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Writing a Custom User Store Manager

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: Sept 27, 2016 by Former user (Deleted)
1 min read

This page demonstrates the process of writing a simple custom user store manager for WSO2 products.

In enterprise systems, some key components are centralized for painless management. User management is one such component that is centralized and carefully monitored. There may be user management systems that use a database or LDAP as the datasources. Any WSO2 product based on WSO2 Carbon can be configured to use these existing centralized user management systems as the user store. This topic demonstrates how to integrate an existing JDBC user store with a WSO2 product.

The following sections provide information that you need to be aware of when writing a custom user store manager:

AbstractUserStoreManager and implementations

There are a set of methods available in the AbstractUserStoreManager class. These methods are used when interacting with user stores. When we implement a custom user store manager, it is important to identify the methods that must be implemented or overridden. 

Tip about overriding methods:

You must select the methods to override based on your requirement. For example, if you want to change the way you encrypt the password, you only need to implement the preparePassword method. If you want to implement a completely new read/write user store manager, you must implement all the methods listed in the tables given below. If the user store is read-only, you can implement only the important methods and read methods (if you extend from AbstractUserStoreManager you have to keep unrelated methods empty).

There are a few other methods used for internal purposes. You do not need to override those methods.

The following list briefly explains the use of the available methods in the AbstractUserStoreManager class. Most of the methods provide a configuration option through properties. It is recommended to use these methods with the provided customization options.

Important methods

Available methodsDefault behaviourReasons for overriding

boolean doAuthenticate(String userName, Object credential)

This method returns details on whether the given username and password is matched or not. Credential is usually a String literal.

If you want to change the authentication logic you can override this method and write your own implementation. The default task of this method is to compare the given password with the stored password. The given credentials are passed to the preparePassword method to do the salting or encryption before the comparison takes place.

String preparePassword(Object password, String saltValue)

This returns the encrypted or plain-text password based on the configurations.

You can override this method if you need to change the way you encrypt the password. If you want to change the algorithm that is used for encryption, you can configure it.

Properties getDefaultUserStoreProperties()

The default properties of the user store are returned using this method. These properties are used in user store related operations.

Be sure to manually add the following property when you implement the class:

setOptionalProperty("Disabled", "false", "Whether user store is disabled");

This property is what controls whether the user store is enabled or disabled.

By overriding this method, you can programmatically change the configuration of the user store manager implementation.

boolean checkUserNameValid(String userName)

Returns whether the given username is compatible with the defined criteria.

The criteria used for defining a valid username can be configured as a regex in user store configurations. If you want to change the way user name validation is done, override this method.

boolean checkUserPasswordValid(Object credential)

Returns whether the given password is compatible with the defined criteria. This is invoked when creating a user, updating a password and authorization.

Similar to the user name, you can configure the format of a valid password in configuration. If you want to change that behavior you can override this method.

Read-write methods

Available methodsDefault behaviour

void doAddUser(String userName, Object credential, String[] roleList, Map<String, String> claims, String profileName, boolean requirePasswordChange)

This method is responsible to create a new user based on the given values. We can change the JDBC query or LDAP attribute name with the user store configuration.

void doDeleteUser(String userName)

This removes the user store record related to the given username.

void doUpdateCredential(String userName, Object newCredential, Object oldCredential)

Responsible to update the credential of the given username after authenticating with the existing password.

void doUpdateCredentialByAdmin(String userName, Object newCredential)

Admin users can use this method to update the credentials of a given user. This can be done without validating the existing password.

void doAddRole(String roleName, String[] userList, boolean shared)

Creates a new user role with given roleName and maps the given users to newly created role. Shared parameter indicate whether this role is shared among tenant or not.

void doDeleteRole(String roleName)

This method removes the given role and related mappings from the user store.

void doUpdateRoleName(String roleName, String newRoleName)

This method is used to update the name of the existing roles.

void doUpdateRoleListOfUser(String userName, String[] deletedRoles, String[] newRoles)

This is used to delete the existing mappings between the given user and the deletedRoles while creating mappings to newRoles.

void doUpdateUserListOfRole(String roleName, String[] deletedUsers, String[] newUsers)

