Identi.ca is a microblogging service. Users post short (140 character) notices which are broadcast to their friends and fans using the Web, RSS, or instant messages. It runs on the Free Software Laconica tool.

If you'd like to give it a shot you can register for an account of your own and start posting. It also supports OpenID authentication.

OpenID, a free, open-source framework for "single sign-on" across different Web sites and applications. The even better news? There already exist a bunch of PHP widgets that allow developers to easily integrate OpenID into a PHP application, and this article is going to show you how to use them. So what are you waiting for? Flip the page, and let's get going!

For those not familiar with the authentication method, he defines OpenID and shows how it can help with the "too many passwords, too many accounts" problem many users face. He uses the PHP OpenID Library and the Authentication::OpenID_Consumer PEAR package (as well as several other PEAR packages to help with the connections and message formatting). He builds two simple forms to use the service - one to authenticate a user and another to create a new account.

According to the press release from SF about their OpenID support:

OpenID is getting tremendous traction and we're happy to be jumping into it. it's bringing us back in touch with fresh web (2.0) technology. [...] We've spent the past couple weeks on it - integrating the Zend Framework OpenID component into our site code. we like the framework as a whole and I personally hope to use more of it in the future.

There might be a few kinks in the process, so if you're seeing issues with your OpenID working on their site, check out the FAQ they've posted to help.

Since there have been numerous tutorials written regarding Zend_Auth, I won't attempt to make a full tutorial on it. If you are curious, google around, you'll find them. Today though, I'd like to show you a cool new piece that has been added to Auth in Zend Framework 1.5, the new Zend_Auth_Adapter_OpenId.

Cal explains what the OpenID system is all about before getting into the code that uses it. He suggests MyOpenID as a provider to register at and includes the code to make a request to them to authenticate a username/password combo. The actual authentication check is only about three or four lines of code.

• __callStatic
• OpenID support
• user.ini user defined ini functionality
• dynamic static calls
• XSLT profiling

...and many more. Check out the post for more to add to the list and for some brief examples of the ones already mentioned.

After proposing these back in June/July (and getting held up by August's vacation!) I have gotten around to releasing three packages on PEAR which are required for an OpenID package later on.

His three packages are:

• Services_Yadis
• Crypt_DiffieHellman
• Crypt_HMAC2

Yes, my OpenID 2.0 PHP5 Consumer has finally been proposed to PEAR. This brings the OpenID fanaticism on PEAR to four packages: OpenID_Consumer, Services_Yadis, Crypt_HMAC2, Crypt_DiffieHellman.

He'll be working to get the code "further up to par" including Nonce validation, more consistent error reporting and other operation modes (like check_immediate). He's also included a screencast in the post for those not familiar with OpenID to get their first dose.

From the first post:

So after a few days throwing around code in an IDE, a small amount of swearing, and an overdose of caffeine, I have committed initial OpenID PHP5 code in it's shiny new PEARified form to subversion. What this means is that after a few more days of completion to work out major kinks, the PEAR-Dev mailing list will be notified of a new OpenID Consumer proposal ;-). A Server proposal will follow at a later date, i.e. when the dull ache in my forearms subsides. The repostory: http://svn.astrumfutura.org/pear/trunk/OpenID/

And, from the second post:

Just a quick update on the PHP OpenID 2.0 library being proposed to PEAR. The library is a PHP5 implementation of the OpenID 2.0 Authentication Specification. It's currently only including a Consumer (so you can build OpenID authentication into websites) but a Server is already in the works for later.

Be sure to check out both of these posts for lots more information than's presented here. Pádraic's worked hard on the package - check out the alpha code at http://svn.astrumfutura.org/pear/trunk/ to see just how much.]]> Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:53:00 -0500 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/8249 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/8249 Pádraic Brady notes in a new post today that his Services_Yadis package has been official proposed to the PEAR group:

This provides a PHP5 implementation of the Yadis Specification 1.0 a requirement of the OpenID Authentication 2.0 Specification. There are way too many specifications out there! The proposal is a reflection of February's "Zend_Service_Yadis" proposal to the Zend Framework. The main differences (beside the PEARification) were fixing the main bugs the ZF sample code had.

He also mentions his next proposal - to create an OpenID Consumer package.

From the first post:

As a follow on from my previous entry about OpenID in the Zend Framework, I've been in brief contact with Dmitry Stogov across a scattering of emails. Dmitry posted his OpenID proposal for the framework over at the Proposals Wiki earlier in the week. [...] It's actually very hard to comment constructively rather than simply handing over my code which probably says a lot more all by itself. [...] Anyway, I've agreed to port my OpenID library to PEAR as a PHP5 package. I checked with the mailing list, and the approach I've taken in splitting the library across a number of freestanding components hasn't seen any objections. On the flipside, it does help by providing upgrades to existing PEAR Encryption packages which are not yet migrated to PHP5 versions.

And from post number two:

Over the weekend, I managed to grab a few hours to dig around my OpenID library with the ultimate development tools: patience and experimentation. [...] What I've refactored towards is a splitting of the OpenID process based on three categories: Request, Redirect, Response.