[OpenID board] Building an OpenID technical interop framework

[Chris Messina]

Just want to add my support to this effort, if I haven't voiced it already!

Chris

On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 5:12 AM, Marc Canter <marc at broadbandmechanics.com>wrote:

> YES!
>
> This is the test lab/suite I asked for two years ago
>
> 'bout time
>
> right on!
>
> YES!
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 10:53 PM, David Recordon <recordond at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> (bcc'd general@, please reply on the public board list)
>>
>> One of the consistent pieces of feedback we've received from
>> developers is that it's difficult to correctly create a new OpenID
>> Relying Party or Provider due to the lack of Foundation run
>> interoperability tests that help developers understand if their
>> implementation is correct.  While JanRain used to run a set of tests
>> like this on OpenIDEnabled.com, they were taken offline almost a year
>> ago.  The Foundation has already funded some development of
>> http://test-id.net/, but it focuses largely on security driven tests.
>>
>> Facebook and Google are each interested in contributing $10,000 to the
>> OpenID Foundation to develop an easy to use technical interoperability
>> site for OpenID if the Foundation also contributes at least $10,000 to
>> the effort, the following product specification is followed, the
>> companies are able to collaboratively choose the contractor which will
>> perform the development work, and the resulting software is released
>> under an open source license (Apache).  We believe that the existence
>> of this framework will be one of the highest leverage projects in both
>> driving broad adoption of interoperable OpenID implementations and in
>> increasing the overall quality of the open source OpenID libraries.
>>
>> A framework to add tests:
>> Just as traditional unit tests are written, the software should
>> support the ability to add additional tests for RPs and OPs at any
>> time.  Each test should be a part of a given OpenID specification with
>> the ability to group multiple tests together based on functionality.
>> Some tests can be fully automated (i.e. discovery) and others will
>> require human interaction (i.e. sign in).
>>
>> Built like developers think:
>> Developers implementing OpenID think in broad strokes such as "can I
>> sign in?" which the framework should be built around.  There should be
>> two major groups of tests, one which exercises a Relying Party
>> implementation and one which exercises a Provider.  Upon starting the
>> test, the software should direct the developer through the steps which
>> are needed to test their implementation in a logical order such as
>> discovery, association, authentication, and verification.  An
>> individual developer should not need to know to choose the "RP
>> protects against association poisoning" test, but it should be done
>> automatically.
>>
>> Supports multiple specifications:
>> The framework should be extensible such that a developer can choose to
>> test their support for individual extensions to the OpenID
>> Authentication protocol.  It should include tests for AX, PAPE, and
>> the User Experience extensions.  Ideally this framework could grow to
>> support other protocols such as OAuth as well.
>>
>> Supports multiple environments:
>> The framework should support multiple environments, with the ability
>> to override DNS settings using the equivalent of a hosts file to
>> switch between environments. A standard test framework would be an
>> invaluable resource for RPs and OPs to test their QA environment prior
>> to a production release.
>>
>> Results should be logged:
>> The software should support recording the test results of a given RP
>> or OP and sharing them publicly.  This could ultimately evolve into
>> automated smoke testing of many different OPs and RPs.
>>
>> It looks nice:
>> Yes, we might be software engineers but let's create something which
>> is usable.  Matching the OpenID.net site design is a fine place to
>> start.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> David and Eric (Sachs)
>>
>
>
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-- 
Chris Messina
Open Web Advocate, Google

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