Single Sign-On Service › SSO Policy Server Configuration Guide › Responses and Response Groups › Responses

Responses

A response passes static text, user attributes, DN attributes, customized active responses, or the runtime values of defined variables from the Policy Server to a CA SiteMinder® Agent. Responses can be used by servlets, Web applications, or other custom applications to display customized content, change CA SiteMinder® settings, or redirect users to different resources. When working with Web applications, responses can be used as privileges or entitlements for fine-grained access control.

A policy contains rules and responses which are bound to users and user groups. In a policy, responses are bound to specific rules or rule groups. When a rule fires, the associated response returns information to a CA SiteMinder® Agent.

Responses take the form of name/value pairs. When a rule is triggered, the Policy Server returns the paired response to the CA SiteMinder® Agent.

For example, if a user attempts to access a protected Web page, but is not authorized to view the contents of the page, a response can redirect the user to an HTML page that indicates the user does not have access, and provide details for contacting a system administrator.

For Web Agents, CA SiteMinder® adds response attributes to HTTP header variables or HTTP cookie variables so that the responses are available to the Web resource or application named in the rule. In a RADIUS environment, the response is returned to the RADIUS client.