AuthenticationService (Alpine 1.9.2 API)

All Known Implementing Classes:

ApiKeyAuthenticationService, JwtAuthenticationService, LdapAuthenticationService, ManagedUserAuthenticationService, OidcAuthenticationService
```
public interface AuthenticationService
```
Interface that defines an authentication service.

Since:

1.0.0

Author:

Steve Springett

Method Summary

All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods
Modifier and Type	Method	Description
`Principal`	`authenticate()`	Defines an authentication method which returns a Principal if authentication is successful or an AuthorizationException if not.
`boolean`	`isSpecified()`	Defines a method which returns if the specified piece of data, required to perform authentication is present.

- Method Detail
  - isSpecified
```
boolean isSpecified()
```
    Defines a method which returns if the specified piece of data, required to perform authentication is present.
    
    Returns:
    
    true if the authentication data was specified, false if not
    
    Since:
    
    1.0.0
  - authenticate
```
@Nullable
Principal authenticate()
                throws AuthenticationException
```
    Defines an authentication method which returns a Principal if authentication is successful or an AuthorizationException if not.
    
    Returns:
    
    a Principal of the authenticated user
    
    Throws:
    
    AuthenticationException - an authentication failure
    
    Since:
    
    1.0.0