Is there a way that people can log in to NodeBB with fediverse (Mastodon, etc) accounts?

Jon Pincus

I'm considering starting up a NodeBB site, and one of the discussion topics is going to be the fediverse. Is there a way to let people log in with their existing fediverse accounts? If so, are there restrictions on what they'll be able to do?

oplik0

Not built-in and there sadly isn't a universal sign in standard in the fediverse.

Instead Mastodon API allows for dynamic OAuth implementation where the app (here NodeBB) can register itself on the user's server and then allow the user to sign in via that server. This should cover most of fediverse in practice (since even software that isn't Mastodon tries to implement its API nowadays).
So in practice it'd be possible to implement this via a plugin mostly similar to existing OAuth plugins.

As for restrictions, you can probably just make such plugin add some "fediverse" role and just configure persmissions using this.

Jon Pincus

Thanks much @oplik0 ! I'll have a look at one of the existing plugins and see about adapting it.

Jon Pincus

I'm starting to think about this again, and wondering if anybody else has made progress on it?

julian

@Jon-Pincus Not yet, if only because there has been some movement regarding how to have users log in via another service.

I think the trend is shifting toward OAuth, but am not sure if consensus has been reached as to how that information is represented via AP.

infinite love ⴳ

@julian with AP C2S it would be as """simple""" as logging in with your AP actor then when you make a post it gets POSTed to your outbox by nodeBB as an AP Client.

unfortunately we do not have widespread support for C2S publishing of activities, so the next best thing is local accounts represented by local actors but logged into with remote credentials (via oidc/fedcm most likely)