Date: 2008-08-01 23:25:00
phpbb and openid
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

I was chatting with [info]nugget and a couple of other people regarding phpBB and its associated support for OpenID. I googled for "phpbb openid" and the first hit pointed to phpbbopenid.com. Sure enough, this domain is itself an instance of a phpBB that has discussion forums regarding OpenID support. I think it's the home page for an addon package for phpBB that offers OpenID, but the details of that are buried somewhere in one of the forums. You'd think they would add a big "Download" button on the front page or something.

The big irony here is that the "Login" button on this board, while sporting a vaguely OpenID-like image, goes to a page that prompts for only a username and password, without an OpenID login option at all!
[info]paradox0220
2008-08-01T14:02:03Z
I often find that projects (and even company web pages) don't adequately describe what it is. They just dive into details that requires a lot of time to sift through to get the answer. And in the case of your specific example, I may have written it off as an email/password collection site for spammers.
[info]paradox0220
2008-08-01T14:51:34Z
... and darn, someone beat me to OpenID on iPhone it appears:

http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/07/09/openid-on-the-iphone/
[info]ghewgill
2008-08-01T21:57:34Z
Beat you to it? The great thing about OpenID is it only requires a browser. It doesn't require you to download or install anything on your browser platform of choice. That article seems to relate to issues about user experience and making it more transparent, but the fundamentals are solid and just work.
[info]ext_195265 : phpBB OpenID MOD
2009-07-10T14:04:35Z
There is a new phpBB OpenID MOD available for download @ http://zenorsoft.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=841

This has instant registration if your OpenID Provider supplies Simple Registration information. If not then you do have to choose a username and enter a valid email (no email confirmation though) only because phPBB requires this.

The MOD also allows you to have multiple OpenID URLs attached to your account which is helpful. So check it out and give a review on it. http://www.ZenorSoft.com


P.S. The website you mention has an outdated MOD for phpBB which has a security flaw that the admin has not dealt with. On the phpBB official site it has been marked as abandoned.
Greg Hewgill <greg@hewgill.com>