Question

There is described on this page how android is able to select all user certificates and show them in a spinner…
http://source-android.frandroid.com/packages/apps/Settings/src/com/android/settings/vpn2/VpnDialog.java

They use the Method:

private void loadCertificates(Spinner spinner, String prefix, int firstId, String selected) {
    Context context = getContext();
    String first = (firstId == 0) ? "" : context.getString(firstId);
    String[] certificates = mKeyStore.saw(prefix);

    if (certificates == null || certificates.length == 0) {
        certificates = new String[] {first};
    } else {
        String[] array = new String[certificates.length + 1];
        array[0] = first;
        System.arraycopy(certificates, 0, array, 1, certificates.length);
        certificates = array;
    }

    ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(
            context, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, certificates);
    adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
    spinner.setAdapter(adapter);

    for (int i = 1; i < certificates.length; ++i) {
        if (certificates[i].equals(selected)) {
            spinner.setSelection(i);
            break;
        }
    }
}

with this call:

loadCertificates(mIpsecUserCert, Credentials.USER_CERTIFICATE,
            0, mProfile.ipsecUserCert);

now they use Credetials.USER_CERTIFICATE for the Method mKeyStore.saw(String prefix)

thats exactly what im looking for, but i cannot invoke the method saw and its also not mentioned in the android api…

so is there somehow a way of getting the same result for me?

the keystore library is not able of making a difference of user or system certs, and if i want to put all certs in a dropdown list it will cost me a lot of loading time. The other way of typing the subject name of the cert and looping through all certs till its the right one is not really practicable for a non-IT guy, so its crappy to handle for a normal user…

there are almost no references on this topic in the net, thats why im asking google android pro’s on this post only.

thankyou

Answer 1

This is a private API, it cannot be used by third party applications. Why do you want to select a user certificate? You generally want the user’s private key, and the KeyChain API supports letting the user select one of those.