Digital signature integration with software written in java

Question

hi everyone, i'm extremely rookie on this security field, so please forgive if my questions are dumb.

i am asked to convert and migrate couple "Lotus Forms" forms to our software that is written in java. One thing in forms that bother me is digital signatures. These forms can be signed by digital signatures, probably generated by "Silanis Approve-it". as i have said before, i dont have much knowledge about this technology. and strangely couldnt find any tutorial or example of integrating digital signature and java.

So what are the possibilities here ? how my code read a digital signature, sign a document with this signature? There should be an API or something that is provided by vendors right :)

Answer 1

If you use the XML format of the Lotus Forms (XForms), you can easily handle the signature using XMLDsig which is included in Java 6.

See this,

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/xml/dig_signatures/

and

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/forms-digital/