org.osgi.service.useradmin.Authorization Maven / Gradle / Ivy

/*
 * Copyright (c) OSGi Alliance (2001, 2013). All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * 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.osgi.service.useradmin;

/**
 * The {@code Authorization} interface encapsulates an authorization context on
 * which bundles can base authorization decisions, where appropriate.
 * 
 * Bundles associate the privilege to access restricted resources or operations
 * with roles. Before granting access to a restricted resource or operation, a
 * bundle will check if the {@code Authorization} object passed to it possess
 * the required role, by calling its {@code hasRole} method.
 * 

 * Authorization contexts are instantiated by calling the
 * {@link UserAdmin#getAuthorization(User)} method.
 * 
 * 

 * Trusting Authorization objects 
 * 

 * There are no restrictions regarding the creation of {@code Authorization}
 * objects. Hence, a service must only accept {@code Authorization} objects from
 * bundles that has been authorized to use the service using code based (or Java
 * 2) permissions.
 * 
 * 

 * In some cases it is useful to use {@code ServicePermission} to do the code
 * based access control. A service basing user access control on
 * {@code Authorization} objects passed to it, will then require that a calling
 * bundle has the {@code ServicePermission} to get the service in question. This
 * is the most convenient way. The OSGi environment will do the code based
 * permission check when the calling bundle attempts to get the service from the
 * service registry.
 * 

 * Example: A servlet using a service on a user's behalf. The bundle with the
 * servlet must be given the {@code ServicePermission} to get the Http Service.
 * 

 * However, in some cases the code based permission checks need to be more
 * fine-grained. A service might allow all bundles to get it, but require
 * certain code based permissions for some of its methods.
 * 

 * Example: A servlet using a service on a user's behalf, where some service
 * functionality is open to anyone, and some is restricted by code based
 * permissions. When a restricted method is called (e.g., one handing over an
 * {@code Authorization} object), the service explicitly checks that the calling
 * bundle has permission to make the call.
 * 
 * @noimplement
 * @author $Id: 4786641d1725f18fb3bc160059d7f8b28e46bbab $
 */
public interface Authorization {
	/**
	 * Gets the name of the {@link User} that this {@code Authorization} context
	 * was created for.
	 * 
	 * @return The name of the {@link User} object that this
	 *         {@code Authorization} context was created for, or {@code null} if
	 *         no user was specified when this {@code Authorization} context was
	 *         created.
	 */
	public String getName();

	/**
	 * Checks if the role with the specified name is implied by this
	 * {@code Authorization} context.
	 * 
	 * 
	 * Bundles must define globally unique role names that are associated with
	 * the privilege of accessing restricted resources or operations. Operators
	 * will grant users access to these resources, by creating a {@link Group}
	 * object for each role and adding {@link User} objects to it.
	 * 
	 * @param name The name of the role to check for.
	 * 
	 * @return {@code true} if this {@code Authorization} context implies the
	 *         specified role, otherwise {@code false}.
	 */
	public boolean hasRole(String name);

	/**
	 * Gets the names of all roles implied by this {@code Authorization}
	 * context.
	 * 
	 * @return The names of all roles implied by this {@code Authorization}
	 *         context, or {@code null} if no roles are in the context. The
	 *         predefined role {@code user.anyone} will not be included in this
	 *         list.
	 */
	public String[] getRoles();
}