- Tested, working, Discovery problem (see notes)
- Login link terminology
- UK Shibboleth
- Notes
Primal Pictures
Libraries need to contact support to enable federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access (see documentation).
Discovery problem - Once your institution is set up, to login you need to click on "UK Shibboleth". You then can type the name of your institution to be redirected to your login page.
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
British Online Archives
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Sign in/Access through your institution
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact BOA Sales to enable federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access (see documentation).
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
BioOne
- Status
- working (but untested)
- Login link terminology
- Find your institution
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
CABI Digital Library
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Find your institution
- Notes
- Libraries need to request their institution account be configured to use Institutional Access (see documentation).
- Status since
- September 2018
- Documentation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
Cambridge Core
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Institutional login
- Notes
- Libraries need to set an appropriate value for eduPersonScopedAffiliation within the Cambridge admin portal.
- Status since
- September 2018
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
Company of Biologists
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Sign in via Shibboleth
- Notes
- Libraries can follow admministrators documentation and add 'Shibboleth Information' in the admin dashboard.
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
Dawsonera
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Shibboleth login
- Notes
- Libraries need to generate a WAYFless URL of the form https://www.dawsonera.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID={{idp_proxy_entityid}}&target=https://www.dawsonera.com/depp/shibboleth/ShibbolethLogin.html?dest= using their proxied entity id and send it to Dawson support to get themselves listed.
- Status since
- March 2019
De Gruyter Brill
- Status
- working, untested
- Login link terminology
- Manage Access/Add institutional acess/Access through your institution
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact De Gruyter Brill Customer Service Team to request federated (Shibboleth) access be enabled. Libraries will need to provide their institution’s proxied entity id (See documentation).
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
EBSCO
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Institutional Login
- Notes
- Libraries need to set an appropriate value for eduPersonScopedAfilliation within the EBSCOadmin portal.
- Status since
- September 2018
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
Elsevier ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, Engineering Village, ClinicalKey, and Knovel
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Other institution
- Notes
Libraries need to generate a WAYFless URL of the form https://auth.elsevier.com/ShibAuth/institutionLogin?entityID={{idp_proxy_entityid}}&appReturnURL={{url-encoded-target}} using their proxied entity id and send it to Elsevier support to get themselves listed.
The notes hear refer to ScienceDirect. However, Scopus, SciVal, Engineering Village, ClinicalKey, and Knovel are known to work in the same way.
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
Emerald Insight
- Status
- Tested, works
- Login link terminology
- Login
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact Emerald support and request Shibboleth access is enabled, after which logins via a WAYFless URL work.
- Status since
- March 2018
- Documentation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
Encyclopædia Britannica
- Status
- Tested, working
- Notes
- Libraries need to provide Encyclopædia Britannica with their proxied entity id. A WAYFless URL of the form https://shibboleth.eb.com/shibboleth.sso/UKF-DS?entityID={{idp_proxy_entityid}}&target={{url-encoded-target}} will be generated for each product. Some issues have been reported using entity ids that are not properly URL encoded for a WAYFless URL (use the encoded version).
- Status since
- July 2023
- Documentation
Gale Cengage
- Status
- Tested, works
- Login link terminology
- Access through your institution
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact Gale Centage customer support and request access.
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
GeoScienceWorld
- Status
- Tested, works
- Login link terminology
- Sign In via Shibboleth
- Notes
- Libraries need follow the 'OpenAthens and Shibboleth' section in the documentation.
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
HeinOnline
- Status
- Tested, works
- Login link terminology
- Access Through Your Institution
- Notes
Libraries need to contact HeinOnline support to enable federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access .
Once access has been enabled, lbraries can also generate a WAYFless URL of the form https://heinonline.org/HOL/WAYFless?entityID={{idp_proxy_entityid}}&target=https://heinonline.org/HOL/Welcome using their proxied entity id.
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
HSTalks
- Status
- Tested, works
- Login link terminology
- Select Your Institution
- Notes
Henry Stewart Talks
Libraries need to contact HSTalks support to enable federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access (see discovery page If your institution is not listed) for more information.
- Status since
- September 2025
IEEE Xplore
- Status
- Tested, works
- Login link terminology
- Institutional Sign In
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact IEEE support supplying their proxied entity id to enable federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access . IEEE will provide a WAYFless URL of the form https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/servlet/wayf.jsp?entityId={{idp_proxy_entityid}}&url={{url-encoded-target}} (it may help to generate this yourself and test beforehand). However, they also support SeamlessAccess for login.
