Component Configuration Document
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Component Configuration Document
At the heart of the Microsoft® .NET Passport network is the .NET Passport Nexus, which facilitates synchronization of .NET Passport participating sites to assure that each site has the latest details on network configuration and other issues. Each .NET Passport component (Passport Manager, Login servers, Update servers, and so on) periodically communicates with the Nexus to retrieve the information it needs to locate, and properly communicate with, the other components in the .NET Passport network. This information is retrieved as an XML document called a Component Configuration Document, or CCD.
Generally, CCDs contain the following types of information:
- Domain Map—A listing of all the valid .NET Passport domain authorities, and the locations of all the Login, Update, and other servers for each domain authority. Passport Manager uses this information for tasks such as forming the appropriate URL used in the LogoTag2-generated .NET Passport link. Information in this section can be retrieved by calling the GetDomainAttribute method of the Passport Manager object for the requested attribute.
- Profile Schema—The current schema for the .NET Passport core profile.
All communications with the Nexus are performed by HTTPS protocol (Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) over HTTP) and password-protected to help protect the authenticity of the Nexus itself. Microsoft .NET Passport components and participating sites retrieve their CCDs from the Nexus at the following times:
- When Passport Manager is installed; a default CCD is shipped as part of Setup.
- At wake-up time (when the service starts and when the component is first loaded).
- When the CCD expires (all CCDs are marked with an expiration date).
- Periodically, at a configurable interval (daily, for example), while the component is running. The default interval is 24 hours.
- Immediately whenever an error is encountered that may be because of an inaccurate CCD ("Server not found," for example).
A new CCD will not be loaded after the server is stopped and restarted until a page containing Passport Manager is actually viewed. The Passport Manager object must first be instantiated on a viewed page before background loading of the CCD can be performed, because the object is created only in page scope.
Microsoft .NET Passport can add new Core profile attributes by adding a new attribute's definition to the core profile definition CCD, and also by modifying each participating site's Partner.xml CCD. Between them, these CCDs define all the profile schemas that Passport Manager understands. After the updated XML document is active or has been updated on a .NET Passport participating site, any newly defined attribute may be referenced using the Profile property of the Passport Manager. If any change has been made to the core profile, the core profile VersionNumber increments by one. (This is not the same thing as ProfileVersion, which declares how many changes a user has made to his or her core profile values.)
CCDs include version information and an informational node, near the beginning of the file. Include this version information of the Partner.xml file currently on your servers whenever you inquire about technical issues that may be related to Partner.xml misconfiguration.
You must never edit the CCD. It is used by the Nexus to ensure that your site has all of the latest configuration updates. Editing it will cause your site to function incorrectly and with unpredictable results. The CCD document is designed to receive updates from the Passport Nexus only. Do not set this document to read-only or set file permissions that prevent it from being overwritten.
See Also