diff --git a/authentication/.gitignore b/authentication/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29bb2d1d6434b8b29ae775ad8c2e48c5391..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
diff --git a/authentication/source/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/authentication/IAuthenticationService.java b/authentication/source/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/authentication/IAuthenticationService.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..2013b0d2dfb650f637c54635348a8d18b2245c47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/authentication/source/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/authentication/IAuthenticationService.java
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2007 ETH Zuerich, CISD
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package ch.systemsx.cisd.authentication;
+
+/**
+ *
+ *
+ * @author felmer
+ */
+public interface IAuthenticationService
+{
+ public boolean authenticate(String user, String password);
+}
diff --git a/authentication/source/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/authentication/crowd/CrowdAuthenticationService.java b/authentication/source/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/authentication/crowd/CrowdAuthenticationService.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..efd55ecb26aece7a48aa740a49ed5063a44863fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/authentication/source/java/ch/systemsx/cisd/authentication/crowd/CrowdAuthenticationService.java
@@ -0,0 +1,179 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2007 ETH Zuerich, CISD
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package ch.systemsx.cisd.authentication.crowd;
+
+import java.text.MessageFormat;
+
+import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient;
+import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.PostMethod;
+import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.StringRequestEntity;
+
+import ch.systemsx.cisd.authentication.IAuthenticationService;
+import ch.systemsx.cisd.common.exceptions.CheckedExceptionTunnel;
+
+/**
+ *
+ *
+ * @author felmer
+ */
+public class CrowdAuthenticationService implements IAuthenticationService
+{
+ private static final MessageFormat AUTHENTICATE_APPL =
+ new MessageFormat("<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" "
+ + "xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\" "
+ + "xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\">\n" + " <soap:Body>\n"
+ + " <authenticateApplication xmlns=\"urn:SecurityServer\">\n" + " <in0>\n"
+ + " <credential xmlns=\"http://authentication.integration.crowd.atlassian.com\">\n"
+ + " <credential>{1}</credential>\n" + " </credential>\n"
+ + " <name xmlns=\"http://authentication.integration.crowd.atlassian.com\">{0}</name>\n"
+ + " <validationFactors xmlns=\"http://authentication.integration.crowd.atlassian.com\" "
+ + " xsi:nil=\"true\" />\n" + " </in0>\n"
+ + " </authenticateApplication>\n" + " </soap:Body>\n" + "</soap:Envelope>\n");
+
+ private static final MessageFormat AUTHENTICATE_USER =
+ new MessageFormat(
+ "<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\" "
+ + "xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\" "
+ + "xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\">\n"
+ + " <soap:Body>\n"
+ + " <authenticatePrincipal xmlns=\"urn:SecurityServer\">\n"
+ + " <in0>\n"
+ + " <name xmlns=\"http://authentication.integration.crowd.atlassian.com\">{0}</name>\n"
+ + " <token xmlns=\"http://authentication.integration.crowd.atlassian.com\">{1}</token>\n"
+ + " </in0>\n"
+ + " <in1>\n"
+ + " <application xmlns=\"http://authentication.integration.crowd.atlassian.com\">{0}</application>\n"
+ + " <credential xmlns=\"http://authentication.integration.crowd.atlassian.com\">\n"
+ + " <credential>{3}</credential>\n"
+ + " </credential>\n"
+ + " <name xmlns=\"http://authentication.integration.crowd.atlassian.com\">{2}</name>\n"
+ + " <validationFactors xmlns=\"http://authentication.integration.crowd.atlassian.com\" />\n"
+ + " </in1>\n" + " </authenticatePrincipal>\n" + " </soap:Body>\n"
+ + "</soap:Envelope>\n");
+
+ private final String url;
+ private final String application;
+ private final String applicationToken;
+
+
+ public CrowdAuthenticationService(String host, int port, String application, String applicationPassword)
+ {
+ this("https://" + host + ":" + port + "/crowd/services/SecurityServer", application, applicationPassword);
+ }
+
+ public CrowdAuthenticationService(String url, String application, String applicationPassword)
+ {
+ this.url = url;
+ this.application = application;
+ applicationToken = xmlEncode(execute("token", AUTHENTICATE_APPL, application, applicationPassword));
+ }
+
+ public boolean authenticate(String user, String password)
+ {
+ String userToken = xmlEncode(execute("out", AUTHENTICATE_USER, application, applicationToken, user, password));
+ return userToken != null;
+ }
+
+ private String execute(String responseElement, MessageFormat template, String... args)
+ {
+ Object[] decodedArguments = new Object[args.length];
+ for (int i = 0; i < args.length; i++)
+ {
+ decodedArguments[i] = xmlDecode(args[i]);
+ }
+ String response = execute(template.format(decodedArguments));
+ return pickElementContent(response, responseElement);
+ }
+
+ private String pickElementContent(String xmlString, String element)
+ {
+ int index = xmlString.indexOf("<" + element);
+ if (index < 0)
+ {
+ return null;
+ }
+ index = xmlString.indexOf(">", index);
+ if (index < 0)
+ {
+ return null;
+ }
+ int endIndex = xmlString.indexOf("</" + element, index);
+ if (endIndex < 0)
+ {
+ return null;
+ }
+ return xmlString.substring(index + 1, endIndex);
+ }
+
+ private String execute(String xmlMessage)
+ {
+ try
+ {
+ HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
+ PostMethod post = new PostMethod(url);
+ StringRequestEntity entity = new StringRequestEntity(xmlMessage, "application/soap+xml", "utf-8");
+ post.setRequestEntity(entity);
+ String response = null;
+ try
+ {
+ client.executeMethod(post);
+ response = post.getResponseBodyAsString();
+ } finally
+ {
+ post.releaseConnection();
+ }
+ return response;
+ } catch (Exception ex)
+ {
+ throw new CheckedExceptionTunnel(ex);
+ }
+ }
+
+ private String xmlDecode(String text)
+ {
+ StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
+ for (int i = 0, n = text.length(); i < n; i++)
+ {
+ char c = text.charAt(i);
+ switch (c)
+ {
+ case '<':
+ builder.append("<");
+ break;
+ case '>':
+ builder.append(">");
+ break;
+ case '&':
+ builder.append("&");
+ break;
+ case '"':
+ builder.append(""");
+ break;
+ default:
+ builder.append(c);
+ break;
+ }
+ }
+ return new String(builder);
+ }
+
+ private String xmlEncode(String xml)
+ {
+ return xml;
+ }
+
+}