SSO/Identity Provider Plugins

From Authentication Tools for Joomla! (JAuthTools)

Identity Provider Plugins are a type of plugin that is designed to handle Identity Requests from remote systems. Examples of Identity Provider plugins include OpenID, SimpleSSO and SOAP SSO.

Within the SSO framework, a type B or C SSO plugin may rely on an identity provider to handle provision of identity. Typically type A SSO plugins will not directly use an identity provider, however there is no requirement. The distinction usually is that SSO plugins are attempting to log the user into a local site where as the identity provider is there to handle remote requests for authentication. This can be handled transparently (e.g. the user is never bothered unless they need to login automatically redirecting them) or interactively (the user is presented with queries). In some cases a mix of the two may occur with backend systems validating their own data (e.g. OpenID's authentication mechanism).