CA ArcotID PKI Mobile Authentication Developer's Guide › Understanding ArcotID PKI APIs

Understanding ArcotID PKI APIs

This chapter discusses the ArcotID PKI Software Development Kit (SDK) that you can use for building mobile applications for authenticating users by using their ArcotID PKI. The most common tasks performed using this SDK are provisioning the ArcotID PKI account to the user’s mobile and authenticating using that account. Other tasks that you can perform using the SDK include fetching and deleting the accounts from default location, storing accounts in a custom location, locking account to the device by using device parameters of your choice, and checking library version.

The chapter first introduces you to the interfaces and classes that you will be using for different tasks mentioned in the preceding paragraph, and later explains the usage in detail.

• Provisioning (Downloading) ArcotID PKI Accounts

  To perform ArcotID PKI authentication, you need to first create an account for the user that contains the ArcotID PKI information and save it on their mobile. The Provisioning ArcotID PKI Accounts section discusses the provisionAccount method in AID class that you need to use to create ArcotID PKI accounts.

• Authenticating Using ArcotID PKI

  The Authenticating Using Account section discusses the AID class that you need to use for signing the challenge.

• Managing Accounts

  The Managing Accounts section discusses the methods of AID class that you need to use for reading and deleting ArcotID PKI accounts stored in the default location.

  If you choose to store the accounts in a custom location, then you have to implement Store interface. Refer to the Choosing Custom Storage Medium section. To store the accounts in the mobile memory, use MemoryStore class. Refer to the Storing Accounts in Memory section.

• Device Locking

  Depending on the mobile that is being used, ArcotID PKI library supports default parameters for locking the account to the device. If you want to lock an account to the mobile by using the device parameters of your choice, then implement the DeviceLock interface, as discussed in the Device Locking section.

• Reading ArcotID PKI Details

  The Reading ArcotID PKI Account Details section discusses the Account class fields that hold the ArcotID PKI details such as, unique identifier for the account, ArcotID PKI of the user, and friendly name for the account. It also discusses the classes that are used to set and get additional ArcotID PKI attributes.

• Checking ArcotID PKI SDK Version

  The Checking Library Version section discusses the getVersion method in AID class that you need to use if you want to check the version of ArcotID PKI SDK.