The term card refers to Authentication Card in Administration Console. When editing Identity Server in Administration Console, an authentication is comprised of an Authentication Contract that contains one or more authentication methods and each Authentication Method references to an Authentication Class.
To make an Authentication Contract visible in the user interface, an Authentication Card is associated with Authentication Contract. Authentication Card displays an icon and a name to the end user for a defined Authentication Contract.
The nidp_latest.jsp implementation queries Identity Server to gather the following Authentication Card information:
The set of all available Authentication Cards.
This query is used for populating the drop-down hamburger menu where the user can choose from the available authentications.
The set of authentications already completed by the current user.
This query is used for placing a check mark next to the completed authentications in the drop-down hamburger menu.
The authentication that is currently executing.
This query is required to display the current authentication in the content section of the UI.
The Java variable showCards is used for indicating if the drop-down hamburger menu should be shown. It is initialized to true and the situations that would make it false are tested.
The drop-down hamburger menu is not shown in the following scenarios:
No Authentication Cards.
Only one Authentication Card, and that card is the current Authentication Card.
An error message is displayed.
The logout confirmation page is displayed.
The page is being rendered for a Mobile application.
The drop-down hamburger menu is divided into local, remote, and federated authentication sections.
A local login is an authentication that Identity Server can use without involving an external identity provider. LDAP and JDBC logins are examples of local logins. In these cases, Identity Server locally logs into a local directory or a database to authenticate an end user.
A social media authentication, such as Facebook or Twitter login, is a remote authentication.
A login at a federated external identity provider (often using a protocol, such as SAML) is an example of federated login.
The implementation examines each Authentication Card and sorts them into these three categories. The drop-down hamburger menu is populated with federated cards, followed by remote cards, and then local cards.