Support App.net

[Bernd Schlapsi]

It would be great to support also App.net in the new friends-app. Here you can find the information for the service:
http://developers.app.net/

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

Hi,

I will try to implement this. However, we first have to add support for it in online accounts. I have no idea of its codebase, though.

Is there a tutorial somewhere how to add new protocols to UOA?

Thanks!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Alberto Mardegan (mardy)]

Hi Kai, we don't have a tutorial on how to do it, but fortunately it's not a hard task (usually :-) ).
It seems like App.net uses OAuth 2.0, and I'd recommend going for the client flow described here:
http://developers.app.net/docs/authentication/flows/web/#client-side-flow

You can start by working on the desktop first (it's slightly easier, and you can reuse all your work for Ubuntu Touch later on): take the /usr/share/accounts/providers/facebook.provider file, rename it to "appnet.provider" and edit it to use the URLs and scopes defined by app.net.
You can then try to create an account in the control center, and see if that works. You are very welcome to get in touch with me (mardy) in #ubuntu-devel or #ubuntu-touch on IRC. Or just comment here.

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

Thanks for the feedback!

Is this stuff provided by the accounts-plugin project? I saw that it stores the client secret somewhere else (as it has to be kept secret).

Also, what redirection URL must I use? App.net wants me to state the redirection url when I register the app. I guess it has to be some localhost address?

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

Sorry, I meant "Callback URL" not "Redirect URL".

[Alberto Mardegan (mardy)]

With the client flow, there is no need to use the client secret, so you don't need to write it anywhere. You don't need to submit the new plugin to the account-plugins project, however I don't object to adding it here, if you want to. You certainly can use that project's plugins as a reference when writing yours.

As for the callback URL, it must be a valid URL. In most plugins we simply use https://wiki.ubuntu.com, just for convenience (the URL is not actually shown in the UI).

[Robert Bruce Park (robru)]

Kai, I often point people at this branch[0] which implements Linkedin, it might give you an idea about what needs to happen to implement new account providers.

[0] https://code.launchpad.net/~jpds/account-plugins/linkedin-plugin/+merge/154406

[Kai Mast (kai-mast)]

According to singon-ui the followin URL is called: https://account.app.net/oauth/authenticate?client_id=M2nq4J9PJSWjtnxkpFNJZ9kA9Z9jUQxU&redirect_uri=https://app.net&response_type=token&type=user_agent&scope=basic stream write_post follow public_messages messages

This seems fine according to the documentation" http://developers.app.net/docs/authentication/flows/web/

But it still says: "Error: Please contact the website that sent you here and let them know that there is a problem with the authorization URL."

Sadly, it doesn't show anything else. Any tips to debug this?

[David Barth (dbarth)]

Well, the friends app is no more, so I guess this issue is invalid by now.