/**
* Validate Credentials support for AuthenticationManagerImpl.
* <p>
* Determines that Credentials are valid. Password-based credentials may be
* tested against an external LDAP, Kerberos, JDBC source. Certificates may be
* checked against a list of CA's and do the usual chain validation.
* Implementations must be parameterized with their sources of information.
* <p>
* Callers to this class should first call supports to determine if the
* AuthenticationHandler can authenticate the credentials provided.
*
* @version $Revision: 1.11 $ $Date: 2005/06/17 13:24:38 $
*/
public interface AuthenticationHandler {
/**
* Method to determine if the credentials supplied are valid.
*
* @param credentials The credentials to validate.
* @return true if valid, return false otherwise.
* @throws AuthenticationException An AuthenticationException can contain
* details about why a particular authentication request failed.
*/
boolean authenticate(Credentials credentials)
throws AuthenticationException;
/**
* Method to check if the handler knows how to handle the credentials
* provided. It may be a simple check of the Credentials class or something
* more complicated such as scanning the information contained in the
* Credentials object.
*
* @param credentials The credentials to check.
* @return true if the handler supports the Credentials, false othewrise.
*/
boolean supports(Credentials credentials);
}
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