Socknet Client Protocol

From The Socknet

TODO

A new entity type will be created for "clients". A client will register by accessing a provider and identifying itself by name and self-generated token.

On first access, the client will register itself with the provider and receive a redirect URL for the user to verify that he wants to grant access to the client.

Afterwards, the client will be able to perform functions on behalf of a user to any level agreed upon between the user and the provider.

Several functions will be added to the Socknet specification to support this feature.

Socknet providers will not be required to support this feature. However, it could become so popular that users won't use a provider that doesn't offer it. Therefore, the protocol must avoid anything that reduces a provider's power to customize his service.

With consideration to the three features that the Socknet provides -- friend lists, service lists and messaging -- only friend lists and messaging are especially relevant to clients. So clients should be capable of listing/altering friendships and sending/receiving messages. The messaging system is trivial, making use of existing functions.

The friending system is highly customizable, so it may be difficult to integrate with clients. We may find that clients should only deal with simple data and send the user to his profile to deal with the details.