Simplified custom authorization rules in Java EE
In a previous article we looked at implementing a Java EE authorization module using the JACC specification. This module implemented the default authorization rules as specified by the JACC-, Servlet- and EJB specifications. In this article we go beyond that default algorithm and take a look at providing our own custom authorization rules. In order to implement custom rules, one would traditionally ship an entire JACC provider with factory, configuration and policy. Not only is this a lot of code (JACC doesn't have any code that can be reused, for the smallest change everything needs to be implemented from scratch) , it's also problematic that a JACC provider is global for the entire application server, while authorization rules are almost always specific for an individual application. Even when you adhere to the best practice of using one application per server , it's still quite a hassle to re-install the JACC provider after every little change separately from the app...