Web Browser Password Management Architecture
Password Manager exposes a web user interface using a set of self-contained CGI programs, compiled as Windows binaries and running under any standards-compliant web server on the Windows platform.
The Apache, IIS and Sun ONE web servers are all supported. The CGI architecture eliminates the need for an application server -- no .NET or Java runtime is needed. This both simplifies the architecture and improves runtime performance.
The CGI user interface programs accept input forms, assemble new screens using skin files (see below) and display new forms. CGI programs access identity profile data in an identity cache on the Password Manager server, which in turn may draw data from an LDAP directory or database server. They can also communicate with services on the Password Manager server and run agents and plug-in programs to push data out to other systems (e.g., e-mail, help desk systems, SMS messages).
As mentioned above, the Password Manager user interface is constructed using skin files, which are just text files with a set of HTML snippets. Multiple skin files may be installed on the same Password Manager instance, to support multiple "look and feel" skins as well as multiple language translations.
The HTML snippets in skin files are highly regular. To reduce administration and customization effort, they are generated using a text macro system (m4) from macro files. Macros define constructs such as standard page headers and footers, table headers and footers, button faces, color schemes, fonts, etc.
All text generated by Password Manager also comes from the skin files. In the macro system, all human-language text is drawn from a messages file. It is this file which gets translated when adding a human language to the Password Manager user interface. This is advantageous, since the messages file has no markup and is easy for translation agencies to deal with. All HTML markup and button images are automatically generated from these message files.
This is implemented on the network with the following components:
Web access architecture diagram (1)