Policy Server Guides › Policy Server Configuration Guide › Variables › Variables Overview › Variable Types › Form Post Variables

Form Post Variables

HTML forms are often used to collect information required by back-end applications. Form Post variables can be used to capture any information entered in an HTML form and POSTed. For example, if the business logic associated with an application requires a purchase order amount specified on a HTML form used for logging into the application, you can create a Form Post variable object that collects the value of the purchase order supplied by a user. The variable can then be used in policies.

Important: Form Post variables are not supported by EJB or Servlet Agents. Do not use Form Post variables in policies enforced by EJB or Servlet Agents.

The key benefit of this type of variable is that it allows the Policy Server to use POST data as a part of a policy expression rather than forcing enterprises to build security logic into back end server applications. Using HTTP POST variables results in efficient network usage between Agents and Policy Servers. The Agent only needs to extract the HTTP variable information from the HTTP stream so that the information can be used during authorization processing by the Policy Server.