The EPI:AM enables the development for custom authentication method plug-ins. The following UML diagram shows the classes that is used in the development of custom authentication methods:

All authentication method plug-ins must implement the AuthenticationMechanismInterface. This interface contains four methods:

1. init() - Initializes the authentication method plug-in to prepare it for accepting authentication requests. The method takes an AuthenticationMechanismConfiguration and an AuthenticationMechanismHandler instance which contain information that can be used to perform the initialization. This method is called when the Policy Service is started and when a new configuration is published.
2. authenticate() - Executes the authentication request. This method takes an AuthenticationRequest instance and returns an AuthenticationReply instance.
3. getName() - Returns the name of the authentication method. This is the name that will be shown in the Administration Interface.
4. exit() - Performs cleanup tasks, such as deallocating resources. This method is called when the Policy Service is closed down and when a new configuration is published (just before init() is called). It is also called when the init() call fails.

The UsernamePasswordMechanism class is a convenience class that can be sub-classed to create authentication method plug-ins that implement a simple username/password authentication.

The MechanismServer class holds information about an Authentication Server for an authentication method. A list of MechanismServer instances is provided in the AuthenticationMechanismConfiguration object sent to the init() method. Each MechanismServer object holds a list of MechanismConfiguration instances

The MechanismConfiguration class holds key and value pairs for an authentication method. A list of MechanismConfiguration instances is provided in the AuthenticationMechanismConfiguration object sent to the init() method.

The MechanismReply class holds the reply state for an authentication method. A list of MechanismReply instances is provided in the AuthenticationMechanismConfiguration object sent to the init() method.

Package	Description
com.portwise.core.controller.authentication
com.portwise.core.lcp
com.portwise.core.logging
com.portwise.mvpnms.authentication
com.portwise.mvpnms.authentication.example
com.portwise.mvpnms.controller.authentication
com.portwise.mvpnms.controller.authentication.configuration