Crowd : 3.2 - Client Configuration
This page last changed on Feb 26, 2007 by rosie@atlassian.com.

Configuring your application clients to communicate with the Crowd framework merely takes a moment. The integration libraries and configuration files are part of the downloaded distribution, this folder is client. You will find the Crowd integration library, and the client libraries the framework depends on, in the lib folder. An example client properties file crowd.properties is located in the conf folder.

To configure your application client, perform the following:

  • Copy the crowd client and supporting libraries to your application classpath, typically WEB-INF/lib.
    • These files will be in the client folder similar to crowd-core-0.4.1.jar and all supporting jars in the client/lib folder.
  • Copy the client properties file crowd.properties to your applications deployment directory, typically WEB-INF/classes.
  • Edit the crowd.properties file to reflect the values of your deployment parameters.

A description of the crowd.properties attributes as follows:

Parameter Description
application.name The application name to use when authenticating with the Crowd server.
application.password The application password to use when authenticating with the Crowd server.
application.login.url The path to redirect the principal should their token expire or invalid due to security restrictions.
crowd.server.url The URL to use when connecting with the integration libraries to communicate with the Crowd server.
session.isauthenticated The session key to use when storing a Boolean value if the principal is authenticated or not.
session.tokenkey The session key to use when storing a String value of the principal's authentication token.
session.validationinterval The number of minutes between authentication validation. If this value is set to 0, each HTTP request will be authenticated.
session.lastvalidation The session key to use when storing a Date value of the principal's last authentication.
Handy Hint

When configuring your client-application through Crowd, make sure to do the following:

  • Assign a group to an application that is allowed to login.
  • Add the IP of the client-application. Crowd restricts communication to specific IPs for client-applications making API calls.

Developing your own SOAP Client

Developing your own integration API for the Crowd server requires writing an application client that is capable of handling SOAP requests. To obtain the WSDL of the security server, access the URL: http://myserver/crowd/services/SecurityServer?wsdl

The Crowd API has been tested with: Axis 1/2, Microsoft .NET and XFire.

Comments:

Hi, just went through this. Can you make this page a little clearer with respect to where the files should go?

I got it to work by taking the files in the client directory and putting them in the WEB-INF/classes folder. I then took the files in the lib directory and put them in the WEB-INF/lib directory. It already had some, so I chose not to overwrite the ones there with the new ones.

I then took the conf file and dropped that in the WEB-INF/classes folder and edited it.

A startup of my combined Jira and Confluence install started without issues.
Posted by at Dec 26, 2006 16:44

I've done this integration with Jira and Confluence. I found the above documentation somewhat vague and therefore offer this re-write which I hope will make it into the final document. I've used the \ as directory delimiter as I am working on Windows. Please keep in mind this may have to be different in Linux/Unix solutions.

  1. Copy the Crowd "client"  directory into the "<atlassianproduct>\WEB-INF" directory.
  2. Go into the "client" directory and select the two jar files and use the menu's/keys to copy them
  3. Go to the "<atlassianproduct>\WEB-INF\lib directory and paste the two files there
  4. Go back to the "client\lib" directory and select all files (but see CAUTION below!) and use the menu's/keys to copy them.
    CAUTION: In case of Confluence, you must not select the "spring-1.2.8.jar" file here (Confluence 2.2.10, Crowd 0.3), only the other files!
  5. Go to the "<atlassianproduct>\WEB-INF\lib directory and paste the files there. Do NOT overwrite similar files already there.
  6. Go back to the "client\conf" directory and select the "crowd.properties" file use the menu's/keys to copy it
  7. Paste the file in the "<atlassianproduct>\WEB-INF\classes" directory
  8. Edit the "crowd.properties file <see description above, to be merged with this new text once document is updated please>
  9. When you're done with these steps, go back to the previous page and take careful note of what needs to be configured in Crowd for Applications and Groups to make the integration work.
    NOTE: For Jira, don't forget to set the General Configurations for external user/password management.

This completes my additions to the document, hopefully this can be merged soon.
Posted by at Dec 27, 2006 11:25

Hello,

Can some one please write how one can configure some php applications i..e such as MediaWiki or Horde to use crowd based authentication. I see no reference at all to non-java applications.

Thanks

Asif
Posted by at Feb 10, 2007 17:25

All non-java based clients can try using the SOAP interface.
Posted by at Feb 12, 2007 15:19
Document generated by Confluence on Mar 08, 2007 18:50