Signing OAuth on the Vordel XML Gateway with Java using Signpost

Today I was using Matthias Käppler's "Signpost" Java OAuth API. As the Signpost readme says:

"Signpost is the easy and intuitive solution for signing HTTP messages on the Java platform in conformance with the OAuth Core 1.0a standard."
http://github.com/kaeppler/signpost#readme

As an exercise, I ran Signpost on the Vordel XML Gateway to see it insert the OAuth Authorization header into outbound messages. Getting Signpost up and running on the Vordel XML Gateway is simple. Firstly, download the jar files for Signpost and put them into the "/ext/lib" directory to extend the Gateway using Java. Now, Signpost's OAuth signing functionality can be imported into a script on the Vordel Gateway easily using "importPackage". Because Signpost is so simple, the entire process of signing an outbound HTTP request with OAuth effectively takes just six lines of code running on the Vordel Gateway:



This is the beauty of being able to extend the Vordel XML Gateway with Java. Basically anything you can do in Java, you can do on the Gateway. Of course, you must have the rights to push the policy to the Gateway, something which is taken care of at the policy management level.

Once we run this policy, we see that the OAuth authorization headers have been added by the Signpost code running on the Vordel Gateway. The request is for the RSS feed for this blog. Here is a Wireshark trace showing the OAuth Authorization headers:



You may ask "Why run Signpost on the Vordel Gateway, why not just run it as a Java application separately?". The reason is that by running on the Vordel Gateway, it gets the advantage of all of the other included features on the Gateway, including response time analysis for the services the Gateway connects to, scanning inbound and outbound messages for threats, conversion, protocol translation, integration with IdM products such as SiteMinder and Oracle Access Manager, and the maintenance of an audit trail.

To run this yourself, grab a copy of Signpost and the Vordel XML Gateway then follow the guide to extending the Vordel Gateway using Java and scripts here: https://extranet.vordel.com/documentation2/VXG52/common/tutorials/utility_scripting.html (note: Vordel Extranet login needed to read the tutorial - contact info@vordel.com to get one)