Authentication with Mobilefirst Java Adapter

Question

We are working with MobileFirst 7.0 version. We want to achieve authentication using adapter based authetication process. Earlier we used HTTP Adapter and it worked. But we changed it to Java Adapter and want to acheive authentcation with Java Adapter Based authetication.

My questions are :

1. Is it possible?
2. If yes, how can we move forward?
3. If not, what is the alternative of doing authentication usig Java Adapter?

Answer 1

There is some documentation covering your question.

Here are links to get you started:

• Authentication concepts in MFP 7.0: https://developer.ibm.com/mobilefirstplatform/documentation/getting-started-7-0/authentication-security/authentication-concepts/
• Adapters overview: https://developer.ibm.com/mobilefirstplatform/documentation/getting-started-7-0/server-side-development/adapter-framework-overview/
• Java adapters: https://developer.ibm.com/mobilefirstplatform/documentation/getting-started-7-0/server-side-development/java-adapter/
• Adapter-based authentication: https://developer.ibm.com/mobilefirstplatform/documentation/getting-started-7-0/authentication-security/adapter-based-authentication/

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1. You need to use a JavaScript adapter.
2. Read the documentation.
3. Use OAuth.

Answer 2

I found this blog entry, and in particular the second video answered many questions.

OAuth Blog

In all cases I have ever seen we set up a Worklight security Realm and use adapter-based authentication to authenticate to that Realm. Our OAuth-protected resources then reference that realm.

In principle we could define realms that do not depend upon a JavaScript adapter for authentication, the MFP Security model is open to extension. In practice this is probably more work than you want to do. I find that the JavaScript model is itself quite extensible, as it can call down to Java code when something complex is needed.