Can the SEAM authenticator reside in the ear file lib folder?

Question

For a couple of reaons we have a project-commons.jar located in the lib directory of our ear.

project.ear
  project-web.war
  project-ejb.jar
  lib
    project-commons.jar

Currently if I annotate a class that is placed in project-commons.jar as the

@Name("authenticator")
@Scope(ScopeType.APPLICATION)

SEAM reports a stack trace (below). If I place the authenticator in project-web.war or project-ejb.jar SEAM finds and uses the authenticator just fine. To be clear project-commons is being 'found' from a classpath perspective (a lot of code in project-web and project-ejb.jar leverage it. This issue seems specific to how the components.xml resolves the entry:

<security:identity 
   authenticate-method="#{authenticator.authenticate}" 
   remember-me="true"/>

Here is the stack trace:

2010-10-20 10:25:44,554 WARN  [org.jboss.seam.security.jaas.SeamLoginModule] (http-127.0.0.1-8080-2) Error invoking login method
javax.el.PropertyNotFoundException: Target Unreachable, identifier 'authenticator' resolved to null
    at org.jboss.el.parser.AstValue.getTarget(AstValue.java:38)
    at org.jboss.el.parser.AstValue.invoke(AstValue.java:95)
    at org.jboss.el.MethodExpressionImpl.invoke(MethodExpressionImpl.java:276)
    at org.jboss.seam.core.Expressions$2.invoke(Expressions.java:175)
    at org.jboss.seam.security.jaas.SeamLoginModule.login(SeamLoginModule.java:109)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.invoke(LoginContext.java:769)
    at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.access$000(LoginContext.java:186)
    at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext$5.run(LoginContext.java:706)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.invokeCreatorPriv(LoginContext.java:703)
    at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.login(LoginContext.java:575)
    at org.jboss.seam.security.Identity.authenticate(Identity.java:344)
    at org.jboss.seam.security.Identity.authenticate(Identity.java:332)
    at org.jboss.seam.security.Identity.login(Identity.java:259)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at org.jboss.el.util.ReflectionUtil.invokeMethod(ReflectionUtil.java:335)
    at org.jboss.el.util.ReflectionUtil.invokeMethod(ReflectionUtil.java:348)
    at org.jboss.el.parser.AstPropertySuffix.invoke(AstPropertySuffix.java:58)
    at org.jboss.el.parser.AstValue.invoke(AstValue.java:96)
    at org.jboss.el.MethodExpressionImpl.invoke(MethodExpressionImpl.java:276)
    at com.sun.facelets.el.TagMethodExpression.invoke(TagMethodExpression.java:68)
    at javax.faces.component.MethodBindingMethodExpressionAdapter.invoke(MethodBindingMethodExpressionAdapter.java:88)
    at com.sun.faces.application.ActionListenerImpl.processAction(ActionListenerImpl.java:102)
    at javax.faces.component.UICommand.broadcast(UICommand.java:387)
    at org.ajax4jsf.component.AjaxViewRoot.processEvents(AjaxViewRoot.java:329)
    at org.ajax4jsf.component.AjaxViewRoot.broadcastEventsForPhase(AjaxViewRoot.java:304)
    at org.ajax4jsf.component.AjaxViewRoot.processPhase(AjaxViewRoot.java:261)
    at org.ajax4jsf.component.AjaxViewRoot.processApplication(AjaxViewRoot.java:474)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.InvokeApplicationPhase.execute(InvokeApplicationPhase.java:82)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.Phase.doPhase(Phase.java:100)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.execute(LifecycleImpl.java:118)
    at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:265)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.ajax4jsf.webapp.BaseFilter.doFilter(BaseFilter.java:530)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:83)
    at org.jboss.seam.web.IdentityFilter.doFilter(IdentityFilter.java:40)
    at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
    at org.jboss.seam.web.MultipartFilter.doFilter(MultipartFilter.java:90)
    at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
    at org.jboss.seam.web.ExceptionFilter.doFilter(ExceptionFilter.java:64)
    at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
    at org.jboss.seam.web.RedirectFilter.doFilter(RedirectFilter.java:45)
    at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
    at org.ajax4jsf.webapp.BaseXMLFilter.doXmlFilter(BaseXMLFilter.java:206)
    at org.ajax4jsf.webapp.BaseFilter.handleRequest(BaseFilter.java:290)
    at org.ajax4jsf.webapp.BaseFilter.processUploadsAndHandleRequest(BaseFilter.java:388)
    at org.ajax4jsf.webapp.BaseFilter.doFilter(BaseFilter.java:515)
    at org.jboss.seam.web.Ajax4jsfFilter.doFilter(Ajax4jsfFilter.java:56)
    at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
    at org.jboss.seam.web.LoggingFilter.doFilter(LoggingFilter.java:60)
    at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
    at org.jboss.seam.web.HotDeployFilter.doFilter(HotDeployFilter.java:53)
    at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter$FilterChainImpl.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:69)
    at org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamFilter.doFilter(SeamFilter.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.filters.ReplyHeaderFilter.doFilter(ReplyHeaderFilter.java:96)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:235)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.security.SecurityAssociationValve.invoke(SecurityAssociationValve.java:190)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:433)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.security.JaccContextValve.invoke(JaccContextValve.java:92)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.security.SecurityContextEstablishmentValve.process(SecurityContextEstablishmentValve.java:126)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.security.SecurityContextEstablishmentValve.invoke(SecurityContextEstablishmentValve.java:70)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
    at org.jboss.web.tomcat.service.jca.CachedConnectionValve.invoke(CachedConnectionValve.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:330)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProcessor.process(Http11AprProcessor.java:905)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11AprProtocol.java:592)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.AprEndpoint$Worker.run(AprEndpoint.java:2036)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)

Answer 1

There is nothing in Seam called @Authenticator You have to create your own authenticator component.

Your error message is saying Seam cannot find any such component, so this means you have no component with @Name("authenticator")

Here is an example link of how to create an authenticator

UPDATE

Seems like I was wrong when it came to discovery of components.

Answer 2

Try adding an empty seam.properties file in your project-commons.jar. This is used as a marker file that tells Seam that there are components inside the archive.

The problem is that Seam needs to "discover" the components annotated with @Name, among other things. However, scanning the whole classpath can be very expensive. This is why Seam only scans the archives that have a seam.properties (or components.xml) file.