The release is named 11.1.1.2 and can be downloaded here.

For OID and OIF it's basically a bugfix update for R1. For OVD besides the usual bugfixes - we also added several new features. It's why I've informally nicknamed this release OVD 11g - the Director's Cut.

Here are 3 key enhancements in this release:

1 - Ability to search both primary and secondary adapters in a split-profile (aka Join adapter). A split-profile is where attributes for a single entry are split between 2 or more sources (for example username, password in Active Directory, jobcode in HR database). Applications can now search on these entries (they have always been able to view or update) as if they were a single source without needing to copy into a single store. The ForkJoin plug-in provides this functionality.

2 - Hide entries from search results based on a filter. Sometimes customers need to hide entries from being returned from an adapter based on some criteria outside of an ACL. For example maybe the need to prevent "classified=Top Secret" or "doNotPublishInAddressBook=true" entries from being returned. While many customers have implemented this behavior before using one of our sample plug-ins (I think it's the first sample I ever wrote) - it's now productized with the  HideByFilter plug-in.

3 - Improved Microsoft compatibility. OVD will now support binds where the DN is not a valid DN (like a username) and can add a memberOf attribute to any person entry using the UPNBind and VirtualMemberOf plug-ins.

You can read more about these plug-ins and the additional new features I didn't cover here in the "What's New" section of the documentation.

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The webcast will be live at:
Nov 19, 2009
12:00 p.m. Eastern/ 9:00 a.m. Pacific (60 minutes)

I believe it will also be available for replay as well.
Register for the Webcast

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The experience in my opinion may make this Facebook's killer app (though my wife's obsession with Cafe World, makes me wish I had paid more attention to Flash development back when it first emerged).

The reason is that - I simply clicked on the Facebook icon on the site I was accessing. And because I happened to be logged into Facebook at the time - I I was granted access. If you are not logged in, you are presented with the familiar Facebook login in a screen. And it then connects you - NO REDIRECTS.

I fell out of my chair. I didn't think that would be possible. But yet, there it was.

And of course the Connect process is potentially prone to phishing attacks but we've been dealing with those for a long time now. So even if you were a bank and wanted to use Facebook Connect -if you combined it with an anti-fraud solution like Oracle Adaptive Access Manager including potential secondary pin (so you would have 2-factor authentication without needing to manage millions of additional passwords) - it's not any less secure than current systems.

I'm not sure of the technology behind it. And I know that the bulk of my friends on Facebook - wouldn't care. And if I was running a consumer-facing business that needed authentication for whatever reason - I would strongly consider rolling the dice on just supporting Facebook Connect backed up with traditional local accounts. And tell the other big-guns out there - if you want to play in my space - you have to give me an experience like Facebook Connect.

Posted via email from Virtual Identity Dialogue

Plus it will post anything - blogs, photos, video, audio (the latter as attachments). And it supports autoposting which hopefully will make it easier for me to post more frequently. It also means duplicate blogging but that's ok - because it means I can have an IDM blog that is hosted on Oracle and one that is not in case I need the latter in the future.

((tag: marktest))

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Posted via email from Virtual Identity Dialogue

The first is Getting More out of Siebel and PeopleSoft Applications with Oracle Directory Services on Oct 13 (Tuesday) at 4pm in Moscone South 236.

The second is Microsoft Active Directory and Windows Security Integration with Oracle Database  on Oct 14 (Wednesday) at 10:15 am also in Moscone South, Room 236.

We will also have a booth in the Identity Management section.

Which is that I finally got my Mom on Facebook. That was much harder than I thought because of lack of updates on the Mac but it did allow me to watch all of the college football games I wanted :).

But what really struck me as funny was that everyone at the table was all playing Farm Town on Facebook. This is a game where you get to plant different crops, raise animals, etc and of course harvest them.

As we were breaking up to go our separate ways - it occurred to me, that the conversations were probably very similar 100 years ago (my parent's church is over 100 years old as a prairie church).

