Configuration Guides › Agent Configuration Guide › SOA Agent for Web Servers › Custom SOA Agent for Web Servers

Custom SOA Agent for Web Servers

While the SOA Agent for Web Servers works with the standard features of SOA Security Manager, you can extend Agent functionality by creating a custom Agent. You create a custom SOA Agent for Web Servers using the Agent APIs provided by the CA SiteMinder SDK and the SOA Security Manager SDK and then configure it by using the Policy Server User Interface.

Custom Agents work with the CA Policy Server to control access to a wide range of resources beyond Web resources. For example, custom Agents could control access to a software architecture method, an application, or a task performed by an application.

Together with the Policy Server, the SOA Agent for Web Servers protects Web resources that can be identified by a URL. Because the Policy Server is a general-purpose rules engine, it can protect:

• Any resource that can be expressed as a string
• Any operation on a resource.

Consequently, a custom Agent, working with the Policy Server as the core engine, can extend the types of resources that CA SiteMinder can protect.

Using the CA SiteMinder and SOA Security Manager Agent APIs, you can create a custom SOA Agent for Web Servers to implement security for any type of resource. API functionality for creating a custom SOA Agent for Web Servers includes:

• Protection inquiry—Determines whether or not a resource is protected by the Policy Server.
• XML document authentication—Determines whether or not a given XML document has been authenticated. If not, the XML document is authenticated based on the scheme associated with the requested Web service.
• XML document and resource authorization—Determines whether or not the authenticated XML document is authorized to be passed on to the requested Web service.

For detailed information about creating a custom SOA Agent for Web Servers, see the following guides:

• SOA Security Manager Programming Guide
• SOA Security Manager [set the prr variable for your book]
• SOA Security Manager [set the ptt variable for your book]