191 lines
6.3 KiB
HTML
191 lines
6.3 KiB
HTML
<article>
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<h1>acct URI (Fediverse)</h1>
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<section>
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<address class="h-card">
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by
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<a rel="author" class="u-url" href="http://changelog.ca/"><span class="p-given-name">Charles</span> <span class="p-additional-name">Iliya</span> <span class="p-family-name">Krempeaux</span></a>
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</address>
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</section>
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<section>
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<p>
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An <strong>acct URI</strong> looks like this:
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</p>
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<pre>
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acct:joeblow@example.com
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</pre>
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<p>
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Typically an <strong>acct URI</strong> is used to turn an <strong>e-mail address</strong> or <ziba-link name="id">Fediverse ID</ziba-link> into a URL / URI.
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(There are reasons why one might want to turn a pointer or identifier that isn' a URL / URI into a URL / URI.)
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</p>
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<p>
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For example, this <ziba-link name="id">Fediverse ID</ziba-link>:
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</p>
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<pre>
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@reiver@changelog.ca
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</pre>
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<p>
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Gets turned into this <strong>acct URI</strong>:
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</p>
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<pre>
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acct:reiver@changelog.ca
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</pre>
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</section>
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<section>
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<h2>Why acct URIs</h1>
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<p>
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The TL;DR of <em>why acct URIs‽</em> is —
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<p>
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… because people seem to be comfortable with something that looks more like an <strong>e-mail address</strong> or as <strong>username</strong> as an <strong>identifier</strong> but the technology only understands URLs and URIs;
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so you still have to turn things that look like <strong>e-mail address</strong> and <strong>usernames</strong> into URLs and URIs;
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which is what <strong>acct URI</strong> is;
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and “no”, mailto URI won't work;
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</p>
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<p>
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… because a new URI scheme makes it easy to identify that it should be used with <ziba-link transform="lowercase">WebFinger</ziba-link> (rather than being able to do something else with it).
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</p>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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There are many conceptual places where some kind of an <strong>identifier</strong> is a core part of it.
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</p>
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<p>
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For example, on any social protocol I am aware of, there is some type of notion of an <strong>identifier</strong>.
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</p>
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<p>
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BBS echo-mail has them.
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BBS net-mail has them.
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Internet e-mail has them.
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Internet finger-protocol has them.
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Internet gemini-protocol has them.
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(Multi-User) Linux & Unix operating systems have them.
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Twitter has them.
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Etc.
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</p>
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<p>
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The <strong>identifier</strong> enables you to send messages, to share photos & images, to control data, etc.
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</p>
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<p>
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With a single centralized system, dealing with <strong>identifiers</strong> is comparatively more straight-forward.
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But when dealing with a distributed, decentralized, or federated system, things can get more complex — for example, how do you point to and interact with someone or something from a different node on the network?
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Etc.
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</p>
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<p>
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Experience (with OpenID and other systems) seems to suggest that (at least currently) most people are more comfortable with using something that looks more like an <strong>e-mail address</strong> or as <strong>username</strong> as an <strong>identifier</strong> rather than a URL or a URI.
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For example —
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>joeblow@example.com</li>
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<li>jandoe@something.example</li>
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<li>actor@host</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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<ziba-link name="id">Fediverse ID</ziba-link>s look very similar to e-mail addresses.
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They just have a U+0040 at-sign ("@") at the beginning of them:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>@joeblow@example.com</li>
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<li>@jandoe@something.example</li>
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<li>@actor@host</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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But <ziba-link transform="lowercase">WebFinger</ziba-link> only understand URLs and URIs.
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So those have to be turned into URLs or URIs.
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Which, usually, is very straight-forward:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>acct:joeblow@example.com</li>
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<li>acct:jandoe@something.example</li>
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<li>acct:actor@host</li>
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</ul>
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</section>
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<section>
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<h2>Fediverse Users</h2>
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<p>
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Most users of the <strong>Fediverse</strong> aren't aware of <strong>acct URI</strong>s.
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And really, they don't have to be aware of them!
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</p>
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</section>
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<section>
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<h2>Fediverse Programmers</h2>
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<p>
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But behind the scenes, <strong>acct URI</strong>s are used by <ziba-link name="softwware">Fediverse software</ziba-link>.
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</p>
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<p>
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Behind the scenes, a <ziba-link name="id">Fediverse ID</ziba-link> is turned into a <strong>acct URI</strong>, and then that <strong>acct URI</strong> is used to in a request to <ziba-link transform="lowercase">WebFinger</ziba-link> .
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</p>
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<p>
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If you are a <strong>programmer</strong> / <strong>software engineer</strong> / <strong>software developer</strong> / etc, then you may need to be aware of <strong>acct URI</strong>s, and have some level of understanding of them.
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</p>
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</section>
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<section>
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<h2>Resolving</h2>
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<h2>acct URI</h2>
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<p>
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Part of the process of <strong>resolving</strong> a <strong>Fediverse ID</strong> transfomrs a <strong>Fediverse ID</strong> into an <ziba-link dir=".." transform="lowercase">acct URI</ziba-link>.
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(And then using that <ziba-link dir=".." transform="lowercase">acct URI</ziba-link> version of the <strong>Fediverse ID</strong> makes a request to <ziba-link dir=".." transform="lowercase">WebFinger</ziba-link>.)
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</p>
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<p>
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Here is an example of transforming a <strong>Fediverse ID</strong> into an <ziba-link dir=".." transform="lowercase">acct URI</ziba-link>:
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</p>
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<pre>
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at sign
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↓
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@joeblow@example.com ← Fediverse ID
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acct:joeblow@example.com ← acct URI
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↑
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no at sign
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</pre>
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<p>
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A client would then make a request to:
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</p>
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<pre>
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https://example.com/.well-known/host-meta
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</pre>
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<p>
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To discover what the (template) URL for <ziba-link dir=".." transform="lowercase">WebFinger</ziba-link> is.
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And then, for example, if it is at:
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</p>
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<pre>
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https://example.com/.well-known/webfinger?resource={uri}
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</pre>
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<p>
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Then make a request to:
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</p>
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<pre>
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https://example.com/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:joeblow@example.com
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</pre>
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<p>
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This <ziba-link dir=".." transform="lowercase">WebFinger</ziba-link> implementation <em>could</em> accept whatever it wants.
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It doesn't have to restrict itself to what is specified by the IETF RFC-7565 (The 'acct' URI Scheme) specification.
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BUT —
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</p>
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</section>
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<section>
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<h2>See Also</h2>
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<p>
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For more information on <strong>acct URI</strong> see:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>IETF RFC-7565</li>
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</ul>
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</section>
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</article>
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