[OpenID board] OIDF "OpenID Compliant" Program -- WAS: Perceptions of OpenID

David Fuelling sappenin at gmail.com
Mon Jan 5 23:20:23 UTC 2009


One of the major concerns raised in Chris' blog centered around
Interoperability -- (Summarizing): "*OpenID's don't work on all sites in the
same way (if at all), and the Foundation isn't strong enough to make this
happen, since OpenID is such a distributed idea, so users aren't likely to
embrace OpenID*..."

However, it seems like the OIDF could solve this problem by introducing an
"OpenID Compliant" program, with a linkable Image that implementor's can
advertise, and that end-users can click on, taking them to openid.net, with
information about the particular implementer's "compliance" measurement --
e.g., "This RP/OP passed various automated openid.net tests with this
particular score".

Such a mechanism would be a useful debugging tool for openid implementors
(OP's, RP's, and Libraries), and could be nice tool for end-users to both
a.) figure out which OP supports openid the best, and 2.) See that a
particular RP's openid implementation is broken, not the openid protocol
itself.

The incentive would be for OP's and RP's to want to advertise the "seal",
and thus to offer "working" versions of OpenId.

Automatic Verification Process for RP

   1. RP developer creates an account on openid.net, and clicks the "verify
   my RP" link.
   2. Various info is collected from the developer, perhaps payment, and an
   RP URL that adheres to a certain set of "testing parameters" (i.e., a single
   login form with a standardized button name, etc, for testing purposes --
   this would not be the actual login form, but would use the same libraries,
   and would allow for automated testing).  Alternatively, the end-user could
   supply these button names to openid.net (enabling steps 3 and 4 below)
   3. Openid.net-based software would simulate various OpenID logins, with
   the OP being served from the same domain as the claimed identifiers (i.e.,
   openid.net).  This way, no real-world user interaction would be required
   to test the OpenID flow since user-agent an OP would be the same (for
   testing purposes).
   4. Various extensions could be tested for support -- such as Sreg, AX,
   etc.  Again, there would need to be a standard way for an HTTPClient
   (simulating a web-browser) to easily gather this data from the RP web-page
   for verification -- again, part of the verification process.

Automated Verification/Testing for OP's would be similar, except the
software running at openid.net would merely simulate an RP talking to the
implementor's OP (and could also test for sreg, AX, etc).

Such a verification process could require a series of standardized UX pages
that would only be used for these tests (not used by actual
customers/websites).  Alternatively, more sophisticated software could allow
the implementor to specify the name of key pieces required for the test
(e.g., by button's name is "submitButton", etc).

OpenId could even exercise these automated "test" pages periodically, to
make sure that an RP/OP maintains protocol compatibility.

Of course, this idea would require some custom software funded by the
Foundation, but such a program would have a lot of benefits, especially from
a marketing perspective (with a side-benefit of helping libraries and
implementations become "compliant" and "interopable").

David


On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 11:15 PM, Chris Messina <chris.messina at gmail.com>wrote:

> I've just blogged about perceptions I've seen recently of OpenID in the
> wild.
> http://tr.im/fj_perception
>
> I think these are serious issues that we must think about and consider,
> since many popular bloggers are only carrying negative stories about OpenID
> (with good reason) lately. I think it's imperative that the marketing
> committee ramp up its efforts to provide public domain case studies, stories
> and regular news that can help highlight and promote the successes that
> people are having with OpenID so that we can counter these negative
> impressions and provide a more positive, balanced perspective on where we're
> at with OpenID.
>
> Chris
>
> --
> Chris Messina
> Citizen-Participant &
>  Open Web Advocate-at-Large
>
> factoryjoe.com # diso-project.org
> citizenagency.com # vidoop.com
> This email is:   [X] bloggable    [ ] ask first   [ ] private
>
> _______________________________________________
> board mailing list
> board at openid.net
> http://openid.net/mailman/listinfo/board
>
>
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