Week: 36

Map

Syndication is Hard

Recently, in a conversation, it was asked how the syndication in my WordPress plugin, Syndication Links works. The syndication principle used here is POSSE…Post On your Site, Syndicate Elsewhere…so your site does all the heavy lifting.

Syndication Links is more of a framework for syndication, as opposed to actually doing all the work. It is expandable via plugin or extension, or additional providers being added.

There is a lot more I’d like to do with it, but providers keep making it harder to interface with their services. But…that isn’t the problem that prompted me to write this.

I’ve integrated support for using Bridgy. In the past, I used Bridgy’s Webmention publishing support. This would trigger Bridgy to read the web page and interpret the Microformats in the page and publish to the various sites it supports. Then, Bridgy added support for Micropub…allowing the sending of microformats properties directly…which meant regardless of the WordPress theme, the results could be consistent.

The problem is, Bridgy has some very developed opinions about how to publish that Syndication Links doesn’t yet..although they are under development.

Right now, if the content is longer than a certain length(dictated by the maximum length of the provider), the code will replace it with link + title, but can be overridden by a setting, which would send the entire content to Bridgy…who might truncate it inconsistently.

There is also an option for using the manual excerpt option in WordPress, if set…but not an auto-generated excerpt.

But, looking to improve this…like figuring out how to take advantage of additional properties supported by Bridgy and to custom-render a better submission int he first place. But…first, have to figure out how.

Opted for this post rather than a GitHub issue because I thought it might get some feedback and traction.

IndieAuth Popup – August 2021

At the end of last month, a group got together to discuss some of the outstanding issues in IndieAuth. We had two similar sessions in 2020 and the specification is better for it(see Aaron Parecki’s summary of changes), however, we left many issues on the table due time considerations.

The spec hasn’t been updated yet, but here are some notes on the new changes. We’re hoping to follow up at another session before the end of the year.

  • Tokens having an expiration is now recommended, but not mandatory. This would mean the token endpoint would return the ‘expires_in’ parameter as part of the access token response, indicating the number of seconds till it expires.
  • In order to support expiring tokens, the access token response may now return a refresh token. The token endpoint will support the grant_type refresh_token in order to utilize these tokens to get a fresh access token. Refresh Tokens are common in OAuth2 and there would be no changes from the existing specifications.
  • Adoption of the OAuth2 Token Introspection Specification, with the token endpoint acting as the token introspection endpoint. At this time, that spec requires authentication to use the endpoint, whereas IndieAuth’s existing token verification interaction does not. This question is ongoing, as to whether we should specifically drop the auth requirement.
Episode 15 – micro.blog()


After a gap of over a year, we resumed our IndieWeb podcast and got together to discuss what has been going on, how we have been building the community during the pandemic, and about our topic of micro.blog. There is also a video attached this time.

 

Replied to Hydrox Cookies Will Return to Stores This Month (Grub Street)

The “original Oreo” is coming back very soon.

A piece of my childhood returns. Hydrox, which predated Oreo, is finally making a comeback.

A few years ago, tech personality Leo Laporte referring to the Hydrox Cookie as an Oreo knockoff caused me to write off a letter regarding this.

I was most disappointed to hear disparaging remarks about the Hydrox cookie on your program. For your information, it is Oreo(1912) made by the National Biscuit Company(Nabisco) that ripped off Hydrox(1908) made by Sunshine Biscuit Company.The name Hydrox, which comes from Hydrogen and Oxygen…admittedly wasn’t the best name for a cookie, but in the latter years, till the product was discontinued, it was rebranded as Droxies. I remember, a few years ago, for the 100th anniversary, Keebler, who now owns the Sunshine brands, did a limited run of Hydrox cookies. You see, as a child, I couldn’t have Oreos on religious grounds. I am Jewish, and Oreos were originally made with lard, which for many years, meant that they were not kosher. It wasn’t until 1998 that Oreos were certified as kosher. So, Hydrox were the sandwich cookies of my childhood. Religious issues aside, I am not the only person for which such passion exists. A quick internet search shows much love for the now discontinued Hydrox cookie. Since I cannot get Hydrox, and at the moment I really am craving a cookie I haven’t had since 2008, I will have to go buy Sunshine’s 1947 bestseller, still in existence, the Vienna Finger. 
I did receive an on air apology from Leo Laporte, who proclaimed he actually had liked the Hydrox. I’m tempted, when the first ones become available, to ship him a package with another note.