org.apache.geronimo.javamail.authentication
Interface ClientAuthenticator

All Known Implementing Classes:

CramMD5Authenticator, DigestMD5Authenticator, LoginAuthenticator, PlainAuthenticator, SASLAuthenticator

public interface ClientAuthenticator

Simplified version of the Java 5 SaslClient interface. This is used to implement a javamail authentication framework that mimics the Sasl framework on a 1.4.2 JVM. Only the methods required by the Javamail code are implemented here, but it should be a simple migration to the fuller SASL interface.

Method Summary

byte[]	evaluateChallenge(byte[] challenge) Evaluate a challenge and return a response that can be sent back to the server.
String	getMechanismName() Return the mechanism name implemented by this authenticator.
boolean	hasInitialResponse() Indicates that the authenticator has data that should be sent when the authentication process is initiated.
boolean	isComplete() Indicates whether the client believes the challenge/response sequence is now complete.

Method Detail

evaluateChallenge

byte[] evaluateChallenge(byte[] challenge)
                         throws MessagingException

Evaluate a challenge and return a response that can be sent back to the server. Bot the challenge information and the response information are "raw data", minus any special encodings used by the transport. For example, SMTP DIGEST-MD5 authentication protocol passes information as Base64 encoded strings. That encoding must be removed before calling evaluateChallenge() and the resulting respose must be Base64 encoced before transmission to the server. It is the authenticator's responsibility to keep track of the state of the evaluations. That is, if the authentication process requires multiple challenge/response cycles, then the authenticator needs to keep track of context of the challenges.

Parameters:

challenge - The challenge data.

Returns:

An appropriate response for the challenge data.

Throws:

MessagingException

hasInitialResponse

boolean hasInitialResponse()

Indicates that the authenticator has data that should be sent when the authentication process is initiated. For example, the SMTP PLAIN authentication sends userid/password without waiting for a challenge response. If this method returns true, then the initial response is retrieved using evaluateChallenge() passing null for the challenge information.

Returns:

True if the challenge/response process starts with an initial response on the client side.

isComplete

boolean isComplete()

Indicates whether the client believes the challenge/response sequence is now complete.

Returns:

true if the client has evaluated what it believes to be the last challenge, false if there are additional stages to evaluate.

getMechanismName

String getMechanismName()

Return the mechanism name implemented by this authenticator.

Returns:

The string name of the authentication mechanism. This name should match the names commonly used by the mail servers (e.g., "PLAIN", "LOGIN", "DIGEST-MD5", etc.).