- Status since
- July 2023
- Documentation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
IET Digital Library
- Status
- Tested, works
- Login link terminology
- Find your institution
- Notes
Institution of Engineering and Technology
Libraries need to contact IET Digital Library support to enable federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access .
- Status since
- September 2025
iG Library
- Status
- Tested, works
- Login link terminology
- Sign in with Shibboleth/OpenAthens
- Notes
iG Publishing
Libraries need to contact iG Publishing support to enable federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access .
- Status since
- September 2025
IOP Science
- Status
- Tested, works
- Login link terminology
- Athens / Institution login
- Notes
- Libraries need to supply IOP with their proxied entity id to enable federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access . IOP recommends using a WAYFless URL.
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
JAMA Network
- Status
- Tested, Working
- Login link terminology
- Access through your institution
- Notes
American Medical Association.
While there is some information available at the documentation link, and at Access through your institution, it is unclear what libraries exactly need to do to enable Federated Access. Unless it is not clear in the admin portal, libraries should contact JAMA Network support for more information, or assistnce on enabling federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access .
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
- https://jamanetwork.com/pages/institutions-and-librarians
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
JSTOR
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Login via an institution
- Notes
- Libraries need to generate a WAYFless URL using their proxied entity id and send it to JSTOR support to get themselves listed. Can negotiate specific values of eduPersonScopedAffiliation.
- Status since
- September 2018
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments)
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Sign into JoVE by selecting your registered institution below
- Notes
- Libraries need to provide JoVE support with their proxied entity id and the eduPersonScopedAffiliation they will use.
- Status since
- April 2021
- Documentation
kanopy
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Find Your University
- Notes
- Libraries need to ask kanopy to enable
Shibboleth
and send them their proxied entity id. It may help to mention that your metadata is already exported to the UK Access Federation via eduGAIN.
- Status since
- December 2019
Karger
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Login/Access via Shibboleth and OpenAthens
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact Karger support and request federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access (see documentation).
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
- https://karger.com/pages/institutional-access
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
Kortext
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Sign in to browse your university library
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact Kortext support and request Login access be enabled, using their proxied entity id. It may help to mention that your metadata is already exported to the UK Access Federation via eduGAIN
- Status since
- May 2020
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
Kluwer Law Online
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Go to OpenAthens & Shibboleth/find your institution
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact Kluwer Law Online support and request federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access be enabled. Technical support contact form is available at the login page
- Status since
- September 2025
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
LexisNexus International
- Status
- Tested, discovery problem
- Login link terminology
- Use Academic Sign-in
- Notes
- Metadata for South African institutions exists, and a WAYFless URL reaches the right identity provider. LexisNexus indicate support UK Fed and InCommon. Needs an institution using LexisNexus.com to engage with them about the next steps.
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
LexisNexus South Africa
- Status
- No support, contacted, on roadmap
- Notes
Thus far, both SAFIRE & two universities have reached out to LexisNexus SA about this. LexisNexus SA have indicated that it is on their roadmap for investigation starting in September 2020. [TENET:4612]; as of October 2025 engagements continue with LexisNexus SA indicating they’d like to participate in a trial [TENET:0163142].
Entity is the same as LexisNexis global, so in theory metadata exists.
- Status since
- October 2025
Marketline/GlobalData
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Sign in via Shibboleth
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact their Marketline account manager and request federated (Shibboleth) access be enabled (See documentation).
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
- https://www.marketline.com/wp-content/uploads/MLA_IPaccess_instructions.pdf
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
MathWorks
- Status
- Tested, working
- Notes
- Institutions need to contact MathWorks to enable; will need to supply an appropriate scoped affiliation. The
mail
attribute is used to match existing profiles and set them for SSO.
- Status since
- August 2023
- Authorization attribute(s)
MathSciNet
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Access through your institution
- Notes
American Mathematical Society
Institutions need to contact MathSciNet to enable federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access .
- Status since
- September 2025
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
McGraw-Hill Education (Access Engineering)
- Status
- Tested, Working
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact McGraw-Hill and request access be enabled, using the proxied entity id and the correct value of eduPersonScopedAffiliation.
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
McGraw-Hill Medical
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Sign in via Shibboleth
- Notes
Libraries need to contact McGraw-Hill and request access be enabled, using the proxied entity id and the correct value of eduPersonScopedAffiliation.
Supports wayfless URLs of the form https://mhmedical.com/SignInShibboleth.aspx?view=handler&federationID=27&redirecturl=http%3a%2f%2fmhmedical.com%2fumbrella-index.aspx&entityId={{idp_proxy_entityid}} which can be customised for specific products (e.g. accesspharmacy.mhmedical.com)
- Status since
- February 2021
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
Nature.com / SpringerNature
- Status
- Tested, discovery problem
- Notes
Metadata for South African institutions exists, and a WAYFless URL reaches the right identity provider. At least one university has reported that this works correctly. However, there’s no obvious end-user method of reaching an institutional login page.
