21 Apr
2016
21 Apr
'16
9:50 a.m.
Hi Thomas,
2016-04-20 23:11 GMT+08:00 Thomas Mortagne [via XWiki] <
ml-node+s475771n7599102h90(a)n2.nabble.com>gt;:
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Thomas Mortagne
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Thomas Mortagne
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Actually after thinking more about it session id does
not seems such a
good idea in practice: sessions are quite short lived scope and users
might end up authenticating again and again. Also when synchronizer
wake up there is a good chance the session is dead and we are not
going to constantly ask credential to the user out of the blue for
what is supposed to be an invisible background task.
Yeah, As we have discussed, there are three ways for the user app to
authenticate and communicate with XWiki-server:
1.session id
It may be the best and simple choice because user app just gets sessionid
from the authenticator and doesn't need to know username and passwd.
However as you have said, sessions are quite short lived scope and maybe it
is dead while the user app is using. That's really a big problem. Maybe
there are some methods to avoid this failure. For example, the
authenticator can send the sessionid with expiration time. When it's
expired, ask for the sessionid again. Or, the authenticator also can send
broadcast to all user apps when the session is expired. User apps ask to
get a new sessionid while receiving the broadcast.
2. Basic Auth
if the user app use the BASIC auth header(Base64) to authenticate with
XWiki-server, there's no security at all because Base64 is easy to decode
and all user apps can decrypt and get username and passwd easily. So I
think only in this case that we trust all the user apps, for example these
apps are signed and released by us, the authenticator can return Base64 to
user apps.
3. A preconfigured httpclient/httpurlconnection
To be honest, I don't know how to achieve this method and how to provide a
preconfigured httpclient instance. That means returning the serialized
httpclient by the authenticator service? And maybe services with "aidl"
can just return all primitive types(
http://developer.android.com/guide/components/aidl.html#Create), like int,
char and list<int>, so we cann't provide a preconfigured httpclient object
to the other apps. Or maybe we can provide all the restful apis as a
library in our authenticator, in this way, httpclient is invisible to user
apps. But it may cause a lot of work. Really confused! :)
On Tue, Apr 19, 2016 at 12:57 PM, Thomas Mortagne
<[hidden email]
<http:///user/SendEmail.jtp?type=node&node=7599102&i=0>>
wrote:
Just saw the other mail (I'm a bit late with my mails...).
Never mind, Thank you anyway all the same. :)
Recently I have learned and understood solr query, restful apis and
xmlpullparser. Now the android-authenticator can basically communicate with
the XWiki-server to get all the contacts. I have commit my code to the
feature-rest branch of the android-authenticator repository. As soon as
possible I will implement the ideas above and test the effectiveness. There
may be some other difficult issues in the future.
Best Regards,
Fitz Lee
On Tue, Apr 19, 2016 at 12:56 PM, Thomas
Mortagne
<[hidden email]
<http:///user/SendEmail.jtp?type=node&node=7599102&i=1>>
wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 6:25 AM, fitz
<[hidden email]
<http:///user/SendEmail.jtp?type=node&node=7599102&i=2>> wrote:
>> Hello Thomas,
>>
>> Thank you very much and I really appreciate your help and guidance.
And
>> thank you for helping me improve.
>>
>> I will firstly use the existing REST APIs to develop this project, And
>> maybe in the future I can make some specific APIs to improve
performance
if
>> time permits.
>>
>> Yes, the search APIs can help me get need-update contacts after the
>> last-sync-time and solve the one by one comparing problem. And I will
be
>> familiar with the use of search APIs as
soon as possible so that I can
use
>> it in the synchronization code. Thank
you for solving my confusion.
>>
>> And for authentication and security, considering your precious advice,
I
>> will try to use the first idea, and just
return the session so that
other
>> xwiki android apps can use the httpclient
with this session id to
>> authenticate with the server. And I will firstly implement this
method
and
>> test the effectiveness of this scheme as
soon as possible.
>
> All that sounds good.
>
>>
>> For the xwiki-contrib, I will ask to join the group, develop this
android
project and maybe make a contribution.