Used to delete the existing mappings between the given role and the deletedUsers while creating mappings to newUsers.

void doSetUserClaimValue(String userName, String claimURI, String claimValue, String profileName)

This is responsible for creating a new claim for a given user and profile, with the given claim URI and value.

void doSetUserClaimValues(String userName, Map<String, String> claims, String profileName)

This is responsible for creating a new claim for a given user and profile, with the given list of claim URIs and values.

void doDeleteUserClaimValue(String userName, String claimURI, String profileName)

Remove the existing claim details mapped with the given user and profile.

void doDeleteUserClaimValues(String userName, String[] claims, String profileName)

Remove the given list of claims from a given user.

void addRememberMe(String userName, String token)

This method is used to persist tokens in the user store.

Read methods

Available methodsDefault behaviour

boolean doCheckExistingUser(String userName)

Returns whether the provided userName already exists in the user store.

boolean doCheckExistingRole(String roleName)

Returns whether the provided roleName already exists in the user store.

String[] doListUsers(String filter, int maxItemLimit)

This method returns a list of usernames that match with the given filter string.

String[] doGetRoleNames(String filter, int maxItemLimit)

Returns a list of role names that match with the given filter string.

String[] doGetExternalRoleListOfUser(String userName, String filter)

Returns a list of external role names of a given user that match with the given filter string.

String[] doGetSharedRoleListOfUser(String userName, String tenantDomain, String filter)

This method returns a list of shared role names of a given user that match with the given filter string.

Map<String, String> getUserPropertyValues(String userName, String[] propertyNames, String profileName)

This method returns values for the given propertyNames for a given userName and profileName.

String[] getUserListFromProperties(String property, String value, String profileName)

This returns a list of usernames that match with the given value of the given property and profileName.

String[] doGetDisplayNamesForInternalRole(String[] userNames)

Returns names to display in the UI for given usernames.

Date getPasswordExpirationTime(String userName)

Returns the password expiry date of a given user. The default value is null.

int getUserId(String username)

This method returns the identifier of a given user name. Default value is 0.
boolean doCheckIsUserInRole(String userName, String roleName)True is returned if the given user is already mapped to the given role name.
String[] getProfileNames(String userName)Returns a list of profile names mapped with a given user name.

String[] doGetSharedRoleNames(String tenantDomain, String filter, int maxItemLimit)

This returns a list of role names that are associated with the given tenant domain and match with the filter.

String[] doGetUserListOfRole(String roleName, String filter)

This method returns a list of usernames that are mapped with the given rolename.

String[] getAllProfileNames()

All the profile names are returned including the default profile.

boolean isValidRememberMeToken(String userName, String token)

This method is used to check if the given token exists for the given user.

boolean isMultipleProfilesAllowed()

Returns whether this user store is allowed to have multiple profiles per user. The default value is false.

boolean isBulkImportSupported()

This method returns whether this user store allows bulk transactions or not.

Implementations

In WSO2 Carbon-based products, there are four user store manager classes that implement the AbstractUserStoreManager class. You can select one of those classes according to the user store that you have in your environment.

User store manager classWhen you would use it
org.wso2.carbon.user.core.jdbc.JDBCUserStoreManager

If your user details are stored in a database, you must use this user store manager implementation. With the abstraction provided in this implementation, most of the JDBC based scenarios can be handled without writing a custom user store manager.

org.wso2.carbon.user.core.ldap.ReadOnlyLDAPUserStoreManager

You can use this class if you have an LDAP user store. This implementation does not allow you to insert or update users from the WSO2 product side. Instead you can only read and use them in the product.

org.wso2.carbon.user.core.ldap.ReadWriteLDAPUserStoreManager

If you want to allow the WSO2 product to manipulate user store data, you need to use this implementation.

org.wso2.carbon.user.core.ldap.ActiveDirectoryLDAPUserStoreManager

Active Directory also can be used as the user store of a WSO2 product and you can configure it using this user store manager implementation.

Implementing a custom JDBC user store manager

The instructions in this section are focused on implementing a sample JDBC user store manager. For this sample, the following tools are used to implement the custom user store manager.

