Preface

The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 C API Reference provides a listing of application programming interfaces (API) you can use to enable C applications to access the Sun OpenSSO Enterprise components. The C API Reference includes function descriptions and syntax.

Who Should Use This Book

The C API Reference is intended for use by IT professionals, network administrators and software developers who implement a network access platform using Sun servers and software. It is recommended that readers of this guide are familiar with the following technologies:

• C Programming

• Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Specifications

• eXtensible Markup Language (XML)

• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

• HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

• HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

Related Documentation

Related documentation is available as follows:

• OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Core Documentation

• Related Product Documentation

OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Core Documentation

The OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 core documentation set contains the following titles:

• The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Release Notes will be available online after the product is released. It gathers an assortment of last-minute information, including a description of what is new in this current release, known problems and limitations, installation notes, and how to report issues with the software or the documentation.

• The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Technical Overview provides high level explanations of how OpenSSO Enterprise components work together to protect enterprise assets and web-based applications. It also explains basic concepts and terminology.

• The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Deployment Planning Guide provides planning and deployment solutions for OpenSSO Enterprise based on the solution life cycle

• The Deployment Example: Single Sign-On, Load Balancing and Failover Using Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 provides instructions for building an OpenSSO solution incorporating authentication, authorization and access control. Procedures for load balancing and session failover are also included.

• The Deployment Example: SAML v2 Using Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 provides instructions for building an OpenSSO solution incorporating SAML v2 federation. Installation and configuration procedures are included.

• The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Installation and Configuration Guide provides information for installing and configuring OpenSSO Enterprise.

• The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Performance Tuning and Troubleshooting Guide provides information on how to tune OpenSSO Enterprise and its related components for optimal performance.

• The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Administration Guide describes administrative tasks such as how to create a realm and how to configure a policy. Most of the tasks described can be performed using the administration console as well as the ssoadm command line utilities.

• The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Administration Reference is a guide containing information about the command line interfaces, configuration attributes, internal files, and error codes. This information is specifically formatted for easy searching.

• The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Developer’s Guide offers information on how to customize OpenSSO Enterprise and integrate its functionality into an organization’s current technical infrastructure. It also contains details about the programmatic aspects of the product and its API.

• The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 C API Reference for Application and Web Policy Agent Developers (this guide) provides summaries of data types, structures, and functions that make up the public OpenSSO Enterprise C SDK for application and web agent development.

• The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Java API Reference provides information about the implementation of Java packages in OpenSSO Enterprise.

• The Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Policy Agent 3.0 User’s Guide for Web Agents and Sun OpenSSO Enterprise Policy Agent 3.0 User’s Guide for J2EE Agents provide an overview of the policy functionality and policy agents available for OpenSSO Enterprise.

Updates to the Release Notes and links to modifications of the core documentation can be found on the OpenSSO Enterprise page at docs.sun.com. Updated documents will be marked with a revision date.

Related Product Documentation

The following table provides links to documentation for related products.

Searching Sun Product Documentation

Besides searching Sun product documentation from the docs.sun.com^SM web site, you can use a search engine by typing the following syntax in the search field:

search-term site:docs.sun.com

For example, to search for “broker,” type the following:

broker site:docs.sun.com

To include other Sun web sites in your search (for example, java.sun.com, www.sun.com, and developers.sun.com), use sun.com in place of docs.sun.com in the search field.

Documentation, Support, and Training

The Sun web site provides information about the following additional resources:

• Documentation (http://www.sun.com/documentation/)

• Support (http://www.sun.com/support/)

• Training (http://www.sun.com/training/)

Third-Party Web Site References

Third-party URLs are referenced in this document and provide additional, related information.

Sun is not responsible for the availability of third-party web sites mentioned in this document. Sun does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, or other materials that are available on or through such sites or resources. Sun will not be responsible or liable for any actual or alleged damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods, or services that are available on or through such sites or resources.

Sun Welcomes Your Comments

Sun is interested in improving its documentation and welcomes your comments and suggestions. To share your comments, go to http://docs.sun.com and click Send Comments. In the online form, provide the full document title and part number. The part number is a 7-digit or 9-digit number that can be found on the book's title page or in the document's URL. For example, the title of this book is Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Technical Overview, and the part number is 820–3740.

Typographical Conventions

The following table describes the typographic conventions that are used in this deployment example.