Puzzled about the boolean authenticate .

[Koooooo-7]

• Springboot version: 2.0.3.RELEASE
• Ldap version:

        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-ldap</artifactId>
            <version>2.1.6.RELEASE</version>
        </dependency>

---

According to the reference document from https://docs.spring.io。

Spring LDAP includes an authenticate method in LdapTemplate that provide this functionality: boolean authenticate(LdapQuery query, String password);
Using this method authentication becomes as simple as this:
Authenticating a user using Spring LDAP.

ldapTemplate.authenticate(query().where("uid").is("john.doe"), "secret");

the source code :

    /**
     * {@inheritDoc}
     */
    @Override
    public void authenticate(LdapQuery query, String password) {
        authenticate(query,
                password,
                new NullAuthenticatedLdapEntryContextCallback());
    }

and I tried to debug find the method

authenticate(query,password,newNullAuthenticatedLdapEntryContextCallback());

Authenticate success return the mapperCallback.collectedObject is null.

Puzzled :

• the boolean authenticate method return is void .
• it is a little bit weird when I use this authenticate method, the best result is nothing happen.

[jzheaux]

@Koooooo-7 thanks for bringing this up. In the documentation section you refer to, there are two authenticate methods. The first is a proposed custom method and the second is the Spring-provided one. It's not meant for them to have the same signature.

I agree that this could be made clearer in the docs. My plan is to update the docs to show the Spring-provided method first and then talk about customizing.