--- /dev/null
+//
+// ========================================================================
+// Copyright (c) 1995-2014 Mort Bay Consulting Pty. Ltd.
+// ------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
+// are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
+// and Apache License v2.0 which accompanies this distribution.
+//
+// The Eclipse Public License is available at
+// http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
+//
+// The Apache License v2.0 is available at
+// http://www.opensource.org/licenses/apache2.0.php
+//
+// You may elect to redistribute this code under either of these licenses.
+// ========================================================================
+//
+
+package org.eclipse.jetty.security;
+
+import org.eclipse.jetty.server.UserIdentity;
+
+
+/* ------------------------------------------------------------ */
+/**
+ * Login Service Interface.
+ * <p>
+ * The Login service provides an abstract mechanism for an {@link Authenticator}
+ * to check credentials and to create a {@link UserIdentity} using the
+ * set {@link IdentityService}.
+ */
+public interface LoginService
+{
+
+ /* ------------------------------------------------------------ */
+ /**
+ * @return Get the name of the login service (aka Realm name)
+ */
+ String getName();
+
+ /* ------------------------------------------------------------ */
+ /** Login a user.
+ * @param username The user name
+ * @param credentials The users credentials
+ * @return A UserIdentity if the credentials matched, otherwise null
+ */
+ UserIdentity login(String username,Object credentials);
+
+ /* ------------------------------------------------------------ */
+ /** Validate a user identity.
+ * Validate that a UserIdentity previously created by a call
+ * to {@link #login(String, Object)} is still valid.
+ * @param user The user to validate
+ * @return true if authentication has not been revoked for the user.
+ */
+ boolean validate(UserIdentity user);
+
+ /* ------------------------------------------------------------ */
+ /** Get the IdentityService associated with this Login Service.
+ * @return the IdentityService associated with this Login Service.
+ */
+ IdentityService getIdentityService();
+
+ /* ------------------------------------------------------------ */
+ /** Set the IdentityService associated with this Login Service.
+ * @param service the IdentityService associated with this Login Service.
+ */
+ void setIdentityService(IdentityService service);
+
+ void logout(UserIdentity user);
+
+}