Webflow Errors Customization
By default CAS is configured to recognize and handle a number of exceptions for web flow during authentication. Each exception
has the specific message bundle mapping in messages.properties
. So that a specific message could be presented to end users
on the login form. Any un-recognized or un-mapped exceptions results in the UNKNOWN
mapping with a generic Invalid credentials.
message.
To map custom exceptions in the webflow, one would need map the exception in CAS
settings and then define the relevant error in messages.properties
:
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authenticationFailure.MyAuthenticationException=Authentication has failed, but it did it my way!
The following settings and properties are available from the CAS configuration catalog:
cas.authn.errors.groovy.location=
The location of the resource. Resources can be URLs, or files found either on the classpath or outside somewhere in the file system. In the event the configured resource is a Groovy script, specially if the script set to reload on changes, you may need to adjust the total number ofinotify instances. On Linux, you may need to add the following line to /etc/sysctl.conf : fs.inotify.max_user_instances = 256 . You can check the current value via cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_instances . In situations and scenarios where CAS is able to automatically watch the underlying resource for changes and detect updates and modifications dynamically, you may be able to specify the following setting as either an environment variable or system property with a value of false to disable the resource watcher: org.apereo.cas.util.io.PathWatcherService .
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cas.authn.errors.exceptions=
Define custom exceptions that can then be mapped to message bundles for custom error handling. By default CAS is configured to recognize and handle a number of exceptions for during authentication. Each exception has the specific message bundle mapping so that a specific message could be presented to end users on the login form. Any un-recognized or un-mapped exceptions results in a generic message. To map custom exceptions, one would need map the exception, they can be defined here and then linked to custom messages.
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Please review this guide to configure your build.
Configuration Metadata
The collection of configuration properties listed in this section are automatically generated from the CAS source and components that contain the actual field definitions, types, descriptions, modules, etc. This metadata may not always be 100% accurate, or could be lacking details and sufficient explanations.
Be Selective
This section is meant as a guide only. Do NOT copy/paste the entire collection of settings into your CAS configuration; rather pick only the properties that you need. Do NOT enable settings unless you are certain of their purpose and do NOT copy settings into your configuration only to keep them as reference. All these ideas lead to upgrade headaches, maintenance nightmares and premature aging.
YAGNI
Note that for nearly ALL use cases, declaring and configuring properties listed here is sufficient. You should NOT have to explicitly massage a CAS XML/Java/etc configuration file to design an authentication handler, create attribute release policies, etc. CAS at runtime will auto-configure all required changes for you. If you are unsure about the meaning of a given CAS setting, do NOT turn it on without hesitation. Review the codebase or better yet, ask questions to clarify the intended behavior.
Naming Convention
Property names can be specified in very relaxed terms. For instance cas.someProperty
, cas.some-property
, cas.some_property
are all valid names. While all
forms are accepted by CAS, there are certain components (in CAS and other frameworks used) whose activation at runtime is conditional on a property value, where
this property is required to have been specified in CAS configuration using kebab case. This is both true for properties that are owned by CAS as well as those
that might be presented to the system via an external library or framework such as Spring Boot, etc.
When possible, properties should be stored in lower-case kebab format, such as cas.property-name=value
.
The only possible exception to this rule is when naming actuator endpoints; The name of the
actuator endpoints (i.e. ssoSessions
) MUST remain in camelCase mode.
Settings and properties that are controlled by the CAS platform directly always begin with the prefix cas
. All other settings are controlled and provided
to CAS via other underlying frameworks and may have their own schemas and syntax. BE CAREFUL with
the distinction. Unrecognized properties are rejected by CAS and/or frameworks upon which CAS depends. This means if you somehow misspell a property definition
or fail to adhere to the dot-notation syntax and such, your setting is entirely refused by CAS and likely the feature it controls will never be activated in the
way you intend.
Validation
Configuration properties are automatically validated on CAS startup to report issues with configuration binding, specially if defined CAS settings cannot be recognized or validated by the configuration schema. Additional validation processes are also handled via Configuration Metadata and property migrations applied automatically on startup by Spring Boot and family.
Indexed Settings
CAS settings able to accept multiple values are typically documented with an index, such as cas.some.setting[0]=value
. The index [0]
is meant to be
incremented by the adopter to allow for distinct multiple configuration blocks.
Groovy Error Handling
Exceptions and authentication errors that are reported back to the webflow may be caught and processed using an external Groovy script. If the script can support and handle the error, its outcome should be an event that the webflow should use as the final destination state:
The outline of the script should match the following:
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import org.apereo.cas.*
import org.springframework.context.*
import org.springframework.webflow.*
import org.springframework.webflow.action.*
import org.springframework.webflow.execution.*
def run(Object[] args) {
def (exception,requestContext,applicationContext,logger) = args
logger.info("Handling {}", exception)
new EventFactorySupport().event(this, "customEvent")
}
def supports(Object[] args) {
def (exception,requestContext,applicationContext,logger) = args
logger.info("Checking to support {}", exception)
true
}
The parameters passed are as follows:
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
exception |
The object representing the error. |
requestContext |
The object representing the Spring Webflow RequestContext . |
applicationContext |
The object representing the Spring ApplicationContext . |
logger |
The object responsible for issuing log messages such as logger.info(...) . |
To prepare CAS to support and integrate with Apache Groovy, please review this guide.
Custom Error Handling
For more advanced scenarios, you can also design your webflow exception handler and register it with the CAS at runtime:
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@Bean
public CasWebflowExceptionHandler customExceptionHandler(){
return new CustomCasWebflowExceptionHandler();
}
See this guide to learn more about how to register configurations into the CAS runtime.