Want to do some podcasting, and want to support this type of comment…
This is a test episode of An Indieweb Podcast(working title). In it, Chris Aldrich and I talk about a variety of Indieweb topics, with the theme of Considering the User, inspired by an article we were reading.
Part of this is an opportunity to improve audio post presentation on my website, so you will see audio posts improve over time.
Spending some time working on integrations. Specifically, integrating data from my home automation systems into my website. In previous iterations, I have added support for weather to posts…but not directly from my own weather station. Added support for location, but not directly from my own phone’s location.
I am trying to decide how far I want to go. For example, in addition to actual coordinates, I have a property for my location that allows for the following options: At Home, Just Left Home, At Work, Just Left Work, Just Arrived Home, Away, and Extended Away. do I want to actually identify where I am, either with granular or general location just because I can? Or do I just want to add context to a post when I’m saying something else.
There are lots of other integrations I’m looking to do, for various reasons. There is a lot of data I’d like to store in my site that you won’t be able to see, for historic and future purposes.
This is a problem people may have solved on other sites, but I’m trying to solve it for myself. Especially since anything I post on my site is syndicated elsewhere.
For a while now, my website has been able to ask the browser for its location and use that to add location to posts. The problem is it is frequently inaccurate. So, I’ve been working on allowing my website to query other information sources to find out my location. The first one is my home automation system, which tracks my location to determine if I’m in the house or not. The same system also has the data from my weather station…I also post weather on my site. So, by doing this I can have the most accurate information when I post. Although it thinks I am next door when I check it against my house.
Part of my own project for this week, while taking off for the holiday, was to complete work on an Indieauth endpoint for WordPress.
IndieAuth is a layer on top of OAuth 2.0, a standard that grants websites or applications access to their information on other websites but without providing passwords.
OAuth is already being used by a variety of services…Login with Facebook or Login with Google options on sites are usually OAuth based. The difference is that for IndieAuth, users and clients are all represented by URLs.
Authorization Prompt for Indieauth for WordPress
So, why did I want to build one? A few reasons. The most popular use for a IndieAuth server as authentication for Micropub clients. Micropub is a standard for creating posts using third-party clients.
WordPress is moving toward deprecating their post interface in favor of a totally new one called ‘Gutenberg’. As a long time WordPress user, the focus on this concerns me as it does not necessarily represent my needs or desires as a user of the platform. So, I want to have options.
Currently, OAuth servers for WordPress of all types are limited. The REST API, which was heralded with much optimism, lacks an OAuth authentication method. In fact, it lacks any built-in authentication options other than the WordPress login for external authentication.
There is an incomplete project for an OAuth2 server for WordPress I did get some useful ideas from, however. I also have to thank Aaron Parecki, who wrote a book on OAuth2 and wrote the Indieauth specification, for reviewing my work and giving lots of feedback.
What I’ve built, with help, is a working IndieAuth authentication method that works for the REST API, among other things.
Since I wanted this to be widely adoptable, I needed to make sure of a secure implementation, and I think the results are a good initial version. There is an opportunity for further refinements and improvements, but it means that WordPress users are no longer dependent on Indieauth.com, the reference implementation of the spec which uses OAuth providers like Github and Twitter to authenticate.
This leads to my hopes for the future. There are people working on Micropub clients for Android. And if any of them pans out, or my own mobile options, I could easily post notes to my site from wherever I am using tools that are much more flexible to my needs than are available now, the culmination of nearly 4 years of moving toward this point, on and off.
The success for me will be able to read something on my phone, and quickly share that to my site. Or have a thought and quickly share it to my site, without having to spend so much time setting it up I think better of it.
There are still pieces that need work to achieve that, but this is a major piece knocked off.
The IndieAuth plugin update I was writing about last week finally got released to the WordPress repository. It’s a great development for the community. You can now use your website to log into a variety of different services.
Episode 1 – Leaving Facebook for What?
This second episode was originally recorded in March, abruptly ended, and then was not completed until April due scheduling. In it, Chris and I discuss the hot topic of Facebook scandals and where you might go if you decide to leave Facebook.
Show Notes
The originating articles that kicked off the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica issue:
