Using XSI

The exercise begins with a Windows Communication Foundation solution in which access to an Intranet resource is controlled using role-based authorization. That solution will show how the securing of Windows Communication Foundation applications simply leverages existing, familiar facilities of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft .NET, saving system administrators from having to learn new concepts and tools and saving software developers from having to learn new concepts and class libraries.

The exercise then proceeds to show how, with XSI, the same resource can be accessed from the same client deployed in a separate, federated organization, with the access being authorized based on claims. What should be impressive is that neither the code of the client nor the code of the service managing the resource will need to be altered to accomplish a fundamental change in how access to the resource is controlled. That should serve as yet another eloquent demonstration of the power of the software factory template for software communications that the Windows Communication Foundation provides, allowing one to fundamentally alter the behavior of an application by making some changes to a model while leaving its code intact.