org.jboss.seam.security.external.virtualapplications.api

Annotation Type VirtualApplicationScoped

@Documented
@Retention(value=RUNTIME)
@Target(value={TYPE,METHOD,FIELD})
@NormalScope(passivating=false)
public @interface VirtualApplicationScoped

The virtual application scope corresponds to a part of the application that serves a certain host name. It can be used for situations where a single application is used by different companies, each accessing the application using a host name that is part of the company's internet domain name.

The virtual application scope is intented to be used in a multi-tenant software architecture. Wikipedia describes this architecture as follows: "Multi-tenancy refers to a principle in software architecture where a single instance of the software runs on a server, serving multiple client organizations (tenants). Multi-tenancy is contrasted with a multi-instance architecture where separate software instances (or hardware systems) are set up for different client organizations. With a multi-tenant architecture, a software application is designed to virtually partition its data and configuration thus each client organization works with a customized virtual application instance."

In the application context, one stores the configuration or data that is specific for one company using the application. In the context of Seam security, the virtual application context can be used to store the configuration of an OpenID or SAML entity that is specific for one hostName/company.

Virtual applications need to be configured by adding the following observer to your application:

 public void virtualApplicationManagerCreated(@Observes final AfterVirtualApplicationManagerCreation event)
 {
    event.addVirtualApplication("www.company1.com");
    event.addVirtualApplication("www.company2.com");
 }
 

If you need to configure an application scoped bean, for example a SAML service provider bean that is scoped to the virtual application context, you should do that by reacting on the VirtualApplicationCreated event, which is fired for each configured virtual application at application startup time. For example:

 public void customize(@Observes AfterVirtualApplicationCreation event, SamlServiceProviderConfigurationApi sp, VirtualApplication virtualApplication)
 {
    if (virtualApplication.getHostName().equals("www.sp2.com"))
    {
       sp.setPreferredBinding(SamlBinding.HTTP_Redirect);
    }
    sp.setSingleLogoutMessagesSigned(false);
    sp.setProtocol("http");
    sp.setPort(8080);
 }
 

Author:

Marcel Kolsteren