/*
* Copyright 2004, 2005, 2006 Acegi Technology Pty Limited
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
package org.springframework.security.authentication;
import org.springframework.security.core.Authentication;
import org.springframework.security.core.AuthenticationException;
/**
* Indicates a class can process a specific
* {@link org.springframework.security.core.Authentication} implementation.
*
* @author Ben Alex
*/
public interface AuthenticationProvider {
// ~ Methods
// ========================================================================================================
/**
* Performs authentication with the same contract as
* {@link org.springframework.security.authentication.AuthenticationManager#authenticate(Authentication)}
* .
*
* @param authentication the authentication request object.
*
* @return a fully authenticated object including credentials. May return
* <code>null</code> if the <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> is unable to support
* authentication of the passed <code>Authentication</code> object. In such a case,
* the next <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> that supports the presented
* <code>Authentication</code> class will be tried.
*
* @throws AuthenticationException if authentication fails.
*/
Authentication authenticate(Authentication authentication)
throws AuthenticationException;
/**
* Returns <code>true</code> if this <Code>AuthenticationProvider</code> supports the
* indicated <Code>Authentication</code> object.
* <p>
* Returning <code>true</code> does not guarantee an
* <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> will be able to authenticate the presented
* instance of the <code>Authentication</code> class. It simply indicates it can
* support closer evaluation of it. An <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> can still
* return <code>null</code> from the {@link #authenticate(Authentication)} method to
* indicate another <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> should be tried.
* </p>
* <p>
* Selection of an <code>AuthenticationProvider</code> capable of performing
* authentication is conducted at runtime the <code>ProviderManager</code>.
* </p>
*
* @param authentication
*
* @return <code>true</code> if the implementation can more closely evaluate the
* <code>Authentication</code> class presented
*/
boolean supports(Class<?> authentication);
}