Implementation of the KLF

If you want to retrieve the merchant key from a medium other than the HCL Commerce configuration file, you must define the key providers in a separate custom key configuration file that is called, for example, CustomKeys.xml. Once you define this file, to make the external merchant key available to the HCL Commerce runtime, you must add the KeysConfigFile attribute, which is specified in the <Instance> section of the HCL Commerce configuration file. By defining this attribute, the Key Locator Framework (KLF) retrieves the merchant key using the key provider that is specified in the CustomKeys.xml instead of retrieving it from the HCL Commerce configuration file.

The value of the KeysConfigFile attribute is the location of the CustomKeys.xml relative to a path specified in the class path of the HCL Commerce application. When HCL Commerce runtime reads this attribute from the HCL Commerce configuration file, it loads the custom keys configuration file as a resource from the class path.

For example, if you deploy the CustomKeys.xml file in the workspace_dir/WC/xml/config/ directory, since workspace_dir/WC/xml/ directory is on the default class path of HCL Commerce application, you specify the following attribute in the HCL Commerce configuration file:

KeysConfigFile = "config/CustomKeys.xml"

If the KeysConfigFile attribute is not present in the HCL Commerce configuration file, the HCL Commerce runtime environment loads the configuration file from the following hardcoded location: workspace_dir/WC/xml/config/WCKeys.xml

The default WCKeys.xml applies to all instances. This default WCKeys.xml file contains a WCMerchantKeyImpl provider, which continues to read the merchant key from the file.

If you want to store the merchant key in another location, such as within an external file or hardware device, you must add the KeysConfigFile attribute to the HCL Commerce configuration file. Adding the attribute to the HCL Commerce configuration file specifies the location of the merchant key relative to the class path of the HCL Commerce application. The new merchant key file registers the key provider class, which manages the merchant key that is stored in the new location.

For an example of the default WCKeys.xml configuration file, and a description of its contents, see Key Locator Framework (KLF).

An example of a CustomKeys.xml would appear as follows:

<key name="MerchantKey"
		providerName="WC"
		status="current"
		className="com.ibm.commerce.security.keys.MyMerchantKeyImpl"
		version="3"
		algorithm="AES">

		<config name="param1" value="value1"/>
		<config name="param2" value="value2"/>
</key>

<key name="SessionKey" 
        providerName="WC" 
        status="current"
        className="com.ibm.commerce.security.keys.WCSessionKeyImpl">
</key>