Scripting and Programming Guides › Developer's Guide for Java › Authentication and Authorization APIs › Create a Custom Authentication Scheme › How SiteMinder Initializes Authentication Processing

How SiteMinder Initializes Authentication Processing

Immediately after the scheme is loaded, SiteMinder calls the following methods in the custom class implemented from SmAuthScheme:

• query(). SiteMinder passes SMAUTH_QUERY_DESCRIPTION in the request parameter, requesting that the authentication scheme pass back the version number and description of the Java Authentication API.

  Note: When SiteMinder passes SMAUTH_QUERY_CREDENTIALS_REQ in query(), SiteMinder is requesting that the authentication scheme specify the kind of credentials that are required. SiteMinder then collects the specified credentials.

• init(). SiteMinder passes the parameter string and shared secret that were defined when the authentication scheme was configured in the Policy Server. The scheme then performs any initialization procedures it requires.