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javax.mail
Class Authenticator

java.lang.Object
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 +--javax.mail.Authenticator

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public abstract class Authenticator

extends java.lang.Object

The class Authenticator represents an object that knows how to obtain authentication for a network connection. Usually, it will do this by prompting the user for information.

Applications use this class by creating a subclass, and registering an instance of that subclass with the session when it is created. When authentication is required, the system will invoke a method on the subclass (like getPasswordAuthentication). The subclass's method can query about the authentication being requested with a number of inherited methods (getRequestingXXX()), and form an appropriate message for the user.

All methods that request authentication have a default implementation that fails.

See Also:

java.net.Authenticator, Session.getInstance(java.util.Properties, javax.mail.Authenticator), Session.getDefaultInstance(java.util.Properties, javax.mail.Authenticator), Session.requestPasswordAuthentication(java.net.InetAddress, int, java.lang.String, java.lang.String, java.lang.String), PasswordAuthentication

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Authenticator

public Authenticator()

getRequestingSite

protected final java.net.InetAddress getRequestingSite()

Returns:

the InetAddress of the site requesting authorization, or null if it's not available.

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getRequestingPort

protected final int getRequestingPort()

Returns:

the port for the requested connection

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getRequestingProtocol

protected final java.lang.String getRequestingProtocol()

Give the protocol that's requesting the connection. Often this will be based on a URLName.

Returns:

the protcol

See Also:

URLName.getProtocol()

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getRequestingPrompt

protected final java.lang.String getRequestingPrompt()

Returns:

the prompt string given by the requestor

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getDefaultUserName

protected final java.lang.String getDefaultUserName()

Returns:

the default user name given by the requestor

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getPasswordAuthentication

protected PasswordAuthentication getPasswordAuthentication()

Called when password authentication is needed. Subclasses should override the default implementation, which returns null.

Note that if this method uses a dialog to prompt the user for this information, the dialog needs to block until the user supplies the information. This method can not simply return after showing the dialog.

Returns:

The PasswordAuthentication collected from the user, or null if none is provided.

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