Looks like you are already member of XWiki Contrib actually. >
>>
>> Yours sincerely
>> Fitz Lee
>>
>>
>> 2016-04-14 17:33 GMT+08:00 Thomas Mortagne [via XWiki] <
>> [hidden email]
<http:///user/SendEmail.jtp?type=node&node=7599102&i=3>>:
>>
>>> On Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 7:22 AM, Fitz Lee <[hidden email]
>>> <http:///user/SendEmail.jtp?type=node&node=7598982&i=0>>
wrote:
>>>
>>> > Hi Thomas,
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Thank you so much for your reply and recognition.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > 2016-04-12 17:18 GMT+08:00 Thomas Mortagne <[hidden email]
>>> <http:///user/SendEmail.jtp?type=node&node=7598982&i=1>>:
>>> >
>>> >> Hi Fitz,
>>> >>
>>> >> Great to see so much motivation from you :)
>>> >>
>>> >> Just don't forget that GSOC coding period is not started yet and
that
>>> >> we still have no idea how
many slots Google will give us and who
we
>>> >> will select this year (this
will be 22nd April).
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> > Yeah, I know the coding period of GSoC, and now I'm just striving
and
>>> > looking forward to get this
project. If I really do not pass the
GSoC
>>> > application, it doesn't
matter and I have learned a lot. As I have
said,
>>> I
>>> > will be very happy if there is anything I can help.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >> Yes contact synchronization in
>>> >> https://github.com/xwiki-contrib/android-authenticator is not the
>>> >> beginning or an experiment I never had time to finish so it's
more
>>> >> pseudo code that never worked yet.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Considering the XWikiRESTfulAPIs in
>>> > http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Features/XWikiRESTfulAPI,
the
>>> apis
>>> > have been well designed so that maybe I can't modify those apis. I
>>> should
>>> > just make use of the existing api resources to design the
>>> synchronization
>>> > of contacts and the process of sign-in and sign-up.
>>> >
>>> > Since there isn't the api like "/sync" in
sampleSyncAdapter
>>> > google-engine-server, which can help us to get update contacts when
>>> sending
>>> > the phone's dirty contacts and the last time of synchronization to
>>> server,
>>> > we cann't use the synchronization mechanism in SampleSyncAdapter. I
>>> think
>>> > maybe we can use the following method to synchronize contacts.
>>> >
>>> > * server to client (update local contacts from server when needed):
>>> > In the function, SynAdapter.onPerformSync(), the process is
>>> > "XWikiConnector.getAllUsers>> compare with the local contacts
and
find
>>> the
>>> > contacts which should be updated >>
ContactManager.updateContacts".
>>> > Available apis:
>>> > GetAllUserList: curl
>>> >
http://localhost:8080/xwiki/rest/wikis/query?q=object:XWiki.XWikiUsers
>>> > GetUserInfo: curl
>>> >
>>>
http://localhost:8080/xwiki/rest/wikis/xwiki/spaces/XWiki/pages/FitzLee/obj…
>>> >
>>> > * client to server (edit, add, delete contacts and meanwhile
synchronize
>>> > from client to server):
>>> > When editing, adding or deleting contacts in android activities, we
>>> should
>>> > first request the xwiki server. Update contacts if allowed, or
discard
>>> the
>>> > modification if not be authorized or have no permission.
>>> > Available apis:
>>> > EditUser: curl -u FitzLee:fitz2xwiki -X PUT -H "Content-type:
>>> > application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -H "Accept:
application/xml" -d
>>> > "className=XWiki.XWikiUsers" -d
"property#company=iie"
>>> >
>>>
http://localhost:8080/xwiki/rest/wikis/xwiki/spaces/XWiki/pages/FitzLee/obj…
>>> >
>>>
>>> Yes the goal for now is to have an application working on any
existing
>>> wiki (lets say not older than 7.4.x
since that's the current LTS but
>>> the lowest the better).
>>>
>>> You can if you have time implement new REST APIs (it's always usefull
>>> anyway) that would improve performances for example but the
>>> application should not assume that these new API would exist in the
>>> target instance that could be too old for it. So in the GSOC
timeframe
>>> it would be safer to just do with
what already exist which indeed
>>> might give more work to the application than a specific API designed
>>> specifically for synchronization but it should be doable.
