Configure HTTP basic authentication with an assembly tool

This topic explains how to configure HTTP basic authentication with an assembly tool.

You can configure HTTP basic authentication with assembly tools provided with WebSphere Application Server.

You must configure the assembly tool before you can use it.

This task is one of three ways that you can configure HTTP basic authentication. You can also configure HTTP basic authentication with the
administrative console or by modifying the HTTP properties programmatically.

If you choose to configure the HTTP basic authentication with an assembly tool or with the administrative console , the Web services security binding information is modified. You can use an assembly tool to configure HTTP basic authentication before you deploy or install the Web services application into WebSphere Application Server. This task assumes that you have not deployed the Web services application into the WebSphere product.

If you configure HTTP basic authentication programmatically, the properties are configured in the Stub or Call instance. The values set programmatically take precedence over the values defined in the binding. However, you only can programmatically configure HTTP proxy authentication. The HTTP basic authentication that is discussed in this topic is orthogonal to WS-Security and is distinct from basic authentication that WS-Security supports. WS-Security supports basic authentication token, not HTTP basic authentication.

To configure HTTP basic authentication, use the WebSphere Application Server tools to modify the binding information.

1. Start an assembly tool. The assembly tools, Application Server Toolkit (AST) and Rational Web Developer, provide a graphical interface for developing code artifacts, assembling the code artifacts into various archives (modules) and configuring related Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Version 1.2, 1.3 or 1.4 compliant deployment descriptors.

2. Configure the HTTP basic authentication in the Web Services Client Port Binding page for a Web service or a Web service client. The Web Services Client Port Binding page is available after double-clicking the client deployment descriptor file.

Related concepts
Transport level security
HTTP basic authentication

Related tasks
Securing Web services for version 5.x applications based on WS-Security
HTTP SSL Configuration collection