Any API for (remote) JAVA application to interact with SLD, IR & ID ?

Hi All,

I would like to write a JAVA application which would read information from SLD as well as IR and ID. Does any one know about any APIs for this?

I would prefer to have a J2SE application (which runs on my PC), than a J2EE application which I will have to deploy on the server. I would really appreciate if some one could direct me to documentation / throw some light on how the user authentication can be done from a remote Java application as well.

Thanks in advance

-danus