Federation Manager Guide › User Directory Connections for Authentication › Create a Common View of the Same User Information Across Directories › Establish Connections to User Directories › Expression Use Case

Expression Use Case

This use case shows how you can use an expression attribute mapping to simplify references to multiple user attributes in one directory. A protected resource needs the sort name of each user (last name,first name). The user directory does not uniquely reference this attribute. Instead, the directory does store the last name of each user as surname and the first name of each user as givenname.

The following illustration details how an expression attribute mapping can create a common view of the same user information.

In the single user directory, a common name is mapped to an expression that creates the sort name using the user attribute names in the directory.

• Directory A contains all user records.
• The name of the mapping is SortName.
• The expression that defines SortName is:

  {surname + "," + givenname}
  

  Note: The expression conforms to the syntax rules of a SiteMinder expression. For complete syntax information, see the Attributes and Expression Reference appendix in the SiteMinder Policy Server Configuration Guide in the SiteMinder bookshelf.

• SortName is the common name that is mapped to the expression that includes the surname and the givenname attributes.

Reference SortName when defining assertion attributes or NameID attributes that require the sort name of users without concern for the directory-specific schema.

More information:

Advanced User Attribute Mapping Examples