>>>
>>> > I see two main possibility for this:
>>> >> * the first thing you should do I think is download the
jetty/hsqld
>>> >> all in one distribution on
>>> >> http://www.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/Download and use that as
test
>>> >> server (you have admin right
in it and can create as many test
users
>>> >> or groups as you want)
>>> >> * as soon as you want to test volume and compatibility with
existing
>>> >> instance of XWiki you can
register on http://www.xwiki.org which
>>> >> contains 1519 users right now
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> > I have downloaded the enterprise xwiki jetty server 8.0 and tried
to
>>> create
>>> > some applications and understand the features of the server. Using
the
>>> > administrator Admin:admin, I
have create some users and groups. And
I
>>> use
>>> > the python script curl to learn how to get user-list, group-list
and how
>>> to
>>> > modify them with the restfull apis. In addition, I find a demo
which is
>>> > useful for me to be familiar
with the apis, like
>>> > xwiki-contrib/android-client(
>>> https://github.com/xwiki-contrib/android-client).
>>> > And I will write my own android restful interactive method, mainly
used
>>> for
>>> > the authentication and the management of users and groups.
>>> >
>>> > But for testing the volume and compatibility of the synchronization
in
>>> > SynAdapter.onPerformSync(), how
do we compare the contact
differences
>>> > between server and client and
find the update contacts which need
to be
>>> > updated? It's a big problem
if there are 1519 users and maybe I
should
>>> > compare one by one to find which
contact should be updated because
>>> > there'are no relevant apis to get the need-to-update contacts from
>>> server
>>> > after the last time of synchronization.
>>>
>>> You don't have a sync API but you have a search API in which you can
>>> request all the documents containing a user object and that were
>>> modified after some date for example. You can use either sql or solr.
>>>
>>> >
>>> >> (1) sign in
>>> >> > it is easy,just like my analysis of android SampleSyncAdapter,
>>> including
>>> >> the
>>> >> > server connection with XWikiconnector and the account added by
>>> >> > AccountManager
>>> >>
>>> >> Don't reduce too quickly the level of difficulty on this side,
one
>>> >> thing you will have to work around is that standard XWiki instance
>>> >> have no token based authentication so you will have to hack an as
safe
>>> >> as possible BASIC auth based
implementation of Android
authenticator
>>> >> (which mean users of the
authenticator can't just ask for the
token
>>> >> and connect to XWiki
server).
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Thank you for your reminder. From the restfull apis, I have seen
the
>>> two
>>> > methods of authentication, including HTTP BASIC Auth and XWiki
session
>>> > auth. But Question is how users
of the authenticator to connect to
>>> XWiki
>>> > server without username and password as I can't modify the
>>> authentication
>>> > method in the server and can only use the BASIC Auth? use BASE64
to
>>> > encrypt the password? or ask for
the session and communicate with
>>> server?
>>> > and BASE64 can just enhance the security in some extent. and maybe
we
>>> can
>>> > use the https to ensure the authenticator security. I am so
confused.
>>> Could
>>> > you give me some tips about authentication and security?
>>>
>>> I did not had time to experiment on this but here as some ideas of
>>> things to try:
>>>
>>> 1) return whatever identify the session (I had forgotten about
session
>>> access, thanks for the reminder :)).
Then the application put that
>>> session id in whatever http client tool it want to use. That's
>>> probably the safest and what look the most like a the classical token
>>> based access.
>>>
>>> 2) provide a preconfigured instance of Android HTTP Client in which:
>>> 2.a) a sessions have already been started with the server and the
HTTP
>>> Client keep it alive (that's the
safest I can think of right now)
>>> 2.b) the BASIC auth header cannot be read from outside (for example
>>> extends it in a custom class and forbid any public access to the
>>> Authorization header) that can be used to request the XWiki server
>>>
>>> 3) the worst case scenario is to return the BASIC auth header (it
>>> looks like "Authorization: Basic QWxhZGRpbjpPcGVuU2VzYW1l").
It's
>>> encoded but it's easy to decode. The application would just set it in
>>> whatever http tool it's using. An application can use an
authenticator
>>> only if the user allows it and the
alternative is that each
>>> application deal with login/password on its side so it's still better
>>> than nothing :)
>>>
>>> Whatever solution is chosen the best would be to provide some small
>>> helper library that deal with XWiki authenticator and for example
>>> generate a pre-configured http client instance for the application
>>> with what the authenticator return. That way it's easier to change
the
>>> way the authenticator works without
breaking application (at least
>>> application that use the recommended library).
