CODEWITHSUNDEEP
asp.netopeniddotnetopenauth
Fred Thomas
Fred Thomas

Reputation: 944

Confused about OpenID and ASP.NET

I don't want to add another username and ID to the world, so I really want to integrate openId into my web site. However, I am confused about it. I looked at various blogs about it, and they all point to DotNetOpenAuth. I plugged that in, but didn't get quite what I expected.

What I see is something like this (from Scott Hanselman's blog)

enter image description here

What I expected to see was the same sort of log on experience I have here at stackoverflow.com

I am obviously confused on what OpenID is. Can someone help clarify for me? Even better, can someone point out what I need to do to get that stackoverflow.com experience.

Thanks.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 118

Answers (2)

user60456
user60456

Reputation:

Think of Open ID as the concept of taking a providers word that I am 'Joe'. There are many different providers you can use. Facebook, Twitter, Stackexchange, Google, Yahoo, and more. The UI you have is just using the OpenID provider. If you want a better UI, check out this jquery plugin, or this one.

The UI SO uses (and the two linked above) is really just eye candy. Conceptually they build a URL that your user will be sent to. Some require the username in the URL, others do not. If you are going to roll your own solution, you will need to know what every provider needs. If you use a prebuilt one, just go with it. :)

I did a blog bost a while ago that walks you through implementing DotNetOpenAuth in an MVC site. What is important to note is the method ActionResult LogOn(string openid_identifier) takes the URL the provider needs, and redirects the user there. You will get this URL from one of those controls. If I remember correctly, it handles everything for you. All you do it tell it where to POST the form to.

Once you get a response back (the other LogOn method), you can process it. response.ClaimedIdentifier is basically the users ID. It will be different for each user. If I log in using Google, AND Facebook, it will be different for both even though I am the same person. If you want your users to be able to log in with more than one, you will need to allow them to assosiate the logins, and code accordingly.

Upvotes: 3

Dave Walker
Dave Walker

Reputation: 3523

Ok so OpenID works by communicating with trusted openID providers (e.g. google) to tell the site who you are. A write up about how google's implementation can be found here http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_clarifies_openid_implementation.php

Here is what I see when I click on Scott Hanselmans comment login system. http://imagebin.org/186528 Note how the OpenID textbox adds the url? I am pretty sure that all stackoverflow is doing is teh same thing - but having a link to click rather than something less usable.

Upvotes: 0

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