1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

claim: (1) A set of operations that are performed on a workflow task to specify the user who owns it.

(2) A statement that one subject makes about itself or another subject. For example, the statement can be about a name, identity, key, group, privilege, or capability. Claims have a provider that issues them, and they are given one or more values. They are also defined by a claim value type and, possibly, associated metadata.

claim type: A statement that is part of a claim (2) and provides context for a claim value. It represents the type of claim and is typically a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). Examples include FirstName and Role.

claim value: A string that represents the value of a statement in a claim (2). It specifies what is being asserted by a claim.

claim-based authentication mode: A set of operations that is used to establish trust relationships between claims providers and relying party applications. It involves the exchange of identifying certificates that make it possible for a relying party to trust the content of a claim (2) that is issued by a claims provider.

claims provider: A software component or service that can be used to issue a claim (2) during sign-in operations and to display, resolve, and provide search capabilities for claims in a card selector.

claims provider schema: A schema that is used to specify which fields can be returned as metadata for a claim (2) that is issued by a specific claims provider.

directory service (DS): A service that stores and organizes information about a computer network's users and network shares, and that allows network administrators to manage users' access to the shares. See also Active Directory.

group: A named collection of users who share similar access permissions or roles.

hierarchy provider: A code structure that defines a hierarchy.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): An application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS): An extension of HTTP that securely encrypts and decrypts web page requests. In some older protocols, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Sockets Layer" is still used (Secure Sockets Layer has been deprecated). For more information, see [SSL3] and [RFC5246].

login name: A string that is used to identify a user or entity to an operating system, directory service, or distributed system. For example, in Windows-integrated authentication, a login name uses the form "DOMAIN\username".

site: A group of related pages and data within a SharePoint site collection. The structure and content of a site is based on a site definition. Also referred to as SharePoint site and web site.

SOAP: A lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment. SOAP uses XML technologies to define an extensible messaging framework, which provides a message construct that can be exchanged over a variety of underlying protocols. The framework has been designed to be independent of any particular programming model and other implementation-specific semantics. SOAP 1.2 supersedes SOAP 1.1. See [SOAP1.2-1/2003].

SOAP action: The HTTP request header field used to indicate the intent of the SOAP request, using a URI value. See [SOAP1.1] section 6.1.1 for more information.

SOAP body: A container for the payload data being delivered by a SOAP message to its recipient. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5.3 for more information.

SOAP fault: A container for error and status information within a SOAP message. See [SOAP1.2-1/2007] section 5.4 for more information.

Status-Code: A 3-digit integer result code in an HTTP response message, as described in [RFC2616].

Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): A string that identifies a resource. The URI is an addressing mechanism defined in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax [RFC3986].

Uniform Resource Locator (URL): A string of characters in a standardized format that identifies a document or resource on the World Wide Web. The format is as specified in [RFC1738].

web application: (1) A container in a configuration database that stores administrative settings and entry-point URLs for site collections.

(2) A software application that uses HTTP as its core communication protocol and delivers information to the user by using web-based languages such as HTML and XML.

Web Services Description Language (WSDL): An XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints that operate on messages that contain either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. The operations and messages are described abstractly and are bound to a concrete network protocol and message format in order to define an endpoint. Related concrete endpoints are combined into abstract endpoints, which describe a network service. WSDL is extensible, which allows the description of endpoints and their messages regardless of the message formats or network protocols that are used.

WSDL message: An abstract, typed definition of the data that is communicated during a WSDL operation [WSDL]. Also, an element that describes the data being exchanged between web service providers and clients.

WSDL operation: A single action or function of a web service. The execution of a WSDL operation typically requires the exchange of messages between the service requestor and the service provider.

XML namespace: A collection of names that is used to identify elements, types, and attributes in XML documents identified in a URI reference [RFC3986]. A combination of XML namespace and local name allows XML documents to use elements, types, and attributes that have the same names but come from different sources. For more information, see [XMLNS-2ED].

XML namespace prefix: An abbreviated form of an XML namespace, as described in [XML].

XML schema: A description of a type of XML document that is typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, in addition to the basic syntax constraints that are imposed by XML itself. An XML schema provides a view of a document type at a relatively high level of abstraction.

XML schema definition (XSD): The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard language that is used in defining XML schemas. Schemas are useful for enforcing structure and constraining the types of data that can be used validly within other XML documents. XML schema definition refers to the fully specified and currently recommended standard for use in authoring XML schemas.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.