this is a touchy subject with Flattr but I couldn't find a definite answer yet [1]
Is it allowed to use Flattr for a paywall-like flow? My idea is to give users access to a download for a Flattr. They have access to the stream before, so they know what they'll get.
Form the flow i think it would look like this:
User comes to deep link of stream on platform -> clicks connect to flattr -> returns to platform and clicks on [flattr for download] -> thing is flattred in the background and download starts
To finance my platform I'd like users to Flattr my platform in the download flow as well (but give them the opportunity to opt-out).
So, am I allowed to do this? Technically this seems possible with the Flattr API.
[1] https://flattr.com/terms
Checking whether a user is logged into Flattr?
Flattr Terms of Use does not prohibit this.
Related
I have a problem that I need to solve for my client. The situation is that they have a lot of users on one platform (platform_1). In order to use the platform a user must be signed in, therefore these users (credentials) are given out to clients for them to use the platform. The problem is that one user (one set of credentials) may be given out to a few clients, therefore we cannot know which of the clients did what (in this case - bought something) on the platform.
Figured I would just create a new system where the client can be created and a set of credentials would be attached to that account, then I would just display an iframe of that platform (platform_1) with the attached credentials on the newly build platform and then I would be able to track what the user is doing in the platform.
But turns out iframe cannot handle credentials and also it would not be safe to use this method..
Also thought about scraping the whole platfrom (platform_1), which would work, but then I believe it would be extremely hard to do live auctions, for example scrape the live auction and display it on my system and let the user click on some buttons and the script would do the same on the platform_1, but the delays and overall usage could make it very hard.
I would like to kindly ask you to share your thoughts on ways this problem could be solved or whether it aint possible.
Im using GWT, GAE to make a web app.
I looked at a bunch of tutorials regarding implementing a login system but most of those tutorials implement it so it's mandatory to login to access the web app. How would I go about making it so that anyone can access the app but if they want to use account specific functionality, they they have the option of signing up for an account.
There are two parts to it.
First, in your client code you check if a user is logged in. If so, you allow access to the "closed" parts of the app. If not, you show a link/button to login and hide tabs/views that are accessible to authorized users.
Second, in your server code you specify which requests do not require authentication and which do require it. This is necessary if a user somehow figures out how to send a request without using your client code.
For example, in my code some requests have checkSession() called at the very beginning. If no authentication object is found for this user in session, this method throws LoginException to the client. If the authentication object is present, the request continues to execute normally and returns requested data to the client.
Further to Andrei's answer, if you want a framework to manage the sessions for you, you can use GWT-Platform, which has an excellent Gatekeeper feature.
I use it for mine and I have a LoggedInGatekeeper class. Simply add #UseGatekeeper(LoggedInGatekeeper.class) to the constructor of each presenter proxy and it checks if the user is logged in. If you want anyone to be able to access that page simply annotate with #NoGatekeeper. Easy!
It takes a bit of setting up but it's a great MVP framework. There are maven archetypes and samples etc.
Hope this helps.
I have a Spotify app and want to persist basic settings per user between sessions. I see the User object has a username field, so it would be easy to do this using my own backend. My question is, is this allowed, without requiring the user to log in, agree to some TOS, etc? Every app I see that persists any data requires me to log in with Facebook.
Usernames are typically obfuscated out in the Spotify API, so they're not the best thing to use. However, the anonymous ID for the user is the same for a given user/app ID combo across multiple machines, so you could use that instead. This sort of thing is what we designed the anonymous ID for, so you're good to go on the ToS front.
I can't find anything that restricts you from load/storing data from your own servers and I've seen 'you'd have to use your own server' suggested in a number of questions.
Not sure why other apps would involve FB - probably to get more info from the user or promote their product.
You should use the User's URI instead of their username though. I would expect it be more stable than the username and less likely to be little Bobby Tables.
I'm in the process of using the facebook javascript sdk to provide user login functionality for a website.
What I'd like to do is simply take the logged in user's unique facebook id and then put/fetch data to/from a mysql database using the id to determine what data is available to said user.
However I don't really feel like this is very secure. Whilst I'm not storing anything sensitive like credit-card details etc, I'd obviously prefer it to be as secure as practically possible.
My fear is that with javascript being what is it, someone could fake the facebook id and just pull whatever they wanted.
I'm aware that the php sdk would provide a solid solution to this problem, but i like the javascript one mainly because it's easy to use and I have the basis of it set up (I admit it, I'm lazy).
So, my questions are:
Would this set up be as insecure as I feel it might be?
Is there anything I can do to improve the security of such a system, other than switching to the php sdk?
Thanks!
Facebook Ids are pretty hard to make up (at most a user will only know their own). Depending on what you store in the database (which will not be anything that the user cannot get on their own, unless you ask for extended permissions)
If you are worried about a user trying to get information from the database, add an access token or signed request to each row and us that and facebook id to get data. That will greatly increase security.
EDIT
There are few occasions where you get a signed request from a user:
* A signed_request is passed to Apps on Facebook.com when they are loaded into the Facebook environment
* A signed_request is passed to any app that has registered an Deauthorized Callback in the Developer App whenever a given user removes the app using the App Dashboard
* A signed_request is passed to apps that use the Registration Plugin whenever a user successfully registers with their app
Signed requests will contain a user id only if the use has accepted permissions though, and are not passed again if the user enters the application, and accepts permissions (meaning that the signed request would not contain the ID). Because of this saving an access token may be a better idea. Here is more on the signed request
Also the signed request is in the url (param = "signed_request"). I always parse it through c# but I am sure you can at least get one through javascript
It's pretty easy to spoof the origin using curl. I'd imagine Facebook has another mecanism in place to make this possible. If you inspect their code, it appears that they generate an iframe and pass requests through. If I had to guess, they have setup the requests to only be made from the Facebook domain, and ensure that the iframe can only be embedded in a page that has a white listed domain.
I'm sure there must be a simple answer for this but I can't figure it out -
I have a Silverlight 4 OOB application that requires a login screen/security. The View shows a LoginView (Username/pw) which then passes the details to a WCF service and checks it against a database. It will return a result to the client to say if their details were valid or not. This part works fine.
Where I need some guidance is the best way of storing the fact that the user is logged on/authenticated for the current Silverlight session.
It's OOB so we can't use any web cookies/session stuff as far as I know. I assume we have to store some sort of Identity in the thread but I need some pointers please.
The other caveat is that I would like to secure all other pages to check if the user is authenticated and redirect to the login screen if not. I use the Navigation framework so I have a Frame - this may make it easier...
Any tips or pointers appreciated - I just need some ideas to get started please.
Just store the fact that the user is authenticated anywhere you like - I tend to like the Application object since it's an app-wide setting, but you can stick your "IsAuthenticaed" and/or "Roles" properties anywhere, really.
Take a look at WCF RIA Services - even if you don't want to use their solution, you can take a look at the generated authentication code it makes and see a good real-world example of how this can all work.
As for redirecting if the user is not logged in, I suggest using an INavigationContentLoader on your Frame, which can implement this logic in a central location. See these two excellent posts by David Poll on the subject of INavigationContentLoader and authentication/authorization:
http://www.davidpoll.com/2010/01/01/opening-up-silverlight-4-navigation-authenticationauthorization-in-an-inavigationcontentloader/
http://www.davidpoll.com/2010/05/10/common-navigation-ui-and-authorization-driven-sitemaps/