solid-contrib / solid-signup

Signup and login app

solid-signup

WebID signup application for Solid servers.

App configuration

In order to use the signup app, you must first configure it to point to a server on which the accounts will be created. You can specify the server by edititing the configuration area in app.js. For example, the following constants can be set there:

var DOMAIN = 'https://databox.me';
var ACCOUNT_ENDPOINT = ',system/newAccount';
var CERT_ENDPOINT = ',system/newCert';

The value of DOMAIN sets the base URL for the new accounts, where new accounts will be subdomains -- i.e. https://alice.databox.me.

The value of DOMAIN can also be overridden without editing the app.js file, by adding a URL query parameter called domain when loading the app. For example, to override the default domain of the signup app and point to https://example.org, a user can click on the following link:

https://solid.github.io/solid-signup/?domain=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.org

The ACCOUNT_ENDPOINT and CERT_ENDPOINT values will be appended to the final URI of the user's new account. If your server does not use ACCOUNT_ENDPOINT or CERT_ENDPOINT paths, please set them to an empty value.

App workflow

1. If the user wants to use alice to sign up, the app will check if the account https://alice.databox.me/ exists. It checks this by doing an HTTP GET on https://alice.databox.me/, using the value of DOMAIN to create the URL. If an HTTP 404 status is returned, the app will prompt the user to create that account.

2. If the user proceeds with the account creation, an HTTP POST request will be sent to the account URL, while also appending the ACCOUNT_ENDPOINT value. In this case, the resulting URL will be https://alice.databox.me/,system/newAccount. The POST request will look like a regular form submission -- i.e. it will have the Content-Type header set to application/x-www-form-urlencoded. The form will also send the following values:

   • email - used for recovery purposes
   • username [optional] - used to specifiy the account name (for servers that do not use sub-domains)

3. Once the account is created, the user is given the option to add her name to her profile and also to upload a profile picture.

4. Finally, the user will be able to obtain a client certificate, that will be bound to her WebID profile.

solid-signup's Issues

Notify on create account failure

When pressing create account, when the request fails, we should notify the user!

Use Gravatar to auto-populate profile image

As a user convenience, support fetching of profile picture from Gravatar.

1. Separate the 'optional recovery email' prompt and the optional profile image upload prompt (currently they're on the same screen)
2. If the user entered the optional recovery email, try and fetch their profile pic from Gravatar, pre-populate the Profile Pic with it. (Obviously, still offer the option to override/upload a new one).

Add installation instructions for LDNode

I haven't been able to install this on LDNode. I suspect I'm running into some combination of:

• not having the right .acl file in the solid-signup/ directory
• not being clear where the solid-signup/ app folder is supposed to be in relation to the --root parameter.

Unable to recover my account

Completing the sign up process doesn't seem to have any effect, I am not receiving an email on it's completion.

Add 'About' or 'What is WebID' link to signup screen

Here's the current UI that a user encounters when loading the Signup app (taken from http://databox.me):

- Add explanatory wording, to the effect of "This will set you up with a WebID identity and storage account." - Link the WebID to an explanation - Add an `About` link at the bottom, to a page explaining why one should sign up, what WebID is, and what the user should do (like which apps to try) once they create an account. - Add a github 'source code' link to the repo

Add directions to restart Firefox after signup

There's an issue with certificates not working on Firefox after first signing up. While we're investigating, we should display a message to users, something like:

"If you're using Firefox, please restart your browser after signup."

Make request personalizable

At the moment I can do this:

https://solid.github.io/solid-signup/?domain=' + host

and this will make a request to my domain, however I can't personalize what url the requests head to, since ,system/* are hard-coded, maybe can be passed as get param!

Specify that the Full name and Picture step is optional

During the second step of the Signup process, after it reserves the name, the app prompts you to enter a full name and profile picture.

1. Add language to point out that this step is optional
2. Specify that the circle with a photo is a file upload area
3. Mention that you can edit this info later with a Profile Editor

Add hyphens when typing spaces

More and less the same way github does,
when I type nicola greco, it lets me type it and it shows me that I will be given nicola-greco

Redirect user to their new account once signup is done.

Add a button to take the user to their new account (maybe listing the dir in warp?), once the signup process is complete and the certificate is installed.

Option to re-install certificate

You're all set!
A certificate should have been installed in your browser.

What if the certificate did not install? There should be a button or link saying "not installed? try again"