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Programming Windows® Identity Foundation (Dev - Pro)

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Programming Windows® Identity Foundation (Dev - Pro)

byVittorio Bertocci

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Top positive review

Positive reviews›

The Lost WIF Documentation

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2011

If you've used Windows Identity Foundation at all, you'll find that the documentation on it is lacking. There are a ton of entry-level "getting started" articles combined with even more "high-level theory" articles out there, but really not much in the way of concrete information.

This is the Lost Windows Identity Foundation Documentation.

It's great from a reference and from a how-to standpoint, including plenty of diagrams and code snippets that help to explain how different scenarios work and how those scenarios specifically apply to WIF.

I was working on a custom passive STS using WIF and found it nearly impossible to do without this book. Once I had it, there was more in it than I was even hoping for - explanations of how to handle sliding token expiration, for example, which is pretty much nowhere to be found out on the web.

It's also been really handy in helping to explain complex federation issues to my team, who are not nearly as neck-deep in this stuff as I am. After we got the first copy of this, we actually ended up getting a second because it's so useful and people sort of "hog it" and forget to return it to the library.

The only thing that's missing in my opinion is how to work with WIF in an ASP.NET MVC environment. WIF was written primarily with web forms in mind, so all of the code samples and scenarios described in this book revolve around web forms. It's sort of an unmentioned "exercise for the reader" to get things working with MVC. That's more a fault with WIF than the book, though, hence I am not docking a star for missing it.

If you use WIF, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of this book.

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Long on Talk, Short on Code

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2011

If you're looking for a semi-exhaustive explanation of plumbing and details, this might be the book for you. Maybe.

I was looking for some code samples and reasonable quick-start type guides to at least get a proof of concept up and running, but there is no sort of cohesion to the book that makes it possible. The first part labors on about federated identity and fundamentals, which is fine to an extent. However, it just keeps going on with theory... again, which is fine if you want to sit and read a book to learn about federated security.

A preferred approach, and the one followed by most good technical books, is to start with a basic example and explain the theory behind it in small chunks.

I was surprised by how frustrating this book is based on the other reviews, so maybe I'm missing something everyone else is getting. But, if you're looking for a reasonable quick start to WIF with meat to back up the code, this probably isn't a good fit for you.

4 people found this helpful

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From the United States

The Lost WIF Documentation

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2011

Verified Purchase

If you've used Windows Identity Foundation at all, you'll find that the documentation on it is lacking. There are a ton of entry-level "getting started" articles combined with even more "high-level theory" articles out there, but really not much in the way of concrete information.

This is the Lost Windows Identity Foundation Documentation.

It's great from a reference and from a how-to standpoint, including plenty of diagrams and code snippets that help to explain how different scenarios work and how those scenarios specifically apply to WIF.

I was working on a custom passive STS using WIF and found it nearly impossible to do without this book. Once I had it, there was more in it than I was even hoping for - explanations of how to handle sliding token expiration, for example, which is pretty much nowhere to be found out on the web.

It's also been really handy in helping to explain complex federation issues to my team, who are not nearly as neck-deep in this stuff as I am. After we got the first copy of this, we actually ended up getting a second because it's so useful and people sort of "hog it" and forget to return it to the library.

The only thing that's missing in my opinion is how to work with WIF in an ASP.NET MVC environment. WIF was written primarily with web forms in mind, so all of the code samples and scenarios described in this book revolve around web forms. It's sort of an unmentioned "exercise for the reader" to get things working with MVC. That's more a fault with WIF than the book, though, hence I am not docking a star for missing it.

If you use WIF, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of this book.

Great book for .NET developers needing single sign-on

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2011

Verified Purchase

Vittorio produced a great book. I have a difficult time with his Microsoft presentations due to the accent but he really knows his stuff. It explains in detail how to perform S.S.O. for the following scenarios:

1. Browser clients (WS-Federation)
2. WCF clients (WS-Trust)

The only think lacking in this book is demonstrating W.I.F. interop with Java clients. This would have been helpful.

Another excellent source for W.I.F. education is Dominick Baier (Microsoft MVP with focus on security). He has a great blog with lots good W.I.F. tutorials.

Long on Talk, Short on Code

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2011

Verified Purchase

If you're looking for a semi-exhaustive explanation of plumbing and details, this might be the book for you. Maybe.

I was looking for some code samples and reasonable quick-start type guides to at least get a proof of concept up and running, but there is no sort of cohesion to the book that makes it possible. The first part labors on about federated identity and fundamentals, which is fine to an extent. However, it just keeps going on with theory... again, which is fine if you want to sit and read a book to learn about federated security.

A preferred approach, and the one followed by most good technical books, is to start with a basic example and explain the theory behind it in small chunks.

I was surprised by how frustrating this book is based on the other reviews, so maybe I'm missing something everyone else is getting. But, if you're looking for a reasonable quick start to WIF with meat to back up the code, this probably isn't a good fit for you.

4 people found this helpful

Didn't meet my expectations

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2015

Verified Purchase

I bought this book because I prefer to study a new technology in "inside-out" way. As an experienced developer I want to look "under the hood", to see how technology works internally. While the book provides a lot of insider info not just about WIF itself but also about rationale behind its creation it does it in very incoherent way.

The book starts very well. First 2 chapters provides a good introduction into both WIF and the principles of claims based identity. Author describes why claim base identity is important and what kind of problems it tries to solve. I especially liked the comparison between evolution of computer drivers and identity solutions. The problem is that the book didn't keep the pace it set.

