John Morkus

JAAS looks difficult to set up for NT Authentication. We're also using NTSystem.dll to authenticate against an NT domain.

Is JAAS really just a "it's difficult until you do it" type thing or is it really tricky?

Is there a good book that has a tutorial that's a bit beyond the Javaworld article "All that JAAS"?

Thanks in advance.

-- John

Thanks.

Thanks for your note.

I liked your example of a list and understand what you're getting at. If I could break down the project to that level of detail and the requirements were at that level, there wouldn't be a problem.

The problem domain is actually custom (to-be-written) Java applications that would have to authenticate with a yet-to-be compelted JAAS module (to work with both NT or database login -- how, yet to be figured out) and either directed to a login page if the user doesn't exist or get some type of session object back if the user does exist.

I'm not yet sure how the security object, based on the programmers who would use it, would be instantiated. (Or whether the programmers would just extend what I've written, or some other way...).

Have you run into a project like this where it seems everything must be permitted (allow for all, some or none) for just about every context yet little is really designed?

Thanks again.

John

I'm in a project where the client is asking for public "API" interface methods when the design hasn't yet been done. The ink on most of the requirements is still wet. Plus there are delelopers in multiple states and no testing CVS server yet.

There's a lot of code written that will mostly be thrown away (go figure).

How do you "push back" when political decisions start to drive a project?

How do you tell a client that it doesn't make sense to put the cart before the horse when he's trying to make sure the horse and the cart aren't taken away (reacting politically rather than technically)? While I agree that you need a project, you also need one that can succeed.

Difficult questions.

Any input would be vastly appreciated!!!

John

Bert,

Is the SCWCD test as difficult as the SCJP or about the same?

Your upcoming HFS book is intented to be a study guide for the SCWCD test?

Thanks

-- John

I used the Mughal book and found it to be *very* difficult going for certification preperation, but it's definitely a great reference book. These guys know their stuff.

The authors were, however, unresponsive to various questions I tried to ask them. This is a negative in my opinion. (Of coruse, there's always Javaranch <s>

The errata alone for the Mughal book took me over an hour to apply to the various chapters. Their Web errata page didn't tell you, in most cases, where to look on a particular page in their book to replace x with y so you had to read the entire page to find where to make a change (some errors were really necessary to correct, however).

Here's an example of how the Mughal book didn't help me: if the certification (SCJP) test were to ask you about some topic 'x' in a particular context, the Mughal book would introduce x, describe it to an extent, and show it in complicated code contexts rather than in the way the test would present it. Thus, you might study the wrong way or prepare the wrong way. I did.

A lot of the code in the Muhgal book is, IMHO, overly (needlesslly) complicated to demonstrate the point being discussed and doesn't always use best practices (e.g., self-documenting method names). So the examples can take a "while" to grasp. Sure, some of the concepts are complicated too, but IMHO the book should make them simpler through example not more complicated.

However, maybe all this is done on purpose to help you prepare for the "real world" where you'd have to (1) take the SCJP or (2) really maintain some one else's "less-than-wonderful code". Dunno.

Since everyone raves about the other book mentioned here (and on Amazon it gets over a hundered reviews with about a 4 1/2 star rating), I'd get it and maybe get the Mughal book as a reference (or if you really want to torture yourself <g> .

The sample examps on the CD with the Mughal book are really cool to play with (and to see how difficult a Mock exam could be), but I found little, if any, relation of these mock exams to the actual test.

The Dan Chrisholm Mock exams seem closer but are still more difficult than the real exam, since on the real test, they tell you how many options to pick (and the testing program even tells you if you've accidentlly picked too many).

My 2-cents.

Hope this helps.

John

Hi Theodore,

I can't thank you enough for your kind words.

Although I've been a developer for over 15 years (3+ in Java), I'm still having trouble handling all the tricky questions in the various mock exams. I suppose that's normal too, but from seeing all the high scores posted here and elsewhere, maybe I'm in the minority? More food for anxiety.

Talk to you soon.

Thanks again...John.

I've studied the Mugal book cover to cover, taken the (very difficult) practice exams and "feel" I'm prepared. In the real test there won't often be any context, other than the code itself, and I'm afraid I'll spend too much time trying to see what, if anything is wrong with it.

I don't know every single method of every single class in the Mughal book, and am afraid that I'll get 61 questions with just those unknowns!

Is feeling very nervous a normal feeling about this test?

Any suggestions?

I'm not a good "test taker" anyway and the formality of paying a fair amount for a test, scheudling it, and taking the test in a strange setting with the clock ticking (especially with this test's reputation) doesn't help either.

Now that you only have to get a 52%, is the test harder or is Sun trying to make it a "little" easier?

Look forward to any replies.

Thanks. John

Is it possible to change an NT password for a user from Java (assuming the user is already authenticated)?

Thanks in advance.

-- J

We need to authenticate users on Windows NT 4. We found a DLL called NTSystem.dll, which works fine under Tomcat/JAAS, but doesn't work under JBoss (when it's in the bin directory or in Windows or System32).

We're trying to keep the cost as low as possible since thie will be a very wide deployment.

Are there any other solutions that anyone knows of to authenticate users on NT that's either free or very low cost?

Thanks in advance.

J

THANK YOU!!!

I have a properties file where I'd like to have more than one word on the left side of the property (with spaces in between the words).

For example:

test one = Test1
test two = Test2

I don't see how you can have a space on the left side. I always just get "test".

Do I need to override this class and add this functionality or is it built in somehow that I've missed?

Thanks very much in advance.

- J

That was a great idea.

Unfortunatly neither 'windir' or 'system32' has any effect. The NTSystem.dll still doesn't work under JBoss.

I hope I can figure this out soon.

Thanks very much for your reply.

--J

We're using JAAS with NTSystem.dll to do the user/password lookup.

NTSystem.dll works fine in Tomcat, but I can't seem to get a directory where it's happy under JBOSS 3.x.

I've tried JBoss' bin folder, for example. I've also tried setting a PATH variable to point to the bin folder. I keep getting a password failure in JBoss on login.

Anybody successfully gotten NTSystem.dll working with JBoss 3.x or can help me figure out the more generic question of where to install external libraries like NTSystem.dll?

Thanks very much in advance for any ideas!!!

-- J

Hi,

YES!!

That was it. I was running it as a Test Plugin for some (goof) reason.

javascript: x()
Cool

Thank you very, very much!!!

- J