JACC (Java Authorization Contracts for Containers)

[Former Member]

I have been trying to use Java Authorization Contract for Containers (JACC) to retrieve various pieces of information about the container (in this case the Web Container).

It was always my impression that the JACC context would be initialized and maintained by the container and that I could pull certain aspects of the container via the PolicyContext.getContext(...) method.

I have tried to pull things like the Subject and after querying the contextID and keyHanders properties I find that it does not appear to be initialized.

Am I mistaken as to how this should work or is there some other initialization I need to perform for JACC to work properly.

It is a part of the Java EE 5.0 stack but I am still trying to work my way through how to interact with it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Joe

[Vlado · Accepted solution]

Hi Joe,

JACC, as its name suggests, is not an API for use by application developers but rather for container providers. See the JSR [public page|http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=115]:

"This JSR seeks to define a contract between containers and authorization service providers that will result in the implementation of providers for use by containers."

HTH!

\-- Vladimir

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Vladimir,

Thank you for your reply but you didn't really answer my question.

I agree with your statement that it is a container providers API but I am not sure I agree that the information provided via the API classes is intended exclusive use of the Container producers.

The ability to get the Subject, Request and other pieces of information based on the context of the call in a valuable asset the developer. I have no intention of changing any of the information but only retrieving it.

If you are simply saying, "HANDS OFF", I guess that's ok but that position seems to be different than what I've read from the producers of Java EE 5 compliant application servers.

Bottom line is I believe I can work around it but it would have been nice to tap into this feature of the Java EE 5 specification.

Still, thanks again for your reply!

Joe

[Former Member]

I am marking it answered since the reply I was given appears to have ended the discourse.