VERSION 1.1a
August 15, 2005

Welcome
Contents
Requirements
Bugs
Support
Documentation


Welcome to Internet2's OpenSAML
-------------------------------

OpenSAML is an implementation of SAML 1.0 and 1.1
(http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/security/).
Java and C++ APIs are provided.

Please review the terms described in the LICENSE file before
using this code. It is now the Apache 2.0 license.

Finally, be aware that RSA Security Inc. has asserted a patent claim
against all implementations of SAML. Their terms for licensing
can be found at http://www.rsasecurity.com/solutions/standards/saml/

As a SAML toolkit, OpenSAML may be subject to this claim and developers
may obtain a royalty-free license from RSA directly. Internet2 and
OpenSAML's developers are not responsible for anyone's failure to
do so, and take no position on the validity of this claim.


Contents:
---------

OpenSAML can be obtained directly from anonymous CVS as described in
http://www.opensaml.org/cvs.html

Separate source distributions for Java and C++ also exist and can be found
at http://wayf.internet2.edu/shibboleth/

The CVS layout of the C++ project is as follows:

opensaml/
    c/
        bootstrap           (shell script to generate configure files)
        docs/				(documentation)
        dependencies		(patches and RPM specs for dependencies)
        saml/               (OpenSAML C++ source)
        schemas/            (XML schemas used)
        test/				(test programs)

The C++ source distribution is a standard configure/make/install package
with a prebuilt configure script and Makefiles. RPMs may also be available
for certain platforms and we encourage donation of additional packaging
scripts or platform maintainers.


Requirements:
-------------

The INSTALL.txt file contains information on how to build the C++ code.
The following is a list of the basic dependent libraries and suggested
versions needed:

gcc/g++ GNU compiler 3.x    http://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/
OpenSSL 0.9.7               http://www.openssl.org/
libcurl	7.14.0              http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/
log4cpp 0.3.5rc1            http://wayf.internet2.edu/shibboleth/
(*) Xerces-C 2.6.1          http://wayf.internet2.edu/shibboleth/
xml-security 1.2.0          http://xml.apache.org/security/

(*) The latest Apache-supplied version of Xerces is 2.6.0, but there are
fatal issues created because of changes in this release, as well as various
critical outstanding bugs left unfixed. A special 2.6.1 release with fixes
applied has been created by the Shibboleth Project for use with OpenSAML
and Shibboleth. The OpenSAML configure script will detect and block the
use of 2.6.0.

Reporting Bugs:
---------------

A bugzilla is available at http://bugzilla.internet2.edu/


Support:
--------

A mailing list for users is available. Subscription instructions are
provided at http://www.opensaml.org/index.html#mailing


Documentation:
--------------

There will (still) hopefully be C++ docs via doxygen soon. There are no explicit
samples yet, but there are test programs and higher level code in the
Shibboleth codebase that would help a novice see what some of the classes
do. An understanding of SAML also helps.
