Knowledge Discovery 26.1
Document Security Administration Guide

# Security for Third-Party Interfaces

You can set up security for a third-party interface, and use Knowledge Discovery to ensure that result documents are displayed only to people who have the appropriate privileges.

To set up security for a third-party interface

1. In the Community component configuration file, create the user security types for the repositories from which data is indexed (see Configure User Security). If you want Knowledge Discovery to perform authentication, you must include a security type that specifies the security library that Knowledge Discovery uses for authentication.

2. In the front-end application, define the user’s security details for the user security types you have set up in the Community component. You can do this by creating the user in the Community by using the `UserAdd` action, and specifying the user’s security details for the repositories. For example:

       http://localhost:9000/action=UserAdd
                               &UserName=JSmith
                               &Password=secret123
                               &SecurityNTUserusername=JohnS
                               &SecurityNTUserDomain=MyCompany

   This defines a user whose `autonomy` user name and password are `JSmith` and `secret123`, and whose user name and domain in the repository for which the `NTUser` section sets up security are `JohnS` and `MyCompany`.

   Refer to the Community component Help for full details of how to use actions to define and edit users in Community.

3. When a user logs on to the system, your front-end application must communicate with Community to retrieve an encrypted string that contains the user’s security details for your repositories.

   Send a `UserRead` action to Community, with the `SecurityInfo` action parameter set to `true`. You must include the user’s user name and password for the repository that Community authenticates against. You must also include the domain if you are authenticating against an NT repository. For example:

       http://localhost:9000/action=UserRead
       		                  &UserName=JSmith
       				  &Password=secret123
       				  &SecurityInfo=true

   If the `CheckEntitlement` configuration parameter is set to `true`, the user is also implicitly authenticated before the `securityinfo` string is returned.

   Community returns XML details of the user’s settings, including an encrypted security string that includes the details for all the repositories for which you have set up Community user security types.

4. Configure the front-end application to specify the encrypted security string returned in Step 3 as the value of the `SecurityInfo` parameter when the front-end application sends queries to the Content component (for example, using the `Suggest` and `Query` actions).

   For example:

       http://localhost:9000/action=Query
                               &Text=accounts
                               &SecurityInfo=encrypted_string

   Query Content with Security Information includes an example of how to use the `SecurityInfo` parameter.

   Refer to the Content Component Help for full details of the actions that you can send to your Content component.

Instead of sending actions to generate the security string in the steps outlined above, you can use the ACI API to create the encrypted strings. For more information, refer to the ACI API Programming Guide.

NOTE: Actions issued through a browser must be percent encoded to allow unreserved alphanumeric characters. For example, the user name `us\jsmith` is a valid format, but an action issued through a browser to Knowledge Discovery must percent-encode the unreserved URL character: `us%5cjsmith`.

Copyright 2025 Open Text
Version 26.1 | Last updated January 2026

Send documentation feedback

Close

Send documentation feedback

To send feedback using your default email client, open an email window.

Otherwise, send your feedback and the information below to MFI-swpdl.idoldocsfeedback@opentext.com.

We appreciate your feedback!

Product: Knowledge Discovery 26.1

Topic Title: Security for Third-Party Interfaces