query_contents overview

To use the ISAM security service to protect the resources on a back-end application Web server, provide WebSEAL with information about the contents of the back-end Web space. A CGI program called query_contents provides this information. The query_contents program searches the back-end Web space contents and provides this inventory information to WebSEAL. A default version of the program comes with the WebSEAL installation, but must be manually installed on the back-end Web server. There are different program file types available, depending on whether the back-end server is running UNIX or Windows.

The Object Space manager of the Web Portal Manager automatically runs query_contents any time the portion of the protected object space belonging to the junction is expanded in the Object Space management panel. When the Web Portal Manager knows about the contents of the back-end Web space, we can display this information and apply policy templates to appropriate objects. The pdadmin object show command uses the query_contents program to browse Web space and enables an administrator to identify resources to which a policy can be attached. In this way, pdadmin and query_contents are used to manage and control access to objects in the ISAM object space.

WebSEAL includes source files for query_contents, a sample configuration file, and an HTML help file. Administrators can use these files to configure query_contents and, when needed, to modify its behavior.

Parent topic: Generate a back-end server Web space (query_contents)