j_security_check in login.jsp

[Wessel, Keith]

All,

I see a lot of discussion of j_security_check in the list archives, but no simple explanation. I've fixed a bug in our login.jsp that was causing it to just throw an exception every time someone hits login.jsp directory (which they shouldn't' be doing in the first place, of course). Now, the portion of login.jsp where actionURL isn't included as a request parameter is getting triggered. It's trying to pass requests to j_security_check which I don't have configured in our web.xml as a valid URL pattern, and thus our 404 page is being triggered.

If I understand correctly, j_security_check would just allow me to do container-based authentication to the IDP. I personally see now value in this, but I'd like to know if someone could hel me understand since there must be some point.

If there is a reason to do it, I don't' see what needs to be added to web.xml to support j_security_check. I see lots out there in terms of general implemention of j_security_check, but it's not specific to Shib.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Keith