Policy Server Guides › Policy Server Configuration Guide › Strong Authentication › Establish a Front-End Authentication Scheme › Use a Forms Credential Collector (FCC)

Use a Forms Credential Collector (FCC)

The FCC format is a proprietary format used by SiteMinder Web Agents to collect credentials and pass them to the Policy Server. An FCC consists of a header and a body.

FCC Header Description

An FCC header is a list of FCC directives, one per line. The FCC directives have the following syntax:

@<directive>[=<value>]

The values may contain % substitutions, formatted as %parameter%. The parameters are passed with the FCC file on a POST action when the credentials are submitted.

There is a limited set of FCC directives. For the purposes of this example, the most important directives are:

• @target

  Resource URL that the Web Agent must pass to the Policy Server

• @username

  Username that the Web Agent must pass to the Policy Server

• @password

  Password that the Web Agent must pass to the Policy Server

• @smagentname

  Agent name that the Web Agent must pass to the Policy Server. If the EncryptAgentName parameter in the Agent's configuration is set to yes, the name is encrypted.

Not all FCC directives need to be listed in the header; many have implicit defaults, such as:

• @target=%target%
• @username=%username%
• @password=%password%
• @smagentname=%smagentname%

FCC Body Description

The FCC body contains HTML or other web-browser readable format. It is rendered in the web browser when the user is challenged.

The body may contain substitutions, formatted as $$parameter$$. The parameter name must belong to a certain set of known parameters that are passed with the FCC file on a GET action.

For the purposes of this example, the important directives are:

• $$target$$

  Resource URL that the user has requested

• $$smagentname$$

  Web Agent's name. If the EncryptAgentName parameter in the Agent's configuration is set to yes, the name will be encrypted