Custom endpoint for Alfresco remote access

It happen more than often that we want to perform actions in the repository that require custom authentication processes. Usually we need to define a This is a way to implement such a thing.

1. Customize webscripts-framework-config.xml (Alfresco <>or share-config-custom (Alfresco 3.2 >)

1.1. Define an Authenticator

 <authenticator> 
  <id>alfresco-custom-ticket</id>
      <name>Alfresco Authenticator</name> 
  <description>Alfresco Authenticator&lt;/description>
  <class>com.westernacher.wps.share.authenticate.customAuthenticator</class>
 </authenticator> 

Where the customAuthenticator Class encloses the logic of our customized authentication.

1.2. Define a Connector

 <connector>  
<id>external-alfresco</id>  
<name>Simple Http Connector</name>  
 <description>Simple Alfresco - HTTP Connector</description> 
 <class>org.alfresco.connector.AlfrescoConnector</class> 
 <authenticator-id>alfresco-custom-ticket</authenticator-id>  
 </connector>  

Its however important to remind that in alfresco 3.2 > the classes for the connector were mostly ported to the spring framework package.

example:

the class org.alfresco.connector.AlfrescoConnector should be replaced with org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.connector.AlfrescoConnector in alfresco 3.2 and more.

1.3. Define the endpoint

 <endpoint>
     <id>my-custom-end-point</id>  
     <name>Custom Endpoint</name>
     <description>System account access to Alfresco</description> 
     <connector-id>http</connector-id> 
     <endpoint-url>url-tha-prefixes-the-scripts-to-be-called</endpoint-url>
     <unsecure>true</unsecure>  
</endpoint>  

In alfresco by example the end point URL is standardly known as : http://localhost:8080/alfresco/s

1.4. Implement our CustomAuthenticator class

 public class CustomAuthenticator extends AbstractAuthenticator { 
  public final static String CS_PARAM_ALF_TICKET = "alfTicket"; 
  private static Log logger = LogFactory.getLog(CustomAuthenticator.class); 
  @Override 
  public ConnectorSession authenticate(String endpoint, Credentials credentials, ConnectorSession connectorSession) throws AuthenticationException { 
    ConnectorSession cs = null; 
    if (credentials != null) { 
      //get a valid ticket from Alfresco via a standard or custom method 
      final String url = endpoint + "/getTicket"; 
      GetMethod get = new GetMethod(url); 
      // username and coockie  
      String aCoockie = (String) credentials.getProperty(Credentials.CREDENTIAL_PASSWORD); 
      get.setRequestHeader("Cookie", aCoockie); 
      HttpClient client = new HttpClient(); 
      try { 
        int res = client.executeMethod(get); 
        // read back the ticket 
        if (res == 200) { 
          String ticket; 
          try { 
            ticket = get.getResponseBodyAsString(); 
          } catch (Throwable err) { 
            logger.error("Error to obtain ticket for custom authorization", err); 
            // the ticket that came back could not be parsed 
            // this will cause the entire handshake to fail  
            throw new AuthenticationException("Unable to retrieve login ticket from Alfresco"); 
          } 
          if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) { 
            logger.debug("Parsed ticket: " + ticket); 
          } 
          // place the ticket back into the connector session 
          if (connectorSession != null) { 
            connectorSession.setParameter(CS_PARAM_ALF_TICKET, ticket); 
            // signal that this succeeded  
            cs = connectorSession; 
          } 
        } else { 
          if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) { 
            logger.debug("Authentication failed, received response code: " + res); 
          } 
        } 
      } catch (Throwable e) { 
        logger.error("Error to authenticate by custom Authentication", e); 
      } 
    } else { 
      if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) { 
        logger.debug("Authentication failed, no credentials provided"); 
      } 
    } 
    return cs; 
  } 
  @Override 
  public boolean isAuthenticated(String endpoint, ConnectorSession connectorSession) { 
    return (connectorSession.getParameter(CS_PARAM_ALF_TICKET) != null); 
  } 
}