Overview

Although the CZERTAINLY platform is technology independent, each technology have its own specifics that the users should be able to use properly.

CZERTAINLY uses Attribute to control such specific behaviour of different technologies, like certification authorities, credential providers, discovery of certificates, etc. So called Attributes are used in almost every Connector and developer must understand them in order to implement custom behaviour or extend the functionality of the platform.

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For more information about the concept behind the Connector, Attributes, Callbacks, etc, see the CZERTAINLY platform overview.

Now let's take a look on what exactly is an Attribute and how it can be used.

It is all about the Attributes

The concept works on the principle of exchanging and validation of Attributes between the Client, Connector and CZERTAINLY platform. Implementation of some specific Connector must be able to define and properly handle its specific Attributes. The definition is then exchanged with the Client and the platform validates it consistency and mediate the flow and logic between them:

Because the communication is controlled by the platform, it ensures the consistency and security of the Attributes that are exchanged between the Client and the Connector. and eventually applied in the target technology.

BaseAttribute

The BaseAttribute is the base class for all Attributes. It contains the basic properties that are common for all Attributes and uses the generic type T to define the 'content`. Tab |

You can find specification of the BaseAttribute in the CZERTAINLY Interfaces repository.

Table below describes the properties of the BaseAttribute:

Property	Type	Short description	Required
uuid	string	UUID of the defined Attribute. The combination of the Connector UUID and the Attribute UUID must be unique	Yes
name	string	Name of the Attribute	Yes
description	string	Description of the Attribute for better understanding of the Attribute purpose. This should contain descriptive explanation of the Attribtue.	No
type	AttributeType	Type of the Attribute	Yes
content	AttributeContent	Content of the Attribute based on the AttributeContentType	No

Attribute building blocks:

Each implementation of Attribute type consists of the following building blocks:

• AttributeProperties - properties defines the behaviour of the Attribute
• AttributeContent - specific content of the Attribute that is defined based on the content type
• AttributeConstraint - constraint that defines the validation of the Attribute content
• AttributeCallback - callback that is used to get the Attribute content when it depends on other factors

The building blocks for each particular Attribute type are described in Attributes section.

Building blocks description and examples

The following section describes in detail each building block of the Attribute and provides examples of the Attributes.

📄️ Properties

Properties defines the behaviour of the Attribute.

📄️ Content

Attribute supports various content defined by contentType.

📄️ Constraints

Constraints define set of rules that are applied for validation of the Attribute content as input. The Attribute content is validated when the Attribute is created or updated. Validation is controlled consistently by the platform and ensures that the Attribute content is valid and can be used for further processing.

📄️ Callbacks

In some cases, the content of the Attribute depends on the content of some other Attribute or some other aspects. This is where we use AttributeCallback to define the callback that will be used to get the content of the Attribute. The callback will be triggered when the mapping rules of the callback definition will be satisfied.

📄️ Attributes

Attribute, specifically its type is used to control different behaviour of the content and values in the platform. Some attributes defined the data that are exchanged between technologies, some of them may represent read-only information, and some of them may contain additional attributes that are grouped together or works as a wizard.

📄️ Examples

You can find here various examples of how to create and use attributes in different programming languages.