com.uwyn.rife.authentication
Interface CredentialsManager

All Known Implementing Classes:

DatabaseUsers, MemoryUsers

public interface CredentialsManager

This interface defines the methods that classes with CredentialsManager functionalities have to implement.

A CredentialsManager is in charge of verifying Credentials instances. Using the information that a CredentialsManager provides, the authentication system is able to take appropriate actions (ie. start a new session, provide informational messages about a user's status, and so on).

Since:

1.0

Version:

$Revision: 3643 $

Author:

Geert Bevin (gbevin[remove] at uwyn dot com)

See Also:

Credentials, SessionValidator

Method Summary

long	verifyCredentials(Credentials credentials) Verifies the validity of the provided Credentials instance.

Method Detail

verifyCredentials

long verifyCredentials(Credentials credentials)
                       throws CredentialsManagerException

Verifies the validity of the provided Credentials instance.

Parameters:

credentials - The Credentials instance that needs to be verified.

Returns:

A long that uniquely identifies the user that corresponds to the validated credentials; or

-1 if the credentials are invalid.

Throws:

CredentialsManagerException - An undefined number of exceptional cases or error situations can occur when credentials are verified. They are all indicated by throwing an instance of CredentialsManagerException. It's up to the implementations of this interface to give more specific meanings to these exceptions.

Since:

1.0