Basically the common phrase was:

"I need to go home and harvest my crops".

Except in 1909 they meant this:

And in 2009 that means this:

The strangest one was the implication that we here in the Oracle mothership had not been innovative in regards to virtual directory.

Particularly ironic was it came soon after I got publicly acknowledged with an Oracle Innovator Award. And of course we just released 11g.

While we have done several updates to OVD functionality over the past several years (including Oracle Database Enterprise User Security and Microsoft Sharepoint integration) I wanted to highlight the new functionality in our 11g release.

The primary focus for 11g was to improve manageability and usability as opposed to adding a bunch of new server features. The reason for this is that we believe that we already lead the industry in terms of features. Thus there was not as much pressure in terms of adding missing features for the initial release.

The key difference between 10g and 11g is the UI. In 10g, the UI was based on Eclipse. In 11g, we now use a browser-based management console.

While Eclipse was nice (I have no reservations on building another tool using Eclipse RCP) but moving to the Web gave us some advantages:

• By using Oracle ADF UI framework able to leverage the hard-work of this amazing Web-2.0 ready product
• Simplified the ability to integrate with Enterprise Manager and our additional IDM products (as they release their own 11g versions) for administration
• Eliminates problems where customers either couldn't install software on their desktops and non-Windows/Linux platforms

So now let's take a look at some of the new UI elements. If you're reading this in an RSS reader - make sure to click the link to see the blog in your browser to see the images if they don't show up in your reader.

First all Fusion Middleware Components are now integrating with Enterprise Manager. EM provides a standard way of providing monitoring, performance information as well as standard access point to logging and audit information:

The next three shots show different screens with Oracle Directory Services Manager (ODSM). ODSM is used to manage OVD and OID. However, you can still deploy OVD without OID. And you can deploy OID without OVD.

First up is the ODSM Home screen. It provides additional status information not currently found in EM - such as adapter status and version information:

Next we take a look at the ODSM Data Browser which is often used by administrators to quickly see how the data will appear in OVD. I would like to highlight the fact that we have made this data view, much nicer for common LDAP data. In this example we are looking at a person entry - note that we show the most common data in an easy to read format. And if you have a picture for the entry, it shows up (otherwise we show a default icon). This can make it easier to actually check the data because most other LDAP tools don't really make it easy to see the data - they cloud it with attributes you don't really care about. We still provide access to all attributes, but for the common data you probably care the most about - it's highlighted up front.

Finally - all 11g Identity Management will write audit data to a common audit system. By default this is written to a text file. However, it is possible to write this data to a database. And if you write the data to a database, we provide a standard set of Oracle BI Publisher reports.

I also have a personal connection to the moon landing. My grandfather actually knew Neil Armstrong's parents and even met Neil several times when Neil was a teenager. Though to be candid - as I told my mom, I'm not sure if you could have picked a more boring person to be the first person on the moon. I really wish Jim Lovell (commander of Apollo 13 and first person to make 2 trips to the moon, though unfortunately never able to land) had been the first because he's much more comfortable doing publicity.

That being said - I really wish Obama would come out and have a bold new vision of space exploration. One that encouraged private exploration - basically NASA could act like the FAA for coordination. 

Exploration shouldn't be limited by the the winds of politics.

Whether it's actually sending more people to the moon (or beyond) or better unmanned platforms (it should be pointed out that we have found much more about the universe including the stunning Hubbel photographs - have been carried out by unmanned missions). I doubt there is much money in space exploration beyond space tourism but then I'm sure the same was said of the early sea explorers.

But I want to unshackle the next generation of explorers from the whims of politicians. I want my nieces and nephews who while playing with their Lego-built spaceships think of really flying in space. I want to see Red Bull sponsored moon racing.

In short - I want to see what we can do next so that when 2069 roles around -we're not talking about 100 years ago being the last time we set foot on the moon.