diff --git a/saml_mapping_provider.py b/saml_mapping_provider.py
index 82f0a0e..762ca61 100644
--- a/saml_mapping_provider.py
+++ b/saml_mapping_provider.py
@@ -21,7 +21,14 @@ __version__ = "0.0.1"
 
 
 class SamlMappingProvider(object):
-    def __init__(self):
+    def __init__(self, parsed_config):
+        """A Mozilla-flavoured, Synapse user mapping provider
+
+        Args:
+            parsed_config: A configuration object. The result of self.parse_config
+        """
+        self._mxid_source_attribute = parsed_config.mxid_source_attribute
+
         mxid_localpart_allowed_characters = set(
             "_-./=" + string.ascii_lowercase + string.digits
         )
@@ -33,15 +40,12 @@ class SamlMappingProvider(object):
 
     def saml_response_to_user_attributes(
             self,
-            config: dict,
             saml_response: saml2.response.AuthnResponse,
             failures: int = 0,
     ) -> dict:
         """Maps some text from a SAML response to attributes of a new user
 
         Args:
-            config: A configuration dictionary
-
             saml_response: A SAML auth response object
 
             failures: How many times a call to this function with this
@@ -53,7 +57,7 @@ class SamlMappingProvider(object):
                 * displayname (str): The displayname of the user
         """
         # The calling function will catch the KeyError if this fails
-        mxid_source = saml_response.ava[config["mxid_source_attribute"]][0]
+        mxid_source = saml_response.ava[self._mxid_source_attribute][0]
 
         # Truncate the username to the first found '@' character to prevent complete
         # emails being leaked
@@ -95,3 +99,35 @@ class SamlMappingProvider(object):
         # Remove any trailing dots
         username = self._string_end_dot_pattern.sub("", username)
         return username
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def parse_config(config: dict):
+        """Parse the dict provided by the homeserver's config
+        Args:
+            config: A dictionary containing configuration options for this provider
+        Returns:
+            _SamlConfig: A custom config object
+        """
+        pass
+
+        class _SamlConfig(object):
+            pass
+
+        saml_config = _SamlConfig()
+        saml_config.mxid_source_attribute = config["mxid_source_attribute"]
+        return saml_config
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def get_required_saml_attributes(config: dict):
+        """Returns the required attributes of a SAML
+
+        Args:
+            config: A dictionary containing configuration options for this provider
+
+        Returns:
+            tuple[set,set]: The first set equates to the saml auth response attributes that
+                are required for the module to function, whereas the second set consists of
+                those attributes which can be used if available, but are not necessary
+        """
+        saml_config = SamlMappingProvider.parse_config(config)
+        return {"uid", saml_config.mxid_source_attribute}, {"displayName"}