Object Model

Every SCIM object derives from a common Resource type.

SCIM 2.0 is built on an object model where a Resource is the common denominator and all SCIM objects are derived from it. It has id, externalId, and meta as attributes, and RFC 7643 defines User, Group, and EnterpriseUser that extend the common attributes.

Common attributes

id

A unique identifier assigned by the service provider. Immutable, and never reused across resources.

externalId

An identifier assigned by the client, letting a provisioning client correlate the resource with its own record for the same identity.

meta

Resource metadata maintained by the service provider: resourceType, created, lastModified, location, and version — the last of which is the entity tag used for concurrency control.

Attribute types

Attributes come in three shapes, and you will see all three in the Example User:

• Simple — a single value, such as a string for userName.
• Complex — an attribute with sub-attributes, such as name or address.
• Multi-valued — a list of values, such as emails or phoneNumbers, where each entry may carry a type and a primary flag.