How to use VPD in Java/Struts JSP portlet with SSO

Question

DB = 10.1.0 (Standard Edition)
Portal = 9.0.4.1
10gAS = 9.4.0.1 (EE)
I am in the beginning stages of developing some portlets that will be Java/Struts JSP based. We use SSO and have implemented some VPD security in our DB by creating some views that use SYS_CONTEXT('USERENV','CURRENT_USERID').
These Java portlets connect to the DB using a defined JDBC connection for the OC4J container they are deployed in. The problem I'm having is that the call to SYS_CONTEXT is returning the user of the JDBC connection and not the SSO user. So far I have been unable to find any documentation that will point me in the right direction to get this configured properly.
Deployment and configuration are as follows. Deploy war file to custom container on app server. In the configuration of the OC4J contain the app used the containers default JDBC connection using the oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource class. Max and Min open connections are blank.
In the portal configuration under Navigator - Providers tab we defined a new Registered Provider. In the Connections tab for the provider we Specify the URL Http://hpsrv02.simsol.com:7777/discovery-portlets/providers. Under "Specify how the user's identity will be set by the Portal..." the "The user has the same identity in the Web providers application as in the Single Sign-On identity" is selected. Under "User/Session Information" User is selected and Login Frequency is set to "Once per user session". Then we created a new portal page and created a new portlet with the new provider.
Just an FYI I do have Discoverer working with VPD and any report portlet, dynamic page portlet and any other type of portlet I created all work correctly with VPD it is just the java/struts one that is not working.
So does any one have any insight into what configuration steps I have missed?
Any help is much appreciated,
Ed Klinger

Answer 1

Ed,
Your java code must get the SSO username (it's just a HTTP header variable) :
ie: code sample...
Enumeration e = request.getHeaderNames();
while (e.hasMoreElements()) {
String name = (String)e.nextElement();
String value = request.getHeader(name);
out.println("<br> "+name + " = " + value);
if (name.toUpperCase().trim().equals("OSSO-USER-DN")){
dn_user=value;
out.println("<br>******** USER DN = "+dn_user);
Then, the SSO username can be used in the VPD policy.
Note that there is a difference between the sso username and the database username . SSO username is not known by database (CURRENT_USERID will return a database username)
Discoverer worked OK in your case with the SYS_CONTEXT (.. CURRENT_USERID) because authentication is made by database user, probably.