The mailing list for users of the eduroam Configuration Assistant Tool (CAT)

[Zenon Mousmoulas <zmousm AT noc.grnet.gr>]

On 2015-11-06 11:51, Stefan Winter wrote:
> > I imagine however that it would not be too hard to have an
> > opt-in registry of CAT instances. The app could then query this 
> > registry
> > for available API endpoints or allow user input in an "advanced
> > preferences" UI that would allow changing the active CAT instance. 
> > Would
> > that work?
>
> As written earlier - this defeats the purpose of the app.
>
> "For *automatic* discovery of your IdP, go to Settings, Advanced, 
> Choose
> API endpoint, select '$OBSCURE_URL' ... ?
>
> I don't see this as a viable option for usability reasons.

From a usability perspective I think it is an OK compromise, if it 
achieves the goal of allowing multiple CAT instances to be used by a 
single Android app. It doesn't need to be $OBSCURE_URL, the registry 
could be populated with a title, description...[1] also localized 
versions of all that, so the app user can search for and select 
something that does makes sense to them. The registry could even have 
disco hints, which perhaps may allow automatic selection of an instance, 
somewhat similar to auto-discovery of IdP.

It's just another layer of metadata :)

Such a thing would also come in handy if you want to test something on, 
say, cat-test.eduroam.org, although I recall that profiles can be fed 
manually to the Android app (opened manually with the app).

Cheers,
Z.

[1] I suppose a CAT API version/level may also be necessary eventually.