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2 OpenMicroBlogging specification
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10 To allow users of one microblogging service to publish notices to
11 users of another service, given the other users' permission.
16 Depends on OAuth 1.0, YADIS 1.0.
18 We piggy-back additional information onto these protocols to pass
19 microblogging information back and forth.
29 to allow a remote service to send notices to the user's local
30 service on a remote user's behalf.
34 the user sending notices.
36 the listenee's service.
38 the listener's service.
40 "home" URL for the listener, typically their profile page on a
43 An alphanumeric short name for a person, 1-64 characters.
45 A globally unique and unchanging identifying URI for a user.
46 Need not be an URL. [*]_
48 A unique and unchanging identifier for a notice. Need not be an
51 .. [*] May be the profile URL, if it's defined not to change or be
52 re-used. The profile URL of some services includes the nickname,
53 and some let the user change his/her nickname. This user's profile
54 URL may change from 'http://example.net/~john' to
55 'http://example.net/~johnsmith' A tag URI, like
56 'tag:example.net,2008:user:1' may be more appropriate here.
57 .. [*] IWBNI the notice URI is used everywhere the notice is
58 published; for example, in any RSS feeds.
63 The user submits their profile URL to the remote service somehow --
64 for example, with an HTML form on the remote service's Web site.
69 The remote service recovers a YADIS document from the profile URL, as
70 described in YADIS 1.0.
72 The remote service looks for a service of this type:
74 http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1
76 The service must include the following 5 URLs. [*]_
79 Request Token URL, as in OAuth 1.0
82 User Authorization URL, as in OAuth 1.0
85 Access Token URL, as in OAuth 1.0
88 Post Notice URL, as defined below.
91 Update Profile URL, as defined below.
93 It must also include the following URI:
96 identifier URI for the user with this profile URL.
98 Here, omb: is the namespace prefix for:
100 http://openmicroblogging.org/xmlns/0.1
102 The YADIS URI defined for the service can be ignored.
104 .. [*] I decided to use a separate namespace with 5 elements to enable
105 having different providers for general OAuth and specific OµB. A
106 future version of this document may have a mode that allows a
107 single URL defined in the <URI> element with an additional URL
108 parameter like 'action=requesttoken', 'action=userauthorization' or
109 something similar. But that simplifies the YADIS doc at the expense
110 of the rest of the protocol.
115 The remote service must go through the OAuth 1.0 dance to get
116 authorization to post notices and update profiles.
118 In all OAuth, the consumer key should be blank (''), unless the remote
119 server and local service have negotiated another key. Such negotiation
120 is out-of-scope for this document, and we assume an "open" network of
121 microblogging services. But if you want to have that kind of network,
124 The remote service MUST do OAuth for every new listener, regardless of
125 whether they've already received authorization for posting to the
126 given postNotice URL. See `Posting a Notice`_ below.
131 The remote service uses the defined requestToken URL to get a request
134 In the request token HTTP request, the remote service MUST send the
135 following additional parameter(s):
138 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'
140 The identifier URI for the listener.
142 In the results for the request token request, the local service MUST
143 send the following additional parameters:
146 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'
151 In requesting user authorization, the remote service must send the
152 following parameters:
155 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'.
157 The identifier URI for the listener.
159 The identifier URI for the listenee.
161 The profile URL of the listenee.
162 omb_listenee_nickname
163 The nickname of the listenee.
165 The default license URL for the listenee's stream. Typically the
166 URL of a Creative Commons license, with the Attribution license
167 being heavily encouraged. CC0 quitclaim also pretty good. The
168 local service MAY reject listenees if their licenses are
169 incompatible with the service.
171 The remote service should send as many of the following parameters as
172 possible. This will help the user decide if they really want to allow
173 the listening to happen, and allow the local service to store a copy
174 of the listenee's profile.
176 omb_listenee_fullname
177 The full name of the listenee. Up to 255 chars.
178 omb_listenee_homepage
179 The home page of the listenee (may be distinct from the profile
182 A brief biography of the listenee; less than 140 chars.
183 omb_listenee_location
184 Physical location of the listenee; less that 255 chars. No fixed
185 structure, but "Locality, Region, Country" or "Locality, Country"
186 or "Locality, Region" recommended.
188 URL of a 96px by 96px image in PNG, GIF or JPEG format representing
191 The local service, in a successful response, must return the
192 following additional parameters:
195 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'.
196 omb_listener_nickname
197 A nickname for the listener.
199 The profile URL for the listener, possibly cleaned up or
202 It should return as many of the following as possible:
204 omb_listener_fullname
205 The full name of the listener. Up to 255 chars.
206 omb_listener_homepage
207 The home page of the listener (may be distinct from the profile
210 A brief biography of the listener; less than 140 chars.
211 omb_listener_location
212 Physical location of the listener; less that 255 chars. No fixed
213 structure, but "Locality, Region, Country" or "Locality, Country"
214 or "Locality, Region" recommended.
216 URL of a 96px by 96px image in PNG, GIF or JPEG format representing
219 This will allow the remote service to display information about the
220 listener in the listenee's "listeners" or "subscribers" list.
225 To post a notice to the local service, the remote service sends an HTTP
226 POST message to the postNotice URL discovered above. The message must
227 use OAuth authorization. The message must also include the following
231 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'.
233 The identifier URI for the listenee.
237 The content of the notice. No maximum, but 140 chars is recommended.
239 The message may include the following parameters:
242 The URL of the notice, if the notice is retrievable.
244 The URL of the license for the notice, if different from the
245 listenee's default license.
247 URL of additional content for the notice; for example, an image,
248 video, or audio file.
249 omb_seealso_disposition
250 One of 'link' or 'inline', to recommend how the extra data should
251 be shown. Default 'link'.
252 omb_seealso_mediatype
253 Internet Media Type of the see-also data. Advisory, probably
254 shouldn't be trusted.
256 License for the attached data. May be distinct from the notice's
257 license (if they're passing along someone else's content).
259 The local service should include the following parameters in its
263 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'.
265 The local service makes no guarantees about the delivery of the notice
268 The remote service SHOULD NOT send a message with the same notice URL
269 to the same postNotice URL more than once. [2]_ If the request returns
270 a 403 Unauthorized message, the remote service SHOULD NOT post
271 messages to the same URL again with the same listenee, until another
272 listener has gone through the OAuth dance. [3]_
274 .. [2] A half-assed optimization. A local service may have a lot of
275 listeners listening to the same listenee. It would be pointless to
276 have the remote service post the same notice 100 times to the same
277 service. However, if the local service wants fine-grained control,
278 it can have a different postNotice URL for each listener.
279 .. [3] If there's one postNotice URL per listener, the 403 message
280 means the listener has told the local service not to allow posting
281 any more ("unsubscribed"). If there's one postNotice URL per local
282 service, it means that the count of listeners has dropped to 0.
287 If the listenee's profile information changes, the remote service MAY
288 send an HTTP POST message to to the updateProfile URL to tell the
289 local service about the change.
291 The message must use OAuth authorization. The message must also
292 include the following parameters:
295 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'.
297 The identifier URI for the listenee.
299 The message may include any of the following parameters:
302 The profile URL of the listenee.
303 omb_listenee_nickname
304 The nickname of the listenee.
306 The default license URL for the listenee's stream. A change in the
307 default license only applies to future notices; notices previous
308 to the update SHOULD be treated as under the old license.
309 omb_listener_fullname
310 The full name of the listener. Up to 255 chars.
311 omb_listener_homepage
312 The home page of the listener.
314 A brief biography of the listener; less than 140 chars.
315 omb_listener_location
316 Physical location of the listener; less that 255 chars.
318 URL of a 96px by 96px image in PNG, GIF or JPEG format representing
321 Missing parameters should not be construed to mean that the profile
322 field has been blanked. The remote service MUST set the parameter to
323 an empty string to show that the field is blank.