At last some results

I still didn't manage to run that stupid client-server application, however I tried a simpler program that just gives back the information on the objects that are present on the eID card. It appears that the PKCS Module's library must be addressed directly in the code:

Module pkcs11Module = Module.getInstance(args[0]);

here the file name is passed as an argument of the run command.

The instantiation of the pkcs module in the case of the client-server application is managed by a dependency, so I'd have to dig in a little deeper if I wanted to get the thing to work, but right now it is not my primary concern.

The information about the card that was displayed by the program was only information that is available through PKCS. Namely, information about the certificates, and information about the keys (private and public). However the actual data (first name, last name etc.) must be adressed specifically through eID API's.

That will be the next point I'll work on.

Meanwhile, if you are the happy owner of a MAC computer with OS-X installed, and if you have a smartcard reader, you'll be happy to know that it is possible to configure your MAC so that you log in with your eID card (and PIN) rather than your username and password.

For more info on this, check out this blog