New JAAS Logon Module that calls RFC

Question

I want to build a new logon module that extends AbstractLoginModule.
I want to call an RFC in ECC using JCA in this logon module. The purpose of this RFC call is to read the users roles in the backend, if they have a certain role I will dynamically assign them a portal group using the UME API.
which method in the Logon Module (AbstractLoginModule) should I make the call to the RFC?  (initialize(), login(), commit(), etc.)
Does anybody have any examples of how to make the RFC call from a custom logon module using JCA?

Answer 1

Hi K,
I tend to put the bulk of the logic for my login modules in the login() method - although usually this is for checking authentication rather than assigning roles/groups.
Have you thought about using UME type ABAP to map ECC roles to Portal Groups? If you then need to write a login module to handle, say, LDAP authentication, then at least it is doing what it should be - i.e. authentication, and the heavy-lifting to do with JCA, roles, etc is handled by SAP-standard code.
For sample JCA code, there is some in the [Universal Worklist Wiki|https://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/BPX/DeveloperStudioProject+Files] - just download and extract the Devlopment Component there (don't forget to remove the .gif extension - a hack I used to get a Zip file into the Wiki).  The file SapRfc.java gives you a user-friendly way of calling RFCs using JCA. To see it in use, see AbsenceApproval.java - the method getWorkitemDescription() is a good example to look at.
The only downside of the SapRfc.java library is that the constructor takes a IPortalComponentRequest object as an argument (allowing you to use a Portal System Alias), and you don't really have access to one of those in a JAAS module. You will have to modify this code to take a set of ConnectionProperties instead (see the documentation [Using the SAP System Connector|http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/89/8a185c148e4f6582560a8d809210b4/frameset.htm]).
Really, the component you want to develop might be better deployed as a Portal component. Your users would access this component first of all, and when it completes it would forward them on to the Portal proper.
Hope this helps,
Darren