The UTHSC-H Integrated Directory Service (IDS) contains a single "virtual" entry for every person officially affiliated with the University. Each entry has associated attributes that describe various aspects of that person's affiliation(s). Attribute information is obtained from the primary personnel databases ( i.e. the Human Resources Management System (HRMS), the Student Information System (SIS), the Graduate Medical Education Information System (GMEIS) and the Guest Database). Additional information is obtained from other databases as appropriate. Example attributes include:
- a person's role(s): e.g. student, faculty, A&P, staff, resident, etc. (Note: an individual may have multiple roles.)
- title(s)
- e-mail address
- telephone number
- UTHSC-H UID
- school(s)
- department(s)
- digital ID, i.e. digital certificate
- membership(s) in Directory Service Groups defining e-mail and authorization lists
- inter-institutional attributes (i.e. eduperson - a schema for institutions of higher education)
- etc.
Multiple information systems that require authentication and authorization prior to granting a requester access to desired information often utilize the Directory Service. Some Web applications, for example, require that a person be a resident or a faculty member in order to be authorized to submit a form or to access restricted data. As part of the authorization process, such Web applications go to the Directory Service to determine if the requesting person has the appropriate attributes.
The Enterprise Directory Service is a major component of the "Middleware Infrastructure" required to integrate multiple software applications both within UTHSC-H and across the global Internet. Additional components are
- Identity Management
- Authentication
- Authorization
- Digital IDs