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

[paffrath <paffrath AT dfn.de>]

Hello,

> On 06 Nov 2015, at 13:56, Tom Ivar Myren 
> <tom.myren AT uninett.no>
>  wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> Nice to see that our local CAT front-end has sparked off an interesting 
> discussion.
> 

Yes, thx, to bring "CAT web design up".

> Our original idea for the national eduroam page was to simply link users to 
> the cat.eduroam.org site. 
> Then Jørn suggested using the API to make this look and feel more like the 
> rest of our webpages - his testing convinced us that a separate end-user UI 
> was cleaner and simpler for most users, and we ended up with the solution 
> you are now aware of. 
> We still link administrators to cat.eduroam.org, and all profiles are 
> fetched from CAT (the code acts as a client). 
> Tomasz - looks like you are doing the same (as I read the below), with the 
> difference that we at the moment offer all profiles not just one 
> institution.
> 
> Our intention was certainly not to offend anyone, CAT developers have done 
> a great job!
> We see this as utilising the possibilities of the API, and giving our 
> national users a UI where it is clear that this is UNINETT supported. 
> (Local users are more familiar with UNINETT than Geant). 
> Through this discussion we learned that the API actually changed somewhat 
> from CAT 1.0 to 1.1, and will adapt. (By using both generateInstaller and 
> downloadInstaller)
> We did choose to not display all information during download and 
> installation as we did not see that it was needed. (This is such as 
> Helpdesk info and whatever is added under Installer Fine-Tuning)
> 
> In our opinion a model with CAT as the central repository for all profiles 
> is best.

Might be, but if the central profile repository is beyond your country we 
have to discuss about legal certainty, I mean in case of a bugged repository 
and may I remind you to the SecureW2 affair, we can’t exclude this. 

> The web design and user interaction does not have to be centralised, just 
> like every institution has its own helpdesk for eduroam problems. 
> 

agreed, good point.

> We have registered a couple of requests to make our implementation 
> available and our intention is a version of our «connect» page which uses 
> CAT as a single source of truth. 
> First we want to adjust it so that one can limit which institutions are 
> shown, NROs and institutions can then host their own, with their own (EV?) 
> TLS-certificate and their own design. 
> This may improve the current situation in two ways:
> 
> - Convince IdPs that do not use CAT today to start using CAT (we have a few 
> using locally stored profiles both CAT and others) 

Again good point, since we offer our own CAT instance based on eduroam CAT 
code only around 100 of around 300 IDPs are using CAT. I’m afraid they are 
not convinced about eduroam CAT.

> - Users get profiles from a familiar design, familiar hostname and 
> (depending on IdP) familiar EV-certificate
> 

Agreed. 

> All profile downloads will go through CAT, and CAT will collect statistics.

What you are talking about is Corporate Identity (CI) of eduroam IdPs and of 
course of the NRENs. I’m absolutely with you. 

> 
> 
> We are happy make such a “connect" code available on request through 
> github, provided this is OK with the CAT developers.
> 

For me this is OK. I will happy to test that “connection” code.

Greetings
Ralf
> Br,
> Jørn de Jong and Tom Myren 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tomasz Wolniewicz 
> <twoln AT umk.pl>
> Date: Friday 6 November 2015 at 10:35
> To: Zenon Mousmoulas 
> <zmousm AT noc.grnet.gr>
> Cc: 
> "cat-users AT geant.net"
>  
> <cat-users AT geant.net>
> Subject: Re: [cat-users] CAT website design
> 
>> Hi
>> 
>> Tomasz Wolniewicz
>> UCI UMK
>> 
>>> On 06 Nov 2015, at 10:07, Zenon Mousmoulas 
>>> <zmousm AT noc.grnet.gr>
>>>  wrote:
>>> 
>>> I think it's not unrealistic that an NRO or an institution may want to 
>>> use/present CAT data without sending the user to the CAT web site, so 
>>> this should be facilitated. On the other hand, considerable effort has 
>>> gone into translating the CAT UI in many languages, and that should not 
>>> go down the drain.
>> This is what we do at my university. We have our own instructions but for 
>> downloads we link directly to CAT installers via the API. We also tell the 
>> users that the installers are made by GEANT so no surprises about 
>> signature. 
>> Tomasz

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