org.apache.sling.engine.auth
Interface AuthenticationHandler

public interface AuthenticationHandler

The AuthenticationHandler interface defines the service API used by the authentication implementation to support plugin various ways of extracting credentials from the request.

Field Summary

static java.lang.String

PATH_PROPERTY An authentication handler is associated with url paths.

Method Summary

AuthenticationInfo	authenticate(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest request, javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse response) Extracts credential data from the request if at all contained.
boolean	requestAuthentication(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest request, javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse response) Requests authentication information from the client.

Field Detail

PATH_PROPERTY

static final java.lang.String PATH_PROPERTY

An authentication handler is associated with url paths. If the handler is not configured with a path, it is regarded as inactive. If the handler should be used for all requests, the path should be '/'.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

Method Detail

authenticate

AuthenticationInfo authenticate(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest request,
                                javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse response)

Extracts credential data from the request if at all contained.

The method returns any of the following values :

value	description
null	no user details were contained in the request or the handler is not capable or willing to extract credentials from the request
AuthenticationInfo.DOING_AUTH	the handler is in an ongoing authentication transaction with the client. Request processing should be aborted at this stage.
AuthenticationInfo object	The user sent credentials. The returned object contains the credentials as well as the type of authentication transmission employed.

The method must not request credential information from the client, if they are not found in the request.

The value of PATH_PROPERTY service registration property value triggering this call is available as the path request attribute. If the service is registered with multiple path values, the value of the path request attribute may be used to implement specific handling.

Parameters:

request - The request object containing the information for the authentication.

response - The response object which may be used to send the information on the request failure to the user.

Returns:

A valid AuthenticationInfo instance identifying the request user, AuthenticationInfo.DOING_AUTH if the handler is in an authentication transaction with the client or null if the request does not contain authentication information. In case of AuthenticationInfo.DOING_AUTH, the method must have sent a response indicating that fact to the client.

requestAuthentication

boolean requestAuthentication(javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest request,
                              javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse response)
                              throws java.io.IOException

Requests authentication information from the client. Returns true if the information has been requested and request processing can be terminated normally. Otherwise the authorization information could not be requested.

Any response sent by the handler though the sendError method is also handled by the error handler infrastructure.

The value of PATH_PROPERTY service registration property value triggering this call is available as the path request attribute. If the service is registered with multiple path values, the value of the path request attribute may be used to implement specific handling.

Parameters:

request - The request object.

response - The response object to which to send the request.

Returns:

true if the handler is able to end an authentication inquiry for the given request. false otherwise.

Throws:

java.io.IOException - If an error occurrs sending the authentication inquiry to the client.