com.sun.xacml.finder
Class PolicyFinderModule

java.lang.Object
  com.sun.xacml.finder.PolicyFinderModule

Direct Known Subclasses:

FilePolicyModule

public abstract class PolicyFinderModule

extends Object

This is the abstract class that all PolicyFinder modules extend. All methods have default values to represent that the given feature isn't supported by this module, so module writers needs only implement the methods for the features they're supporting.

Since:

1.0

Constructor Summary

PolicyFinderModule()

Method Summary

PolicyFinderResult	findPolicy(EvaluationCtx context) Tries to find one and only one matching policy given the request represented by the context data.
PolicyFinderResult	findPolicy(URI idReference, int type) Tries to find one and only one matching policy given the idReference If more than one policy is found, this is an error and must be reported as such.
String	getIdentifier() Returns this module's identifier.
abstract void	init(PolicyFinder finder) Initializes this module for use by the given finder.
void	invalidateCache() This is an experimental method that asks the module to invalidate any cache values it may contain.
boolean	isIdReferenceSupported() Returns true if the module supports finding policies based on an id reference (in a PolicySet).
boolean	isRequestSupported() Returns true if the module supports finding policies based on a request (ie, target matching).

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

PolicyFinderModule

public PolicyFinderModule()

Method Detail

getIdentifier

public String getIdentifier()

Returns this module's identifier. A module does not need to provide a unique identifier, but it is a good idea, especially in support of management software. Common identifiers would be the full package and class name (the default if this method isn't overridden), just the class name, or some other well-known string that identifies this class.

Returns:

this module's identifier

isRequestSupported

public boolean isRequestSupported()

Returns true if the module supports finding policies based on a request (ie, target matching). By default this method returns false.

Returns:

true if request retrieval is supported

isIdReferenceSupported

public boolean isIdReferenceSupported()

Returns true if the module supports finding policies based on an id reference (in a PolicySet). By default this method returns false.

Returns:

true if idReference retrieval is supported

init

public abstract void init(PolicyFinder finder)

Initializes this module for use by the given finder. Typically this is called when a PDP is initialized with a PDPConfig containing the given PolicyFinder. Because PolicyFinderModules usually need to parse policies, and this requires knowing their PolicyFinder, parsing is usually done at or after this point in the lifetime of this module. This might also be a good time to reset any internal caches or temporary data. Note that this method may be called more than once in the lifetime of a module.

Parameters:

finder - the PolicyFinder using this module

invalidateCache

public void invalidateCache()

This is an experimental method that asks the module to invalidate any cache values it may contain. This is not used by any of the core processing code, but it may be used by management software that wants to have some control over these modules. Since a module is free to decide how or if it caches values, and whether it is capable of updating values once in a cache, a module is free to intrepret this message in any way it sees fit (including igoring the message). It is preferable, however, for a module to make every effort to clear any dynamically cached values it contains.

This method has been introduced to see what people think of this functionality, and how they would like to use it. It may be removed in future versions, or it may be changed to a more general message-passing system (if other useful messages are identified).

Since:

1.2

findPolicy

public PolicyFinderResult findPolicy(EvaluationCtx context)

Tries to find one and only one matching policy given the request represented by the context data. If more than one policy is found, this is an error and must be reported as such. If no policies are found, then an empty result must be returned. By default this method returns an empty result. This method should never return null.

Parameters:

context - the representation of the request

Returns:

the result of looking for a matching policy

findPolicy

public PolicyFinderResult findPolicy(URI idReference,
                                     int type)

Tries to find one and only one matching policy given the idReference If more than one policy is found, this is an error and must be reported as such. If no policies are found, then an empty result must be returned. By default this method returns an empty result. This method should never return null.

Parameters:

idReference - an identifier specifying some policy

type - type of reference (policy or policySet) as identified by the fields in PolicyReference

Returns:

the result of looking for a matching policy