Still annoying I have to type in my email address even though I'm already logged in to Gmail. With OpenID I just click a Google icon, some auth clicks, and I'm done. With this I have to type in my email and do some auth clicks.
Persona makes signing in easy for Gmail users
21–30 of 122 posts
Re: Persona makes signing in easy for Gmail users
#22I like idea of Persona, but the idea of requiring emails prevents me from ever implementing it. There are plenty of places where I need an identity system, but don't want to force users to fork over their email address.
You almost always want their email address so that you can email them a password reset link in case they forget their password, which is even more important on smaller obscure sites where that's bound to happen.
If users don't want to provide an email (and then can't reset their password), that should be their prerogative.
Re: Persona makes signing in easy for Gmail users
#23The only bad thing with this new Gmail integration is that it gets more annoying if you have multiple Gmail accounts, or aren't logged in to the Gmail account you want to use. And some things, like using myname+website@gmail.com doesn't work at all.
myname+website@gmail.com should absolutely work -- please file a bug if not: https://github.com/mozilla/browserid-sideshow/issues/new
Re: Persona makes signing in easy for Gmail users
#24It doesn't work with google apps, unfortunately. Which is completely logical when I think about it since persona would not use the mx record to find the identity provider.
Actually, why not? Looking for that "aspmx.l.google.com" entry in the MX record would let them know, with a high degree of certainty, that Google is the login authority for that particular email address. Is there something I'm missing?
There's the /.well-known/browserid [1] file that can be used to delegate a domain to another identity provider.
The main thing is that while Persona talks about email verification, the protocol doesn't require that email handling exists. Just that a server vouches for the existence of a user@host, so using MX records wouldn't be 'correct' even if it would be a useful heuristic for google apps domains.
There has been talk of using SRV records, but it looks like the .well-known/browserid file will be the recommended way to do things.
[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Persona/.we...
Re: Persona makes signing in easy for Gmail users
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
You almost always want their email address so that you can email them a password reset link in case they forget their password, which is even more important on smaller obscure sites where that's bound to happen.
If users don't want to provide an email (and then can't reset their password), that should be their prerogative.
As a user who doesn't want to provide my personal email to random services, I have a throwaway email on a different provider with a gibberish username. Given that signing up for 99% of services already requires an email account (or a Facebook/Twitter login, which themselves require a verified email address), Persona is no less onerous.
Re: Persona makes signing in easy for Gmail users
#26It doesn't work with google apps, unfortunately. Which is completely logical when I think about it since persona would not use the mx record to find the identity provider.
Actually, why not? Looking for that "aspmx.l.google.com" entry in the MX record would let them know, with a high degree of certainty, that Google is the login authority for that particular email address. Is there something I'm missing?
Persona harps on 'your email address is your id' part, but it's just a way to get an identifier @ a domain (so your login id doesn't actually have to be a real email address). At this point, persona (or the service implementing persona, more precisely) will ask the domain to authenticate the identifier.
Using the mx record would be bad, because, if you are doing it yourself, then your email server would have to also have a persona authenticating server, it would be hard to use your own persona authenticating server and have a third party take care of email, etc.
Re: Persona makes signing in easy for Gmail users
#27Still annoying I have to type in my email address even though I'm already logged in to Gmail. With OpenID I just click a Google icon, some auth clicks, and I'm done. With this I have to type in my email and do some auth clicks.
Isn't this more of an issue with the current browser you're using? As in, once fully implemented in the browser you won't be prompted to enter it at all. Also, my understanding was that your session information isn't passed along (privacy feature), so it would have no clue you're logged in elsewhere.
Re: Persona makes signing in easy for Gmail users
#28I like idea of Persona, but the idea of requiring emails prevents me from ever implementing it. There are plenty of places where I need an identity system, but don't want to force users to fork over their email address.
From their docs: "The protocol does not require that [identity provider]-backed identities are SMTP-routable, but it does require that identities follow the user@domain format."
The protocol still requires an identity provider to attest to your identity, but the actual identitifier doesn't appear to have to be a real email address. It seems like you could use anything in email address format.
Re: Persona makes signing in easy for Gmail users
#29Still annoying I have to type in my email address even though I'm already logged in to Gmail. With OpenID I just click a Google icon, some auth clicks, and I'm done. With this I have to type in my email and do some auth clicks.
You can choose different identifies to log in with. It doesn't know that you want to use Google to authenticate until you choose an identity. You could have used, say, a Yahoo identity, in which case asking Google to vouch for you wouldn't make any sense.
Re: Persona makes signing in easy for Gmail users
#30I like idea of Persona, but the idea of requiring emails prevents me from ever implementing it. There are plenty of places where I need an identity system, but don't want to force users to fork over their email address.
You almost always want their email address so that you can email them a password reset link in case they forget their password, which is even more important on smaller obscure sites where that's bound to happen.
Yes but with Personna you don't need to send them a password reset link because they have no password in your system :)