1 /* Copyright 2004, 2005, 2006 Acegi Technology Pty Limited
2 *
3 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
4 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
5 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
6 *
7 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
8 *
9 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
10 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
11 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
12 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
13 * limitations under the License.
14 */
15
16 package org.springframework.security.providers;
17
18 import org.springframework.security.Authentication;
19 import org.springframework.security.AuthenticationException;
20
21
22 /**
23 * Indicates a class can process a specific {@link
24 * org.springframework.security.Authentication} implementation.
25 *
26 * @author Ben Alex
27 * @version $Id: AuthenticationProvider.java 2217 2007-10-27 00:45:30Z luke_t $
28 */
29 public interface AuthenticationProvider {
30 //~ Methods ========================================================================================================
31
32 /**
33 * Performs authentication with the same contract as {@link
34 * org.springframework.security.AuthenticationManager#authenticate(Authentication)}.
35 *
36 * @param authentication the authentication request object.
37 *
38 * @return a fully authenticated object including credentials. May return <code>null</code> if the
39 * <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> is unable to support authentication of the passed
40 * <code>Authentication</code> object. In such a case, the next <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> that
41 * supports the presented <code>Authentication</code> class will be tried.
42 *
43 * @throws AuthenticationException if authentication fails.
44 */
45 Authentication authenticate(Authentication authentication)
46 throws AuthenticationException;
47
48 /**
49 * Returns <code>true</code> if this <Code>AuthenticationProvider</code> supports the indicated
50 * <Code>Authentication</code> object.
51 * <p>
52 * Returning <code>true</code> does not guarantee an <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> will be able to
53 * authenticate the presented instance of the <code>Authentication</code> class. It simply indicates it can support
54 * closer evaluation of it. An <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> can still return <code>null</code> from the
55 * {@link #authenticate(Authentication)} method to indicate another <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> should be
56 * tried.
57 * </p>
58 * <p>Selection of an <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> capable of performing authentication is
59 * conducted at runtime the <code>ProviderManager</code>.</p>
60 *
61 * @param authentication DOCUMENT ME!
62 *
63 * @return <code>true</code> if the implementation can more closely evaluate the <code>Authentication</code> class
64 * presented
65 */
66 boolean supports(Class authentication);
67 }