User-written authentication handlers

You can implement authentication handlers that authenticate clients that connect to the Diffusion™ server or perform an action that requires authentication.

The authentication handlers can be implemented either remotely, in a client, or locally, on the server. The authentication handlers can be individual authentication handlers, that perform a single authentication check, or composite authentication handlers, that delegate to one or more individual authentication handlers.

Local authentication handlers

A local authentication handler is an implementation of the Authenticator interface. Local authentication handlers can be implemented only in Java™ . The class file that contains a local authentication handler must be located on the classpath of the Diffusion server.

Control authentication handlers

A control authentication handler can be implemented in any language where the Diffusion API includes the AuthenticationControl feature. A control authentication handler can be registered by any client that has the authenticate and register_handler permissions.

For more information, see Authenticating new sessions.

The following table matrix shows the types of authentication handler.

Table 1. Types of authentication handler
	Individual
Local	Implement the Authenticator interface. For more information, see Developing a local authentication handler.
Control	Implement the ControlAuthenticator interface. For more information, see Developing a control authentication handler.