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Introduction

OracleAS Single Sign-On is a component of Oracle Application Server (OracleAS) that enables users to log in to all features of the OracleAS product complement, as well as to other Web applications, using a single user name and password.

OracleAS Single Sign-On consists of the following components:

• OracleAS Single Sign-On Server

  Program logic that enables users to log in securely to single-sign-on-enabled applications such as expense reports, mail, and benefits

• Partner Applications

  OracleAS applications that delegate the authentication function to the single sign-on server

• External Applications

  Web applications that do not delegate authentication to the single sign-on server. Instead, they display HTML login forms that ask for application user names and passwords

  See Also: Chapter 1, "Components and Processes: an Overview" in Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On Administrator's Guide

In OracleAS release 9.0.4 you use mod_osso, an authentication module on the Oracle HTTP Server, to enable applications for single sign-on. mod_osso is a simple alternative to the single sign-on SDK, used in earlier releases to integrate partner applications. mod_osso simplifies the authentication process by serving as the sole partner application to the single sign-on server. By doing so, it renders authentication transparent for OracleAS applications. The administrator for these applications is spared the burden of integrating them with the single sign-on SDK.

Note that the SDK has been deprecated. If you have built applications using the release 9.0.2 SDK, Oracle Corporation recommends modifying these with mod_osso. Nevertheless, 9.0.2 applications will continue to work in 9.0.4.

The main body of this book explains how to integrate applications with mod_osso. If you want to know more about the SDK, see the appendixes.