  • Java 1.6.0
  • IDE (Eclipse, InteliJ IDEA, etc.)
  • Apache Maven

Setting up the implementation

To set up this implementation, do the following.

  1. Create a new Apache Maven project with the help of the IDE that you are using. The project should be a simple Apache Maven project and you can use any desired artifact and group ID. 

  2. Add the WSO2 user store management .jar file as a dependency of our project. Since this .jar file is stored in WSO2's Maven repository, you must add the WSO2 repository to your POM file. Please see the below sample POM file.

    Note: Note that the version number of the carbon dependencies seen below have to be updated according to the carbon kernel version that the particular product version is compatible with. For example, WSO2 IS 5.3.0 is built on top of carbon kernel version 4.4.11 therefore, the version given in the sample pom file below is 4.4.11. Change this value accordingly based on the relevant carbon kernel version of the product you are using by reffering to this release matrix.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <groupId>org.wso2.sample</groupId>
    <artifactId>CustomReadOnlyJDBCUserStoreManager</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.0</version>
    <packaging>bundle</packaging>
    <repositories>
        <repository>
            <id>wso2-nexus</id>
            <name>WSO2 internal Repository</name>
            <url>http://maven.wso2.org/nexus/content/groups/wso2-public/</url>
            <releases>
                <enabled>true</enabled>
                <updatePolicy>daily</updatePolicy>
                <checksumPolicy>ignore</checksumPolicy>
            </releases>
        </repository>
    </repositories>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.wso2.carbon</groupId>
            <artifactId>org.wso2.carbon.user.core</artifactId>
            <version>4.4.11</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.wso2.carbon</groupId>
            <artifactId>org.wso2.carbon.utils</artifactId>
            <version>4.4.11</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.wso2.carbon</groupId>
            <artifactId>org.wso2.carbon.user.api</artifactId>
            <version>4.4.11</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3.1</version>
                <inherited>true</inherited>
                <configuration>
                    <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
                    <source>1.7</source>
                    <target>1.7</target>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-scr-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>1.7.2</version>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>generate-scr-scrdescriptor</id>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>scr</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.felix</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-bundle-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.3.5</version>
                <extensions>true</extensions>
                <configuration>
                    <instructions>
                        <Bundle-SymbolicName>${project.artifactId}</Bundle-SymbolicName>
                        <Bundle-Name>${project.artifactId}</Bundle-Name>
                        <Private-Package>
                            org.wso2.sample.user.store.manager.internal
                        </Private-Package>
                        <Export-Package>
                            !org.wso2.sample.user.store.manager.internal,
                            org.wso2.sample.user.store.manager.*,
                        </Export-Package>
                        <Import-Package>
                            org.wso2.carbon.*,
                            org.apache.commons.logging.*,
                            org.osgi.framework.*,
                            org.osgi.service.component.*
                        </Import-Package>
                    </instructions>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>

    Now your basic implementation is ready.

Writing a custom user store manager for a sample scenario

As a sample of how this can be done, consider a scenario where you want to use a custom hashing method using a 3rd party library such as Jasypt. So, in order to do this, you must override the doAuthentication and preparePassword methods as an example.

Do the following steps to write the custom user store manager.

  1. Include the required dependencies in your development environment. To do that, include the relevant Apache Maven dependency details or manually add the .jar files to your classpath. For example, add the following XML snippet under the dependencies tag in your pom.xml file to include the Jasypt dependency.

    <dependency>
    <groupId>org.jasypt</groupId>
    <artifactId>jasypt</artifactId>
    <version>1.9.2</version>
</dependency>

  2. Create a new class by extending the existing JDBCUserStoreManager implementation. The following code is an example of how this would look.

    package com.wso2.custom.usermgt;

import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
import org.jasypt.util.password.StrongPasswordEncryptor;
import org.wso2.carbon.user.api.RealmConfiguration;
import org.wso2.carbon.user.core.UserRealm;
import org.wso2.carbon.user.core.UserStoreException;
import org.wso2.carbon.user.core.claim.ClaimManager;
import org.wso2.carbon.user.core.jdbc.JDBCUserStoreManager;
import org.wso2.carbon.user.core.profile.ProfileConfigurationManager;

