[OpenID] Extensions - required and optional attributes

[Johnny Bufu]

On 13-Sep-07, at 10:21 AM, Jack wrote:

> If this is not required, then it would remain open to any extension
> developer to name these parameters as they see fit; with the result  
> that
> the core of the OpenID code, at both the RP and the OP, has to
> incorporate specific code to support each supported extension.

That's not true: with the use of factories and virtual methods,  
extension implementations can be added without any modification to  
the OpenID core implementation.

For an example, you can have a look at the  
org.openid4java.message.Message* and org.openid4java.message.ax.* at  
http://code.google.com/p/openid4java/

(The sreg sub-package does have a manual tweak in the core, for  
reasons specific to SREG and discussed in a previous thread.)


On the general matter, I don't think the OpenID core should dictate  
anything about the contents of an extension; it should be just the  
"transport" layer for extensions, and not interfere with their payloads.


Johnny