Specifying an Authorization Constraint

An authorization constraint (auth-constraint) contains the role-name element. You can use as many role-name elements as needed here.

An authorization constraint establishes a requirement for authentication and names the roles authorized to access the URL patterns and HTTP methods declared by this security constraint. If there is no authorization constraint, the container must accept the request without requiring user authentication. If there is an authorization constraint, but no roles are specified within it, the container will not allow access to constrained requests under any circumstances. The role name(s) specified here must either correspond to the role name of one of the <security-role> elements defined for this web application, or be the specially reserved role name *, which is a compact syntax for indicating all roles in the web application. Role names are case sensitive. The roles defined for the application must be mapped to users and groups defined on the server. For more information about security roles, read Working with Security Roles.