Creating an authentication bp-components

I would like to be able to use OpenID, Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect authentication services with BuddyPress.

There is already an MU OpenID plugin developed by Automattic, hopefully we can revise this plugin and adapt it for buddypress. See details about plugin below:

Once installed, OpenID 1.1 link tags will be added to the homepage of every hosted weblog. Users can then use their weblog as an OpenID; when they authenticate against third party sites using that URL, WordPress MU will ask them if they wish to share their identity with the site in question. If they say yes (or click “always”) they will be redirected back and logged in to that site.

The plugin also adds a new “OpenID” menu item to the Options tab in the WordPress admin application. This new page allows users to manually add and remove sites from their “always trust” list – although normally they will only modify that list indirectly by clicking the “always” button when they sign in to a site.

The plugin includes simple defence against phishing attacks. If a user tries to sign in with an OpenID but is not logged in to their WordPress MU account they will be told to navigate to the site manually or using a bookmark; presenting a log in form at that point would train users to enter their username and password at the instruction of untrusted sites.

In the above scenario, their attempted OpenID login is recorded in a cookie. When they next log in to the site (within a 5 minute window) they will be taken to the dashboard for the OpenID which they attempted to authenticate and will be presented with a link to continue that action.

In May 2007 facebook launched the Facebook Platform, which allowed third party developers to build rich social applications within Facebook. On the 9th May 2008 facebook announced Facebook Connect the next iteration of Facebook Platform that allows users to “connect” their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any site. This will enable third party websites to implement and offer even more features of Facebook Platform off of Facebook. Here are just a few of the coming features of Facebook Connect:

• Trusted Authentication
• Real Identity
• Friends Access
• Dynamic Privacy

These are just a few steps Facebook is taking to make the vision of data portability a reality for users worldwide. Hopefully we can integrate this into BuddyPress in the coming months?!

Next item up for discussion is Google Friend Connect, uses OpenID, oAuth and Open Social to let users log in to their favorite apps using a trusted ID provider and then access their friend info from those apps – all while on another website altogether. That could be any website that has chosen apps from the Open Social/ Friend Connect app gallery and pasted the iframe code onto their page.

In closing

We can expand the social networks we build much more rapidly by allowing users to tap into  their own networks. Feedback most welcome!