XMLSig Component

Properties Methods Events Configuration Settings Errors

The XMLSig component is used to sign XML and verify signed XML.

Syntax

nsoftware.IPWorksEncrypt.Xmlsig

Remarks

The XMLSig component provides an easy to use API for signing and verifying signed XML. The Sign method will create signed XML with an enveloped signature. The VerifySignature method will attempt to verify the signature(s) within a XML document.

Sign

Before calling Sign specify the XML to sign by calling SetInputStream or setting InputFile, or InputXML.

The References property must be set. At least one reference must be set. A reference defines the XML element to sign, and the options that specify how it is transformed and hashed during the signing process.

Set Certificate to a certificate with private key.

Optionally set the CanonicalizationMethod. This determines how the signature itself is canonicalized. SigningAlgorithm defines the algorithm used to sign. The SignatureXPath property may be set to specify the location in the XML document where the signature will be placed.

Lastly, call Sign to sign the XML.

The following properties are applicable when calling this method:

Input and Output Properties

The component will determine the source and destination of the input and output based on which properties are set.

The order in which the input properties are checked is as follows:

When a valid source is found the search stops. The order in which the output properties are checked is as follows:

SetOutputStream
OutputFile
OutputXML: The output data is written to this property if no other destination is specified.

Verify a Signature

When VerifySignature is called, the component will scan the XML document and fire the SignatureInfo event for each signature that is found. When the SignatureInfo event fires the References collection will be populated.

Within the SignatureInfo event the XMLElement field must be set to the location of the XML element to which the signature applies. The URI field may contain data helpful to locating the XML element.

The XMLElement field specifies the XPath to the element. For instance:


/root/myElement	XPath syntax
/root/[1]	XPath syntax using an index
/root/ns:myElement	XPath syntax where the element has a namespace
myElement	Just the element name
@id=myid	Attribute selector: This will select an element with an attribute "id" whose value is "myid".
/root/myElement[1]/ns:name2[@attr=attrValue]	XPath syntax using an index and attribute selector

The signature is verified either using a key parsed from the signed XML, or using the certificate specified by the SignerCert property. The component will automatically parse the signer certificate (if present) from the signed XML and populate the SignerCert property with the parsed value.

When SignatureInfo fires, if the SignerCertParsed parameter is True the SignerCert property may be inspected to see the details of the parsed certificate. If SignerCertParsed is False, then the SignerCert property must be set to a valid certificate for signature verification to proceed.

When the SignatureInfo event finishes firing, the certificate present in the SignerCert property will be used to verify the signature, whether this is the certificate automatically parsed by the component or a different certificate specified within the event.

If the signature was successfully verified the method will return without error. If the signature was not verified the method throws an exception.

Property List

The following is the full list of the properties of the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


CanonicalizationMethod	The canonicalization method applied to the signature.
Certificate	The certificate used for signing.
HMACKey	The HMAC key used with the 'HMAC-SHA1' signing algorithm.
InputFile	The XML file to process.
InputXML	The XML to process.
OutputFile	The output file.
OutputXML	The output XML after processing.
Overwrite	Indicates whether or not the component should overwrite files.
References	A collection of references.
SignatureXPath	The XPath of the signature.
SignerCert	The certificate used for signature verification.
SigningAlgorithm	The signing algorithm.

Method List

The following is the full list of the methods of the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


Config	Sets or retrieves a configuration setting .
DoEvents	Processes events from the internal message queue.
Reset	Resets the component.
SetInputStream	Sets the stream from which the component will read data to sign or verify.
SetOutputStream	The stream to which the component will write the signed or verified XML.
Sign	Signs the XML.
VerifySignature	Verifies signed XML.

Event List

The following is the full list of the events fired by the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


Error	Information about errors during data delivery.
Progress	Fired as progress is made.
SignatureInfo	Fired when a signature is found.
Status	Provides information about the current operation.

Configuration Settings

The following is a list of configuration settings for the component with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


KeyName	The name of the key used to sign the XML.
LogLevel	Specifies the level of detail that is logged.
NormalizeLineEndings	Whether to normalize line endings when calculating the reference digest.
PreserveWhitespace	Whether to preserve whitespace in the signature.
SignatureRelationship	Whether the signature is a child or sibling of the SignatureXPath.
ReadFromProgressEvent	Whether to read input data from inside the progress event.
WriteToProgressEvent	Whether to write output data so it is accessible from inside the progress event.
SignerCertCount	The number of parsed signer certificates when verifying a signature.
SignerCertEncoded[i]	The parsed signer certificate.
SignWithCryptoAPI	Whether to use the Crypto API for signing operations.
CodePage	The system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations.