OpenID Definitions

Most programmers have heard of OpenID, and have seen it implemented usefully at many internet sites, but unless you have to implement it yourself it’s largely a black box. For the project I’m working on, I decided that the notion of authentication and user storage is a solved problem, therefor I opted to defer that responsibility to more experienced entities. OpenID was the natural choice, so I set out to learn more about it. I’ll share the terms I’ve become familiar with here:

• Identifier – This is the central idea behind OpenID; The URL or XRI that identifies a user.
• Provider – The authenticating site who verifies that someone is who they say they are.
• Relying Party – A site that depends on a Provider to verify a persons authenticity.

There are other terms but those are the important ones.