Providing and Delegating OpenIDs

The next major release of wp-openid includes a built-in OpenID provider and delegation engine. This will certainly be the most exciting feature of this release for most people, so let me explain a bit how it works. Each authorized user on the WordPress blog will have an OpenID at the author posts URL (ie. http://example.com/author/admin). Authorization to use the OpenID provider is controlled based on user roles and is managed in the main OpenID settings page. Each user can choose between one of three options for their OpenID:

  • Don’t use OpenID at all
  • Use the local OpenID provider built in to the plugin
  • Delegate to another OpenID

If a the local OpenID provider is used, it also supports transmitting sreg attributes pulled from the user’s WordPress profile and the DiSo Profiles plugin, if it’s installed. The user can update this data before releasing it to the relying party, but those changes aren’t currently stored. In addition, trust decisions are recorded and stored for the user, and can be modified from their config page at any time.

If a user chooses to delegate to another OpenID, they need only provide the delegate OpenID itself. All server configuration and supported extensions from that provider are discovered and published in the local XRDS document. Of course this data will have to be cached and probably updated on some interval, but it makes setting up delegation a breeze.

Server Modes

Remember that every user’s OpenID is their author posts URL. So what about the home URL for the blog itself? Well, the OpenID server can operate in two basic modes: multi-user and blog-owner… perhaps not the best names, but they’ll work for now.

In multi-user, the default configuration, the server supports a feature in OpenID 2.0 called OpenID Provider driven identifier selection. What this means is that ANY user on that blog can enter the home URL as their OpenID, and the OpenID provider itself will make sure that the correct identifier is returned to the relying party. The final identifier will still be something like http://example.com/author/admin/, but the user only needs to enter example.com at a relying party. If you’ve used ever used Yahoo’s OpenID provider, then you’ve probably seen how this works.

I suspect the more common mode will be blog-owner, which is appropriate for personal blogs. Even if there are multiple users in the system, the blog is basically owned by one individual and it makes sense for that individual to use the blog home URL as their OpenID. This mode is activated by selecting a “Blog Owner” on the main plugin configuration page. Once set, this user’s personal OpenID configuration (whether turned off, using the local provider, or delegated to another OpenID) will be used at the blog home URL. Other user’s on the blog could still use their OpenIDs, but they would need to type in the full URL each time… they just lose the convenience of being able to use the blog home URL.

For security, once a blog owner is set, no other user can update the setting. The blog owner can set someone else as the new blog owner (a push mechanism), but no-one can take ownership away (a pull mechanism). Additionally, if a multi-user blog wants to ensure no-one is ever set as the blog owner, they can add the following to their wp-config.php file:

define("OPENID_DISALLOW_OWNER", 1);

What’s left to do

The main outstanding work to be done before release is the user interface. You’ll notice that the user’s configuration screen (where they manage their external OpenIDs, OpenID Provider preference, and Trusted Sites) is a bit confusing if you’re not to familiar with OpenID. The current layout was done simply for convenience while developing the OpenID Provider, and will be overhauled to some degree before the release.

I’m also not too sure about compatibility with older versions of PHP and WordPress. I’ve been developing using PHP 5.2.6, MySQL 5.0.51, and WordPress 2.6.1. I do intend to remain as backwards compatible on these as possible (within reason), but make no guarantees for the current development code. I’ll also be working to make everything compatible with WordPressMU and BuddyPress. For now, I just wanted to get the code out there, and get people playing with it a little bit.

Comments and responses

Have you written a response to this? Let me know the URL:

Nice work, Will.

With WordPress as an OP, OpenID users can pick and choose feature sets they want to support as they see fit. Also, they can add and develop specs right along with the major OPs.

This is a great plugin! Thank you very much for your hard work!

I do have a question though… in the user’s profile editor there is a field called “OpenID Delegation”.

I try to put in a 3rd party OpenID and save my settings, logout and back in. Instead of logging in using that OpenID I specified, it creates an entirely new account!

When I put in my OpenID in the “Your OpenIDs” section, it works just fine.

What is that “OpenID Delegation” field for? I’m afraid my users won’t know what to do with it!

Thanks again! Jason