= Credential Printer =

The ''credential printer'' service is an XMLRPC service to convert [WikiStart ABAC] credentials encoded as X.509 certificates into a text format.  While [WikiStart libabac] is widely portable through swig, some programming environments cannot import the library, yet would like to see the contents of credentials.  The credential printer provides access.

== Installing the service ==

We distribute the credential printer as a python application.  It depends on the standard installation and the M2Crypto package, available from several places.  It also depends on [source:doc/INSTALL libabac]. 

Once the prerequisites are installed, download the [attachment:cred_printer-1.00.tar.gz credential printer source] and untar it, change to the {{{cred_printer-1.00}}} directory and run the standard python install script (as {{{root}}}):

{{{
$ tar xzf cred_printer-1.00.tar.gz
$ cd cred_printer-1.00
$ sudo python ./setup.py install
}}}

This will install a python egg into your site-packages and two python scripts, {{{cred_server.py}}} and {{{cred_client.py}}} into your standard biraries directory ({{{/usr/local/bin}}} on FreeBSD or Ubuntu).

Because the installation runs as {{{root}}}, you may need to delete the distribution directory as {{{root}}}:

{{{
$ cd ..
$ sudo rm -rf cred_printer-1.00.tar.gz
}}}

== Running the server ==

The server takes an optional argument, {{{--cert}}} and a certificate with which to identify itself under SSL/https.  If omitted, the server will run under http, unencrypted and unauthenticated.  If run under SSL, the server expects clients to supply a certificate, but does not vaildate it's authorization chain.  This is for future expansion using ABAC authorization to the server and self-certifying identities.

The server also takes a {{{--port}}} argument defining the port to listen on.  By default it listens on port 13232.

Assuming that {{{./cert.pem}}} contains a certificate and key for the server:

{{{
$ cred_server.py --cert ./cert.pem
}}}

starts the server under SSL/https listening on port 13232,

{{{
$ cred_server.py --port 54321 --cert ./cert.pem
}}}

starts the server under SSL/https listening on port 54321

{{{
$ cred_server.py --port 54321
}}}

starts the server under http listening on port 54321, and

{{{
$ cred_server.py
}}}

starts the server under http on port 13232.