Web services authentication

This section explains how the web service requests are authenticated. The implementation of the authentication mechanism varies according to your Infrastructure Management setup.

Authentication mechanism

A web service request is authenticated using a user name and password. You have the option to use a tenant name with the user name and password for some web service requests. The user credentials are passed through the HTTP header. Based on your Infrastructure Management setup, the user credentials are authenticated against the information in the Infrastructure Management Database, the LDAP server, or BMC Atrium Single Sign-On (BMC Atrium SSO).

The authentication mechanism uses the following formats to encode the user credentials:

• URL-encoded format
• Base64-encoded format

URL-encoded format

In the URL-encoded format, a successful authentication generates an authentication token. You can use this authentication token in your subsequent web service requests. The token has a time-limited validity. You can configure the validity time of the authentication token by updating the value of the loginExpiryInterval_hrs property set in the bppmws.properties file. In a multiple server environment, you must set this property in all the servers. The file is located in the pw\pronto\conf directory. By default, the value of the loginExpiryInterval_hrs property is 24.

Authenticating user credentials

The login API uses the POST method to authenticate user credentials. After successful authentication, the login API generates an authentication token.

The generic syntax of the URL to authenticate user credentials is as follows:

http|https://<serverHost>:<port>/bppmws/api/authenticate/login

Input parameters for login API

You must provide the following parameters in the URL-encoded format.

Response information to login API

The sample response is as follows:

{
      "response": {
            "status": "OK",
            "authToken": "TC9r9c/izIOdaQzztOjlqDE8ozc=",
            "authPassed": true,
            "expires": "2011-07-06T18:08:54"
      },
      "statusCode": "200",
      "statusMsg": "OK",
      "responseTimeStamp": "2011-07-05T18:08:54"
}

The authentication token that is generated is TC9r9c/izIOdaQzztOjlqDE8ozc=. You can also find the expiration date and time of the authentication token in the JSON response.

Authenticating from a POST request

To authenticate from a POST request, send username=admin&password=admin in the body and content type as application/x-www-form-urlencoded of the POST request to the authentication API URL.

Using the authentication token

You must provide the authentication token in the header of your subsequent web service requests by using the authorization parameter. The use of the authentication token in the header of a web service request is as follows:

authorization authtoken TC9r9c/izIOdaQzztOjlqDE8ozc=

In this example, authtoken TC9r9c/izIOdaQzztOjlqDE8ozc= is the value of the authorization parameter.

Ending the validity of an authentication token

You can manually end the validity of an authentication token by using logout API that uses the POST method.

The generic syntax of the logout API is as follows:

http|https://<serverHost>:<port>/bppmws/api/authenticate/logout

Input parameters for logout API

You must provide the following parameters in the URL-encoded format:

Response information of logout API

The sample response is as follows:

{
      "response": {
            "status": "OK",
            "authPassed": true
      },
      "statusCode": "200",
      "statusMsg": "OK",
      "responseTimeStamp": "2011-12-07T14:05:19"
}

You cannot use the authentication token after ending its validity. You must create a new authentication token by using the login API.

Base64-encoded format

In this format, a concatenated string of the user name and password separated by a colon (:) is created. This string is encoded in the Base64 format. A web service client uses this encoded string as the user credentials in the HTTP header. Every web service request must have the Base64-encoded format of the user credentials in the HTTP header. If you decide to use this format, you do not have to run the login API.

For example, if the user name is admin and password is admin, the concatenated string is admin:admin. The Base64 encoded string of admin:admin is YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=. You must use this encoded string as the user credentials in the HTTP header of every web service request. The use of the Base64 encoded string in the header of a web service request is as follows:

authorization basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=