Next 4 chapters explain WIF usage in 3 different technologies ASP.NET, WCF and Azure. All chapters contain some theory with very short snippets of actual code. Useful theory is scattered to these 4 chapters without some general coherency. The book doesn't have some governing idea where each chapter should start, how much theory it should explain and in which order it should do. In the end of day I had to go back and forward, to re-read what I had already read to remind the details. Another problem is the lack of source code. Even though the book is marked as a WIF book, there is very little of WIF code. WIF classes are not presented in systematic way, just (like theory) scattered here and there. The last thing to mention is sample code. There isn't. Just a reference to official WIF samples.

While all these issues, Programming WIF is still useful. Author is undoubtedly an expert to WIF. With better organization and more systematic approach to WIF itself this could have been a great book. But on 240 pages it's simply not possible. The book should have been at least 2 times bigger than it actually is.

The last remark. WIF has changed several times (now it's an integral part of .NET framework) but while configuration has changed significantly (which made me a lot of headaches), WIF classes are very similar to those ones presented in the book. So with little effort you can easily find their counterparts to .NET 4.5..

2 people found this helpful

Excellent resource to get started with WIF

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2010

Verified Purchase

Having followed Vittorio's work (blog, webcasts, code samples)related to claims-based identity over the last two-three years, I ordered this book as soon as it arrived. And this book did not disappoint. I read the book cover-to-cover within a week of its arrival and found it to be very useful in helping me better understand the concepts behind WIF.

Here are some additional details that I hope will be helpful to anyone considering this book:

1) Claims based identity is an important enabling technology that .NET developers and designer need to understand well. And this is not just case, if you are an ASP.NET or WCF developer. Claims-based identity is important even if you are SharePoint, BI or Azure developer.

2) This book is broken up into two parts. The first part explains the basics of claims based identity. Second part is more advanced and gets into the nuts and bolts of WIF.

3) Don't skip over the ASP.NET chapters (2, 3 & 4 ) just because you are not going to use WIF inside ASP.NET. These aforementioned chapters cover a number of important concepts ( such as single-sign-on, claims transformation, federation) that you will need to understand when using WIF outside of ASP.NET (say with WCF).

4) Being involved with the WIF team for a long time, Vittorio is able to provide important context around how some of the features have evolved, design decisions etc.

5) Last but not the least, it is hard to write a book on security. Fortunately, Vittorio has managed to write it in a conversational, unassuming style that makes it easy to read. Wherever needed, he provides a just in time, overview of protocols ( WS-Trust, WS-Federation and so on) without getting mired in the details associated with these, rather arcane, specifications.

5 people found this helpful

Great book and the only one so far

Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2010

Verified Purchase

This is a very good book, the author knows extremely well what he explains, provides a great introduction and the example of using the driver's license or passport as a valid identification from a trusted issuer provider on a movie theather or liquor store is an excellent analogy to understand. He goes quickly about how to use it on your own app, how to get claims backs and create custom code to extend the framework. Also he gives a lot of deep theory about the authentication process and all the complexities of security and how WIF makes things easier for you. He mentions how to create a test STS using WIF (new Visual Studio template that comes with the framework), that can be used during development to simulate a real life scenario and how to create your own custom claims.

I read the book, I have a better understanding, 200+ pages of great wisdom. Get it!!

Thanks

One person found this helpful

Travis L. Watson

Great book, significantly out of date

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2013

This is a great book. I've read it almost cover to cover and reference it frequently. It feels primarily targeted at the Relying Party role: the consumer of claims based identity. If you want to be an Identity Provider, you really need to look elsewhere.

IMPORTANT: This book is out of date! WIF and the tooling changed significantly with .NET 4.5 (it's now part of the framework instead of an SDK, and there's a new Identity and Access Tool extension for VS2012).

With that said, I don't know of any other book that is current that I would recommend, so I suggest buying this book and reading it through, then following up by researching WIF 4.5 (Microsoft has a nice overview available) and Vittorio's blog.

The book was good when it came out but it isn't usable anymore ...

Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2015

Verified Purchase

The book was good when it came out but it isn't usable anymore in 4.5... which is sad since it's the only book available. From an author who is actually member of the WIF team it is quite sad that the documentation is not adapted when the technology changes, what else do we have at our disposal ??

3 people found this helpful

So-So by Itself, but Must Have...

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2011

Verified Purchase

Because there really aren't any good alternatives out there.

As far as technical books go, this one is only so-so. The chapters are somewhat oddly organized -- or one could say disorganized -- and make it difficult to mentally compartmentalize the lessons.

Some of the examples use odd choices of scenarios and it could use more code samples and discussions of the internals and less of the high level concepts (perhaps it's the organization that's throwing me off).

In the end, it's a middling book that becomes a near must-have because of the current lack of in-depth coverage on the topic. I would recommend it, but it's not the most practical of books when it comes to gaining a deep technical understanding of the topic at hand.

4 people found this helpful

Excellent WIF resource

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2010

Verified Purchase

This is a must have for any anyone tasked with writing claims aware applicatons. Do NOT let the size of this book fool you either - it is jammed full of critical details. This is the only publication available that goes into the detail that Vittorio goes into. Whether you're new to claims-based development and just want to know enough to get started writing Relying Party's (that's about the first 50 pages), or need the in-depth knowledge of how protocols work, intricate details of WSFAM and SAM, and such, this book has you covered. I also like how Vittorio draws attention to solutions to some common problems, such as home-realm discovery, pass through claims, impersonation, proof-of-possession, custom STS's, and more. You will also find references to some very useful tools to aid in your development.

6 people found this helpful

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