>>>
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >> > (3) synchronization of contacts
>>> >> > (4) edit the contact
>>> >> > (5) access by other apps
>>> >> > Question: Are there more other requirements in this app, like
adding
>>> >> > friends(general person)
and creating new xwiki
>>> account(administrator)?
>>> >> > maybe it will cause more demands and be more complex.
>>> >> >
>>> >>
>>> >> There is no real "friends" system in standard XWiki and
anyway the
>>> >> main use case for this application being intranets you usually
want to
>>> >> simply synchronize all users
of the wiki since those are your
>>> >> coworkers. An improvement would be to allow the user to select a
list
>>> >> of XWiki groups to
synchronize if you don't want the whole wiki in
a
>>> >> big company or public wiki
like xwiki.org for example.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > So there are two choices:
>>> > 1. Synchronize all contacts who are my coworkers
>>> > 2. Synchronize the contacts in the XWiki group which
authenticator-user
>>> > wants to select.
>>>
>>> And possibly other idea you may have while knowing XWiki better :)
>>>
>>> But on my side 1 and 2 would already be great.
>>>
>>> >
>>> >> 4. support version and ui
>>> >> > (1) ui design
>>> >> > * material design >=4.4 with the support library support-v7
>>> >> > (2) support version
>>> >> > * The ui design can support the lowest 2.3 version and the
android
>>> >> > sampleSynAdapter can
also support 2.3 version. So I think our
>>> >> authenticator
>>> >> > app can support the lowest 2.3 version if needed.
>>> >> > Question: Maybe there are somethings I have not noticed, so
this
>>> >> conclusion
>>> >> > is wrong, please give me some advice? Is that OK?
>>> >>
>>> >> Supporting the lowest possible version is always nicer for users
but
>>> >> according to
http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
>>> >> no need to go beyond 4.1.
>>> >>
>>> >> 4.4 seems to still be a bit too recent and might left behind too
many
>>> >> users.
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> > Yes, so 4.1 may be the best choice. For the design of UI, the
support
>>> > library support-v7 can solve the
problem. And I will use the
perfect
>>> > material design style if the
android sdk version >= 4.4.
>>> >
>>> >>
>>> >> > 5. account permission
>>> >> > In AccountGeneral.java there are two permissions , like
>>> >> > AUTHTOKEN_TYPE_READ_ONLY, AUTHTOKEN_TYPE_FULL_ACCESS. Could
you
tell
>>> me
>>> >> > what the permissions main? other xwiki instance access limits
?
>>> >> Account
>>> >> > manager? And where should I use them?
>>> >>
>>> >> You have many right on XWiki (and any extension can add more) plus
it
>>> >> depend what part of the wiki
you are accessing.
>>> >>
>>> >> But since you don't have any concept of token associated to an
>>> >> application in standard XWiki the application will have whatever
right
>>> >> the user have so I guess you
can return AUTHTOKEN_TYPE_FULL_ACCESS
all
>>> >> the time in the Android
authenticator (then the application will
have
>>> >> to deal with 403 errors).
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > OK, I will return AUTHTOKEN_TYPE_FULL_ACCESS and deal with the
>>> unauthorized
>>> > or other response error.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >>
>>> >> --
>>> >> Thomas Mortagne
>>> >> _______________________________________________
>>> >> devs mailing list
>>> >> [hidden email] <
http:///user/SendEmail.jtp?type=node&node=7598982&i=2>
>>> >>
http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> > At last, should I use the xwiki JIRA to create a custom issue and
give
>>> you
>>> > a pull requst when I have some new idea or make progress?
>>>
>>> Anyone who is a member of the XWiki Contrib organization (basically
>>> anyone who ask to be) have write access on
>>> https://github.com/xwiki-contrib/android-authenticator so no need
for
>>> pull request. It's not like it
was in a very stable state right now
>>> anyway :)
>>>
>>> >
>>> > Best Regards,
>>> > Fitz Lee | UCAS Master
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > devs mailing list
>>> > [hidden email] <
http:///user/SendEmail.jtp?type=node&node=7598982&i=3>
>>> >
http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Thomas Mortagne
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