There is, however, a user guide available at the documentation link on how to use your institutional credentials to sign in via SeamlessAccess.
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
- https://media.springernature.com/full/springer-cms/rest/v1/content/17802526/data/v5
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
Newsbank
- Status
- Not working. Engaged at SANLiC2019
- Notes
- Appears to require a WAYFless URL of the form http://infoweb.newsbank.com/shibboleth?wl={{idp_proxy_entityid}}, however doesn’t send an AuthN request with South African entities.
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
ORCID
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Institutional account
- Notes
- Individuals need to link their institutional account with an existing ORCID identifier. Supports wayfless URLs of the form https://orcid.org/Shibboleth.sso/Login?SAMLDS=1&target=https://orcid.org/shibboleth/signin&entityID={{idp_proxy_entityid}}
- Status since
- February 2017
- Documentation
Ovid SP
- Status
- working, untested
- Login link terminology
- OpenAthens | Institutional
- Notes
- While SAFIRE IdP’s are found at OpenAthens | Institutional, they are not necessarily authorised to access the service. No documentation has been found on what libraries need to do to enable federated (Shibboleth/institutional) access, but the most likely course of action would be to contact Ovid SP support to request that access be enabled for your institution.
- Status since
- September 2025
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
Oxford University Press
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Sign in through your Institution
- Notes
- At least the following products are known to be working Oxford Music Online, Oxford Journal Collection, Oxford Research Encyclopedias, and OUP Law
- Status since
- September 2025
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
PNAS
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Access through your institution
- Notes
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)
Institutions need follow documentation on enabling remote access. You will need your institutions proxied entity id to complete the confirguration at the institutional subscriber account page.
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
- https://www.pnas.org/librarians
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
PubMed
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- More login options/Find your login provider
- Notes
National Library of Medicine
Libraries need to contact Support to find out more about enabling federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access .
- Status since
- September 2025
ProQuest
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Use your institution’s local login
- Notes
- Enable in the ProQuest Administrator Module Several ProQuest Databases are known to be working, as well as Dissertations & Theses Global.
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
ProQuest (RefWorks)
- Status
- Not tested, contacted at SANLiC2019
- Login link terminology
- Use login from my institution
- Notes
- WAYFless login works, not sure what else needs to be done.
Radiological Society of North America
- Status
- Not tested
Royal Society of Chemistry
This provider directly participates in SAFIRE
- Status
- Tested, Working
- Login link terminology
- Log in via your home institution
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact RSC support to get access enabled.
- Status since
- June 2020
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
Sabinet African journals
This provider directly participates in SAFIRE
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Institutional Access
- Notes
- While Sabinet is a direct participant in SAFIRE, Sabinet African journals uses Atypon SP and is learnt via interfederation. To enable, contact Sabinet Client Support
- Status since
- June 2021
- Documentation
Sabinet Discover
This provider directly participates in SAFIRE
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Sign in/sign in with Your Institution
- Notes
- While Sabinet is a direct participant in SAFIRE, libraries may need to contact Sabinet Client Support to enable federated (SAML/sometimes called Shibboleth) access for Sabinet Discover (see documentation).
- Status since
- June 2021
- Documentation
SAGE Journals
- Status
- working, untested
- Login link terminology
- Institution
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact Sage Online Technical Support to request Federated (Shibboleth) Access. See documentation.
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
SpringerLink
- Status
- No SA institutions listed by default
- Login link terminology
- Log in via Shibboleth or Athens
- Notes
- A WAYFless URL allows login; not sure what else needs doing.
Taylor & Francis Online
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Shibboleth
- Notes
- Institutions will need to have their unique organisation ID/scope registered to their account to permit access to their users. Institutional administrators can enter their Shibboleth credentials themselves, or provide T&F with the details and they can add this to their account on their behalf.
- Status since
- March 2018
- Authorization attribute(s)
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
Thieme Connect
- Status
- Tested, working, discovery problem
- Login link terminology
- OpenAthens/Shibboleth Login
- Notes
- Institutions need to contact their support representative to request access. They will need to provide their proxied entity id. At the moment, South African entities appear under “Great Britain (UK Federation)”. Thieme is aware of this and working on a solution [TENET:0022281]. However, it can be worked around with a properly constructed WAYFless URL containing a Base64-encoded JSON object (SAFIRE can help you generate this).