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Timestamp;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
import java.util.Map;

public class CustomUserStoreManager extends JDBCUserStoreManager {
   private static Log log = LogFactory.getLog(StarkUserStoreManager.class);
   // This instance is used to generate the hash values
   private static StrongPasswordEncryptor passwordEncryptor = new StrongPasswordEncryptor();

   // You must implement at least one constructor
   public CustomUserStoreManager(RealmConfiguration realmConfig, Map<String, Object> properties, ClaimManager
           claimManager, ProfileConfigurationManager profileManager, UserRealm realm, Integer tenantId)
           throws UserStoreException {
       super(realmConfig, properties, claimManager, profileManager, realm, tenantId);
       log.info("CustomUserStoreManager initialized...");
   }

   @Override
   public boolean doAuthenticate(String userName, Object credential) throws UserStoreException {
       boolean isAuthenticated = false;
       if (userName != null && credential != null) {
           try {
               String candidatePassword = String.copyValueOf(((Secret) credential).getChars());

               Connection dbConnection = null;
               ResultSet rs = null;
               PreparedStatement prepStmt = null;
               String sql = null;
               dbConnection = this.getDBConnection();
               dbConnection.setAutoCommit(false);
               // get the SQL statement used to select user details
               sql = this.realmConfig.getUserStoreProperty("SelectUserSQL");
               if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
                   log.debug(sql);
               }

               prepStmt = dbConnection.prepareStatement(sql);
               prepStmt.setString(1, userName);
               // check whether tenant id is used
               if (sql.contains("UM_TENANT_ID")) {
                   prepStmt.setInt(2, this.tenantId);
               }

               rs = prepStmt.executeQuery();
               if (rs.next()) {
                   String storedPassword = rs.getString(3);

                   // check whether password is expired or not
                   boolean requireChange = rs.getBoolean(5);
                   Timestamp changedTime = rs.getTimestamp(6);
                   GregorianCalendar gc = new GregorianCalendar();
                   gc.add(GregorianCalendar.HOUR, -24);
                   Date date = gc.getTime();
                   if (!(requireChange && changedTime.before(date))) {
                       // compare the given password with stored password using jasypt
                       isAuthenticated = passwordEncryptor.checkPassword(candidatePassword, storedPassword);
                   }
               }
               log.info(userName + " is authenticated? " + isAuthenticated);
           } catch (SQLException exp) {
               log.error("Error occurred while retrieving user authentication info.", exp);
               throw new UserStoreException("Authentication Failure");
           }
       }
       return isAuthenticated;
   }

   @Override
   protected String preparePassword(Object password, String saltValue) throws UserStoreException {
       if (password != null) {
           String candidatePassword = String.copyValueOf(((Secret) password).getChars());
			// ignore saltValue for the time being
           log.info("Generating hash value using jasypt...");
           return passwordEncryptor.encryptPassword(password);
       } else {
           log.error("Password cannot be null");
           throw new UserStoreException("Authentication Failure");
       }
   }
}

    Note: The default constructor is not enough when you implement a custom user store manager, and you must implement a constructor with relevant arguments.

Deploying and configuring the custom user store manager

Do the following to deploy and configure the custom user store manager in your WSO2 product.

  1. Copy the artifact of your project (custom-userstore.jar, in this case) to the <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/components/dropins directory. Also copy all OSGI bundles to this location. If you have any dependency .jar files, copy them to the <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/components/lib directory.

  2. Change the configuration of the WSO2 product to use our custom implementation for user store management. To do this, open the <PRODUCT_HOME>/repository/conf/user-mgt.xml file and change the UserStoreManager class.

    <UserStoreManager class="com.wso2.custom.usermgt.CustomUserStoreManager">

    Tip: This step provides instructions on configuring your custom user store manager as a primary user store. Alternatively, you can configure this as a secondary user store if you already have a different primary user store configured. For more information on how to configure your customer user store manager as the secondary user store, see Configuring Secondary User Stores.

You have now implemented a custom user store manager for a WSO2 product. Once you have done this, start the product and see the log messages that you have placed inside overridden methods when you create a new user or login. This ensures that all your configurations work as intended.

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