Scripting and Programming Guides › Developer's Guide for Java › Authentication and Authorization APIs › Use the Authorization API › Classes and Interfaces in the Authorization API › ActiveExpression Methods

Previous Topic: Classes and Interfaces in the Authorization API

Next Topic: Other Classes in the Authorization API
ActiveExpression Methods

The base interface in the Java Authorization API is ActiveExpression. All Java classes that provide custom authorization functionality must implement this interface.

The name of the class that you implement from the base interface must appear in the param field of any associated active expression.

SiteMinder calls the following methods in the base interface ActiveExpression:

Method

Description

init()

Performs any initialization procedures that the custom Java class requires. SiteMinder calls this method once per instance of the custom ActiveExpression class.

invoke()

Performs the custom authorization functionality in the ActiveExpression object and returns a result.

release()

Performs any rundown procedures that the ActiveExpression object requires. SiteMinder calls this method once for each instance of an ActiveExpression class, when SiteMinder is shutting down.

Note: Classes that implement ActiveExpression should be implemented on a stateless model that does not depend on instance state stored in member variables of the ActiveExpression class.