- Status since
- June 2021
- Authorization attribute(s)
Web of Science / Web of Knowledge (Clarivate Analytics)
- Status
- Tested, discovery problem
- Login link terminology
- Institutional sign in
- Notes
- Appears under UK Federation
- Status since
- June 2021
Westlaw UK (Thomson Reuters)
- Status
- Tested, working
- Login link terminology
- Access through academic federation
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact their support representative and request Shibboleth access. They will need to provide their proxied entity id. No ARP because Thomson Reuters have not published a privacy policy.
- Status since
- August 2019
- Authorization attribute(s)
Wiley
- Status
- Test, working
- Login link terminology
- Search for your institution
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact Wiley support and complete a Shibboleth (Federated Access) Request Form.
- Status since
- August 2017
- Documentation
- Authorization attribute(s)
- eduPersonScopedAffiliation
This provider appears to have adopted SeamlessAccess for login, which is a new standard that greatly improves the user experience.
World Scientific
- Status
- Test, working
- Login link terminology
- Find your Institution
- Notes
- Libraries need to contact Customer Care to enable federated (Shibboleth) access. libraries will also need their institution’s proxied entity id as part of the process (See documentation).
- Status since
- September 2025
- Documentation
If there’s something missing from the above, the information is out of date (or you know something we don’t), or you’d simply like to help us unlock one of the other information providers, please contact us! Our experience is it takes one or two interested libraries to help make the first connection, and then the entire community benefits from improved access.
Systems librarians interested in such integrations might also want to consider subscribing to the safire-libs@lists mailing list.
Values needed by information providers
Metadata
Publishers and information providers may ask you for a copy of your institution’s SAML/XML metadata, or for a URL where this can be downloaded from. Metadata is needed for a one-to-one (bi-lateral) setup and the provider may assume that this is what you’re trying to do. However, it should not needed for federated login — if they participate in federation, the provider should already have your metadata which they’ve learnt via eduGAIN and from another federation.
Reinforce that you’re trying to set up a federated SAML authentication and ask them to check and see if they’ve learnt metadata for your entity ID (see below) from eduGAIN. You might be able to see the provider listed on met.refeds.org which would confirm this is the case. (It might also be useful to know that majority of the publishers and information providers listed here are registered via the UK Access Management Federation, and that SAFIRE learns metadata from them via eduGAIN.)
If you can’t get beyond this step, please contact us and put us in touch with them.
Entity ID
You will usually be asked for an entity ID or IdP identity. Entity IDs are globally unique persistent identifiers (think of them as like an ORCID iD or DOI for a specific service- or identity-provider). Yours uniquely identifies your institution’s identity provider to the service.
If the provider is accessing your identity provider via eduGAIN, the value they will need is your institution’s proxied entity ID. You can get this by finding on your institution in our list of identity providers and looking at the Metadata entityID
field. Note: it always starts with https://proxy.safire.ac.za/…
.
Wayfless URLs
You may also be asked to make use of a “Wayfless” URL. Different providers have different mechanisms for constructing these, so you will need to refer to the providers’s documentation. However, they will always involve a URL-encoded version of your entity ID — to get this, find your institution in our list of identity providers and then click on the Metadata entityID
field to expand it. This will display other forms of the entity ID, including the Wayfless entityID
for you to copy-and-paste.
Our colleagues at the UK Access Management Federation have also developed a very useful utility that can generate a Wayfless URL for you.
eduPersonScopedAffiliation
You may be asked for affiliation or scoped affiliation values. These are the values your institution sets for eduPersonScopedAffiliation and will be a value like member@example.ac.za
. You may be able to figure out the correct ones by logging into our test service provider, but generally you should confirm them with your own identity provider administrator or IT support staff.
eduPersonScopedAffiliation uses a controlled vocabulary with member
being the most permissive term. So member@example.ac.za
is akin to saying “all staff, students, and affilates of example.ac.za”. If you are licensing resources to specific subsets of your community, you may want a more specific term. However, check with your IdP admin for what your institution supports!
eduPersonEntitlement
If you are asked for an entitlement value, you will most likely use urn:mace:dir:entitlement:common-lib-terms
as described in the common-lib-terms specification and eduPersonEntitlement. However, note that SAFIRE does not release this by default so this will only work if we’ve explictly enabled it (which will be the case for ones marked as working that require this).
Attributes
SAFIRE’s default attribute release policy releases the attributes most commonly needed by library and information providers in support of pseudonymous access. We also release the correct attributes for any provider marked as working above. However, if a provider tells you they require more/other attributes, you will need to let us know (preferably with a reference to documentation).
Hints from other federations
Other federations have links to providers’ documentation that may prove useful to those trying to get this to work: