Guidelines for Developing a Credential Provider

This section briefly lists a set of recommended guidelines you can use for developing a Credential Provider. The following list illustrates some typical steps that you can follow when developing a Credential Provider:

1. Define the configuration needed by the Credential Provider.

2. Determine which data is global (meaning that it spans contexts) and which data is more context-specific.

3. Define the capabilities of the Credential Provider.

4. Define the internal workflows (in terms of specific steps) for each of the Credential Management operations; for example, operations that create, update, perform a process, or delete.

5. Determine if internal workflows need external interaction (typically with security module) and what are the quantity needs required for any external interaction.

6. Define the credential creation types and configuration needs to determine the structure of the credential profile template(s).

7. Determine if multiple credential types can or cannot share a single credential profile template and structure accordingly.

8. Design internal mechanisms, resources, and/or any services required by the Credential Provider and determine what additional configuration may be needed accordingly.

9. Build a Credential Provider based upon the results found in the previous steps in this list.

Prior to attempting to install and configure a new Credential Provider, you must first complete all of the prerequisite interactions that are listed in the following three Credential Provider tables.