Information Card IconI am pleased to announce the publication of the Identity Selector Interoperability Profile V1.5 and companion guides. The ISIP (as it’s come to be called) documents the protocols and data formats used by Windows CardSpace so as to enable others to build compatible Information Card software.

Version 1.0 of these documents corresponded to the.NET Framework 3.0 version of CardSpace. Version 1.5 corresponds to CardSpace as of .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. Like the previous version, ISIP 1.5 is licensed under Microsoft’s Open Specification Promise.

Significant new content covers:

  • Relying Parties without SSL certificates
  • Use of WS-Trust 1.3 and WS-SecurityPolicy 1.2
  • Relying Party STSs
  • More stable PPID algorithm
  • Specifications for computing ic:IssuerId and ic:IssuerName
  • Token references by Identity Providers via wst:RequestedAttachedReference and wst:RequestedUnattachedReference elements
  • Custom issuer information in cards
  • Custom error messages
  • Clarification that an ic:MasterKey is required for managed cards
  • Plus numerous of clarifications that were found by others building Information Card software — especially during the OSIS interops

The three new document versions are:

Thanks to the literally dozens of you who provided comments on ways to improve the ISIP and companion docs and who reviewed drafts of this material. This version of the docs benefited substantially from your detailed knowledge of and experience with the previous spec gained through implementing interoperable Information Card software.

Finally, I’d like to thank the members of the CardSpace team who diligently documented many of these features on the CardSpace Team Blog in advance of their publication under the ISIP. Your work let the industry gain early experience with implementing these features and was a tremendous resource to me as I was producing these versions of the documents.