src/org/jsecurity/mgt/SecurityManager.java

/*
 * Copyright 2005-2008 Les Hazlewood
 *
 * 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.jsecurity.mgt;

import org.jsecurity.authc.AuthenticationException;
import org.jsecurity.authc.AuthenticationToken;
import org.jsecurity.authc.Authenticator;
import org.jsecurity.authz.Authorizer;
import org.jsecurity.session.SessionFactory;
import org.jsecurity.subject.PrincipalCollection;
import org.jsecurity.subject.Subject;

/**
 * A <tt>SecurityManager</tt> executes all security operations for <em>all</em> Subjects (aka users) across a
 * single application.
 *
 * <p>The interface itself primarily exists as a convenience - it extends the {@link Authenticator},
 * {@link Authorizer}, and {@link SessionFactory} interfaces, thereby consolidating
 * these behaviors into a single point of reference.  For most JSecurity usages, this simplifies configuration and
 * tends to be a more convenient approach than referencing <code>Authenticator</code>, <code>Authorizer</code>, and
 * <code>SessionFactory</code> instances seperately;  instead one only needs to interact with a
 * single <tt>SecurityManager</tt> instance.</p>
 *
 * <p>In addition to the above three interfaces, three unique methods are provided by this interface by itself,
 * {@link #login}, {@link #logout} and {@link #getSubject}.  A {@link Subject Subject} executes
 * authentication, authorization, and session operations for a <em>single</em> user, and as such can only be
 * managed by <tt>A SecurityManager</tt> which is aware of all three functions.  The three parent interfaces on the
 * other hand do not 'know' about <tt>Subject</tt>s to ensure a clean separation of concerns.
 *
 * <p><b>Usage Note</b>: In actuality the large majority of application programmers won't interact with a SecurityManager
 * very often, if at all.  <em>Most</em> application programmers only care about security operations for the currently
 * executing user.
 * 
 * <p>In that case, the application programmer can call the
 * {@link #getSubject() getSubject()} method and then use that returned instance for continued interaction with
 * JSecurity.  If your application code does not have a direct handle to the application's
 * <code>SecurityManager</code>, you can use {@link org.jsecurity.SecurityUtils SecurityUtils} anywhere in your code
 * to achieve the same result.
 *
 * <p>Framework developers on the other hand might find working with an actual SecurityManager useful.
 *
 * @see DefaultSecurityManager
 *
 * @since 0.2
 * 
 * @author Les Hazlewood
 */
public interface SecurityManager extends Authenticator, Authorizer, SessionFactory {

    /**
     * Logs in a user, returning a Subject instance if the authentication is successful or throwing an
     * <code>AuthenticationException</code> if it is not.
     *
     * <p>Note that using this method is an alternative to calling
     * <code>{@link Subject#login(org.jsecurity.authc.AuthenticationToken) Subject.login(authenticationToken)}</code>.
     * However most application developers find calling <code>subject.login(token)</code> more convenient than calling
     * this method on the <code>SecurityManager</code> directly.
     *
     * @param authenticationToken the token representing the Subject's principal(s) and credential(s)
     * @return an authenticated Subject upon a successful attempt
     * @throws AuthenticationException if the login attempt failed.
     * @since 0.9
     */
    Subject login( AuthenticationToken authenticationToken ) throws AuthenticationException;

    /**
     * Logs out the specified Subject from the system.
     *
     * <p>Note that most application developers should not call this method unless they have a good reason for doing
     * so.  The preferred way to logout a Subject is to call <code>{@link Subject#logout Subject.logout()}</code>, not
     * the <code>SecurityManager</code> directly.
     *
     * @param subjectIdentifier the identifier of the subject/user to log out.
     * @see #getSubject()
     * @since 0.9
     */
    void logout( PrincipalCollection subjectIdentifier );

    /**
     * Returns the <tt>Subject</tt> instance representing the currently executing user.
     * @return the <tt>Subject</tt> instance representing the currently executing user.
     * @since 0.9
     */
    Subject getSubject();


}