[scim] How to handle multi-valued attribute elements with none sub-attributes set

David Crome <d.crome@tarent.de> Mon, 18 May 2015 15:16 UTC

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Date: Mon, 18 May 2015 17:16:18 +0200
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From: David Crome <d.crome@tarent.de>
To: scim@ietf.org
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Subject: [scim] How to handle multi-valued attribute elements with none sub-attributes set
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Hello,

If I create a user with an multi-valued attribute e.g. an address and none
sub-attributes are set:

"addresses": [
    {

    }
]

Should the Service Provider ignore means truncated the multi-value
attribute or not accepting the user? I don't think the specification makes
this clear.
What is the definition of an empty multi-valued attribute element? The
specification don't mentioned anything about if a multi-valued attribute
element is empty and how the Service Provider should handle this.
Same for the complex attribute 'name' [1]. If the complex attribute 'name'
has no sub-attributes set, what should the Service Provider do with the
empty attribute?

I think a complex attribute or multi-valued attribute element is empty when
none sub-attribute is set, like the example above. The Service Provider
should ignore the empty attribute.

And if I create a user with an multi-valued attribute e.g. an address with
only the 'primary' sub-attribute set:

"addresses": [
    {
      "primary": true
    }
]

Should this be accepted? SCIM spec says that all sub-attributes of a
multi-valued attribute element (in this case the address) are optional [2].
I think it doesn't makes sense to accept a multi-valued attribute element
if only the meta sub-attribute 'primary' is set.

I think in this case the user should not be accepted because the attribute
is not complete.

Another one: In case of the multi-valued attribute 'emails' the
sub-attribute 'value'  "...SHOULD be specified according to [RFC5321]". But
what if the 'value' attribute is missing? Same for the other multi-valued
attributes with the possibility to validate the 'value' sub-attribute.

What do you think?

Greetz,
David

[1] https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-scim-core-schema-20#section-2.3.8
[2] https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-scim-core-schema-20#section-4.1.2

-- 
David Crome
Softwareentwicklung
tarent solutions GmbH

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[scim] How to handle multi-valued attribute eleme… David Crome
Re: [scim] How to handle multi-valued attribute e… Phil Hunt