Format of the credentials file

The format of the form-based authentication credentials file is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<credentials>
   <formCredentials>
      <authenticator>
         <className>authClass</className>
         <configuration>
            <siteUrlPattern>siteUrl</siteUrlPattern>
            <loginUrl>loginPageUrl</loginUrl>
            <actionUrl>actionUrl</actionUrl>
            <method>authMethodToUse</method>
            <preCrawlAuth>shouldPreAuth</preCrawlAuth>
            <parameters>
               <parameter>
                  <name>paramName</name>
                  <value>paramValue</value>
               </parameter>
            </parameters>
            <properties>
               <property>
                  <name>propName</name>
                  <value>propValue</value>
               </property>
            </properties>
         </configuration>
      </authenticator>
   </formCredentials>
</credentials>

The meanings of the elements and attribute values are listed in the following table.

Element

Meaning

<credentials> and <formCredentials>

Main opening elements. There can be only one set of these elements in the file.

<authenticator>

Defines one set of settings for the Authenticator plugin. The file will have multiple <authenticator> sections if the site has multi-form authentication.

<className>

The name of the class that handles authentication logic. The Web Crawler default authenticator class is: com.endeca.itl.web.auth.form.BasicFormAuthenticator. If desired, you can override this class with a custom authentication class you that implement.

<configuration>

Defines a set of credentials settings and properties.

<siteUrlPattern>

A regular expression that determines which sites will be authenticated (i.e., the Authenticator will be run only on those sites).

<loginUrl>

The URL where the actual login is done (such as http://samplesite.com/login.html).

<actionUrl>

A full path to a URL that handles the logic for the GET/POST request, such as a CGI script. This field corresponds to the ACTION attribute of the form. Note that an action URL is often different from the login URL.

<method>

A value of either GET or POST.

<preCrawlAuth>

Boolean value. Indicates whether authentication is done before the crawl starts (a value of true enables pre-crawl authentication) or whether the authentication is done during the crawl (a value of false enables in-crawl authentication ).

<parameters>

Contains one or more sets of <parameter> elements. The parameters correspond to the form fields you wish to fill out (such as the login name and password). By default, the parameters are all included with the HttpRequest sent to the server.

<parameter>

Contains a <name> element that is the name of a field in the form and a <value> element that is the value to be supplied for that field.

<properties>

Contains one or more sets of <property> elements. They are placed in the Property map and can be accessed as Strings. Properties are meant to be specific settings for the Authenticator plugin, and allow a way for the plugin to be customized easily. Note that this element is optional.

<property>

Contains a <name> element that is the name of a property and a <value> element that is the value of that property.

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