Summary: Methods | [Expand All]
public interface

AuthenticationProvider

org.springframework.security.authentication.AuthenticationProvider
Known Indirect Subclasses

Class Overview

Indicates a class can process a specific Authentication implementation.

Summary

Public Methods
abstract Authentication authenticate(Authentication authentication)
Performs authentication with the same contract as authenticate(Authentication).
abstract boolean supports(Class<?> authentication)
Returns true if this AuthenticationProvider supports the indicated Authentication object.

Public Methods

public abstract Authentication authenticate (Authentication authentication)

Performs authentication with the same contract as authenticate(Authentication).

Parameters
authentication the authentication request object.
Returns
  • a fully authenticated object including credentials. May return null if the AuthenticationProvider is unable to support authentication of the passed Authentication object. In such a case, the next AuthenticationProvider that supports the presented Authentication class will be tried.
Throws
AuthenticationException if authentication fails.

public abstract boolean supports (Class<?> authentication)

Returns true if this AuthenticationProvider supports the indicated Authentication object.

Returning true does not guarantee an AuthenticationProvider will be able to authenticate the presented instance of the Authentication class. It simply indicates it can support closer evaluation of it. An AuthenticationProvider can still return null from the authenticate(Authentication) method to indicate another AuthenticationProvider should be tried.

Selection of an AuthenticationProvider capable of performing authentication is conducted at runtime the ProviderManager.

Returns
  • true if the implementation can more closely evaluate the Authentication class presented