1.0 Understanding the REST Driver

REST (Representational State Transfer) is an HTTP-based protocol used for Internet communication. REST is the widely emerging standard for applications across World Wide Web, Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, distributed systems, cloud-based services, web services and other business critical applications. A RESTful service is implemented using the HTTP protocol and the principles of REST.

The Identity Manager driver for REST enables identity provisioning and data synchronization between an Identity Vault and any RESTful service.

The driver is not targeted to a specific Web service. The driver is a generic shim that handles the HTTP transport of data between an Identity Vault and a RESTful service. For this driver, a RESTful service is defined as an application that uses HTTP as the transport protocol. The REST driver provides interfaces to transform events and data between Identity Vault and connected system. The driver also exposes REST endpoints that enables Identity Manager to function as a RESTful service.

The driver provides the following key features:

  • Supports Anonymous, Basic, and OAuth2.0 authentication

  • Supports XML/JSON based requests between the Identity Manager and any RESTful services

  • Provides interfaces to extend driver functionalities

  • Exposes the REST endpoints that enables CRUD operation to be done in RESTful way on Identity Vault

  • Supports password synchronization

This section provides the following information for the REST driver: