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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, OAuth Discovery 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 microblogging service.
38 the listener's microblogging 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.
66 .. [*] For OAuth Discovery, this is the "protected resource". It may
67 be more correct that the protected resource is the postNotice URL
68 (see below), but the listener will be more familiar with their own
69 profile URL. So there will have to be discovery of the postNotice
70 URL anyways, and it might as well all be done in one step.
75 The remote service recovers a YADIS document from the profile URL, as
76 described in OAuth Discovery.
78 The request token service must have a LocalID associated with it,
79 containing the identifier URI for the listener.
81 The following two extra services must be included in the YADIS
82 document, with accompanying URIs.
84 http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1/postNotice
85 Post Notice URL, as defined below.
87 http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1/updateProfile
88 Update Profile URL, as defined below.
90 If any of the URIs is unavailable, the remote service MUST stop
96 The remote service must go through the OAuth 1.0 dance to get
97 authorization to post notices and update profiles.
99 In all OAuth, the consumer key should be the root URL for the
100 microblogging service, if available. The secret should be the blank
101 string (''), unless the remote server and local service have negotiated
102 another key. Such negotiation is out-of-scope for this document, and we
103 assume an "open" network of microblogging services. But if you want to
104 have that kind of network, do it with this key.
106 The remote service MUST do OAuth for every new listener, regardless of
107 whether they've already received authorization for posting to the
108 given postNotice URL. See `Posting a Notice`_ below.
113 The remote service uses the defined requestToken URL to get a request
116 In the request token HTTP request, the remote service MUST send the
117 following additional parameter(s):
120 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'
122 The identifier URI for the listener.
124 In the results for the request token request, the local service MUST
125 send the following additional parameters:
128 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'
133 In requesting user authorization, the remote service must send the
134 following parameters:
137 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'.
139 The identifier URI for the listener.
141 The identifier URI for the listenee.
143 The profile URL of the listenee.
144 omb_listenee_nickname
145 The nickname of the listenee.
147 The default license URL for the listenee's stream. Typically the
148 URL of a Creative Commons license, with the Attribution license
149 being heavily encouraged. CC0 quitclaim also pretty good. The
150 local service MAY reject listenees if their licenses are
151 incompatible with the service.
153 The remote service should send as many of the following parameters as
154 possible. This will help the user decide if they really want to allow
155 the listening to happen, and allow the local service to store a copy
156 of the listenee's profile.
158 omb_listenee_fullname
159 The full name of the listenee. Up to 255 chars.
160 omb_listenee_homepage
161 The home page of the listenee (may be distinct from the profile
164 A brief biography of the listenee; less than 140 chars.
165 omb_listenee_location
166 Physical location of the listenee; less that 255 chars. No fixed
167 structure, but "Locality, Region, Country" or "Locality, Country"
168 or "Locality, Region" recommended.
170 URL of a 96px by 96px image in PNG, GIF or JPEG format representing
173 The local service, in a successful response, must return the
174 following additional parameters:
177 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'.
178 omb_listener_nickname
179 A nickname for the listener.
181 The profile URL for the listener, possibly cleaned up or
184 It should return as many of the following as possible:
186 omb_listener_fullname
187 The full name of the listener. Up to 255 chars.
188 omb_listener_homepage
189 The home page of the listener (may be distinct from the profile
192 A brief biography of the listener; less than 140 chars.
193 omb_listener_location
194 Physical location of the listener; less that 255 chars. No fixed
195 structure, but "Locality, Region, Country" or "Locality, Country"
196 or "Locality, Region" recommended.
198 URL of a 96px by 96px image in PNG, GIF or JPEG format representing
201 This will allow the remote service to display information about the
202 listener in the listenee's "listeners" or "subscribers" list.
207 The access token step of the OAuth protocol requires no additional
213 To post a notice to the local service, the remote service sends an HTTP
214 POST message to the postNotice URL discovered above. The message must
215 use OAuth authorization. The message must also include the following
219 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'.
221 The identifier URI for the listenee.
225 The content of the notice. No maximum, but 140 chars is recommended.
227 The message may include the following parameters:
230 The URL of the notice, if the notice is retrievable.
232 The URL of the license for the notice, if different from the
233 listenee's default license.
235 URL of additional content for the notice; for example, an image,
236 video, or audio file.
237 omb_seealso_disposition
238 One of 'link' or 'inline', to recommend how the extra data should
239 be shown. Default 'link'.
240 omb_seealso_mediatype
241 Internet Media Type of the see-also data. Advisory, probably
242 shouldn't be trusted.
244 License for the attached data. May be distinct from the notice's
245 license (if they're passing along someone else's content).
247 The local service should include the following parameters in its
251 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'.
253 The local service makes no guarantees about the delivery of the notice
256 The remote service SHOULD NOT send a message with the same notice URL
257 to the same postNotice URL more than once. [*]_ If the request returns
258 a 403 Unauthorized message, the remote service SHOULD NOT post
259 messages to the same URL again with the same listenee, until another
260 listener has gone through the OAuth dance. [*]_
262 .. [*] A half-assed optimization. A local service may have a lot of
263 listeners listening to the same listenee. It would be pointless to
264 have the remote service post the same notice 100 times to the same
265 service. However, if the local service wants fine-grained control,
266 it can have a different postNotice URL for each listener.
267 .. [*] If there's one postNotice URL per listener, the 403 message
268 means the listener has told the local service not to allow posting
269 any more ("unsubscribed"). If there's one postNotice URL per local
270 service, it means that the count of listeners has dropped to 0.
275 If the listenee's profile information changes, the remote service MAY
276 send an HTTP POST message to to the updateProfile URL to tell the
277 local service about the change.
279 The message must use OAuth authorization. The message must also
280 include the following parameters:
283 'http://openmicroblogging.org/protocol/0.1'.
285 The identifier URI for the listenee.
287 The message may include any of the following parameters:
290 The profile URL of the listenee.
291 omb_listenee_nickname
292 The nickname of the listenee.
294 The default license URL for the listenee's stream. A change in the
295 default license only applies to future notices; notices previous
296 to the update SHOULD be treated as under the old license.
297 omb_listenee_fullname
298 The full name of the listenee. Up to 255 chars.
299 omb_listenee_homepage
300 The home page of the listenee.
302 A brief biography of the listenee; less than 140 chars.
303 omb_listenee_location
304 Physical location of the listenee; less that 255 chars.
306 URL of a 96px by 96px image in PNG, GIF or JPEG format representing
309 Missing parameters should not be construed to mean that the profile
310 field has been blanked. The remote service MUST set the parameter to
311 an empty string to show that the field is blank.
316 * OAuth: http://oauth.net/
317 * OAuth Discovery: http://oauth.net/discovery/1.0
318 * XRDS Simple: http://xrds-simple.net/core/1.0/