About entitlement profile specifiers
In Active Roles, entitlement profile specifiers are configuration objects that govern the process of building and presenting the entitlement profile. Each specifier holds information about a single resource that allows Active Roles to determine whether a given user is entitled to the resource and, if the user appears to be entitled, what information about that resource to include in the user’s entitlement profile.
An entitlement profile specifier holds the following information:
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Entitlement Type: Specifies a way in which a user gets entitled to the resource.
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Entitlement Rules: Provide a way to determine whether a given user is entitled to the resource.
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Resource Display: Specifies how to represent the resource in the entitlement profile.
The following topics elaborate on each of these information blocks.
Entitlement type
The entitlement type setting is basically intended to determine the entitlement target object—the object to which Active Roles applies the entitlement rules when building the entitlement profile. Entitlement types can be classified by how a user’s entitlement to a resource is configured:
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Personal resource entitlement: Configured by setting certain attribute of the user’s account itself. In this case, the user’s account plays the role of the entitlement target object.
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Shared resource entitlement: Configured by adding the user to a certain security group. In this case, the group plays the role of the entitlement target object.
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Managed resource entitlement: Configured by assigning the user to the manager or owner role for a certain object. In this case, the object managed or owned by the user plays the role of the entitlement target object.
The following table summarizes the types of entitlement.
Table 53: Types of entitlement
Personal resource entitlement |
The user’s account has certain resource-specific attributes set in the directory. |
The user’s account |
Shared resource entitlement |
The user’s account belongs to a certain security group in Active Directory. |
The user’s group |
Managed resource entitlement |
The user’s account is specified as the primary owner (manager) or a secondary owner of a certain object in the directory. |
The object managed or owned by the user |
Entitlement rules
When building a user’s entitlement profile, Active Roles uses a specifier’s entitlement rules to tell whether the user is entitled to the resource represented by that specifier. The rules are evaluated against the entitlement target object. If the object matches the rules, then Active Roles regards the user as entitled to the resource, and adds information about the resource to the user’s entitlement profile.
Entitlement rules can be classified by rule condition as follows:
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Explicit exclusion: The rule condition is a list of directory objects. If the entitlement target object occurs in that list, it is regarded as not matching the rules.
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Explicit inclusion: The rule condition is a list of directory objects. If the entitlement target object occurs in that list, it is regarded as matching the rules.
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Filter-based exclusion: The rule condition is one or more filters each of which represents certain requirements on an object’s location and properties. If the entitlement target object satisfies the requirements of at least one filter, then it is regarded as not matching the rules.
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Filter-based inclusion: The rule condition is one or more filters each of which represents certain requirements on an object’s location and properties. If the entitlement target object satisfies the requirements of at least one filter, then it is regarded as matching the rules.
For more information on how Active Roles applies entitlement rules, see About entitlement profile build process.
Resource display
For each resource that is to be included in the entitlement profile, Active Roles applies entitlement rules to single out the appropriate specifier and then it uses the resource display settings of that specifier to build the entitlement profile’s section that displays information about the resource.
The resource display settings include the following:
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Resource type icon: Graphics that helps distinguish the type of the resource in the entitlement profile.
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Resource type name: Text string that identifies the type of the resource in the entitlement profile.
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Resource naming attribute: Entitlement target object’s attribute whose value is used to identify the resource in the entitlement profile.
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Other resource-related attributes: List of the entitlement target object’s attributes whose values are to be displayed in the entitlement profile.
The entitlement profile’s section for a given resource is divided into two areas:
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Heading: Displays the resource type icon, resource type name, and value of the resource naming attribute.
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Details: Lists the names and values of the resource-related attributes.
The Details area can be customized by adding HTML code to a certain attribute of the user account for which the entitlement profile is being built. The LDAP display name of that attribute should be supplied in the edsaHTMLDetailsAttribute of the entitlement profile specifier. As a result, Active Roles renders that HTML code instead of displaying the attributes list in the Details area.