PicketLink is an Application Security Framework for Java EE applications. It provides features for authenticating users, authorizing access to the business methods of your application, managing your application's users, groups, roles and permissions, plus much more. The following diagram presents a high level overview of the PicketLink modules and the main features provided by those modules:

The PicketLink libraries are available from the Maven Central Repository. The dependencies can be easily configured in your Maven-based project by using the PicketLink Bill of Materials(BOM). A BOM is a very handy tool to properly manage your dependencies, their versions and keep your project in sync with the libraries supported and distributed by a specific PicketLink version.

For most applications using Java EE 6.0, the picketlink-javaee-6.0 BOM can be used to define the PicketLink and Java EE 6.0 specification APIs dependencies to your project.

<properties>

  <!-- PicketLink dependency versions -->

  <version.picketlink.javaee.bom>2.6.0.CR1</version.picketlink.javaee.bom>

</properties>



<dependencyManagement>

  <dependencies>

    <!-- Dependency Management for PicketLink and Java EE 6.0. -->

    <dependency>

      <groupId>org.picketlink</groupId>

      <artifactId>picketlink-javaee-6.0</artifactId>

      <version>${version.picketlink.javaee.bom}</version>

      <scope>import</scope>

      <type>pom</type>

    </dependency>

  </dependencies>

</dependencyManagement>

Once the BOM is included, required PicketLink dependencies may be added to the section of your pom.xml. When using a BOM you don't need to specify their versions because this is automatically managed, the version in use depends on the BOM's version. For example, the configuration above is defining a version 2.6.0.CR1 of the picketlink-javaee-6.0 BOM, which means you'll be using version 2.6.0.CR1 of the PicketLink libraries.

For a typical application, it is suggested that you include the following PicketLink dependencies:

<dependencies>

<!-- Import the PicketLink API, we deploy this as library with the application,

        and can compile against it -->

  <dependency>

    <groupId>org.picketlink</groupId>

    <artifactId>picketlink-api</artifactId>

  </dependency>



  <!-- Import the PicketLink implementation, we deploy this as library with the application,

        but don't compile against it -->

  <dependency>

    <groupId>org.picketlink</groupId>

    <artifactId>picketlink-impl</artifactId>

    <scope>runtime</scope>

  </dependency>

</dependencies>

PicketLink also provides a specific BOM with the Apache Deltaspike(core and security modules) dependencies if you want to use it in conjunction with PicketLink.

<properties>

  <!-- PicketLink dependency versions -->

  <version.picketlink.javaee.bom>2.6.0.CR1</version.picketlink.javaee.bom>

</properties>



<dependencyManagement>

  <dependencies>

    <!-- Dependency Management for PicketLink and Apache Deltaspike. -->

    <dependency>

      <groupId>org.picketlink</groupId>

      <artifactId>picketlink-javaee-6.0-with-deltaspike</artifactId>

      <version>${version.picketlink.javaee.bom}</version>

      <scope>import</scope>

      <type>pom</type>

    </dependency>

  </dependencies>

</dependencyManagement>

The identity management library is a required dependency of the base module and so will be automatically included. If you don't wish to use the base module and want to use the PicketLink IDM library on its own, then only add the following dependencies:

<dependencies>

  <dependency>

      <groupId>org.picketlink</groupId>

      <artifactId>picketlink-idm-api</artifactId>

      <scope>compile</scope>

  </dependency>

  

  <dependency>

      <groupId>org.picketlink</groupId>

      <artifactId>picketlink-idm-impl</artifactId>

      <scope>runtime</scope>

  </dependency>

The PicketLink Installer is a simple Apache Ant script that applies all the necessary changes to your JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.1 installation, including: