NAME¶

Web::ID - implementation of WebID (a.k.a. FOAF+SSL)

SYNOPSIS¶

 my $webid = Web::ID->new(certificate => $pem_encoded_x509);
 if ($webid->valid)
 {
   say "Authenticated as: ", $webid->uri;
 }

DESCRIPTION¶

WebID is a simple authentication protocol based on TLS (Transaction Layer Security, better known as Secure Socket Layer, SSL) and the Semantic Web. This module provides a Perl implementation for authenticating clients using WebID. For more information see the Web::ID::FAQ document. Bundled with this module are Plack::Middleware::Auth::WebID, a plugin for Plack to perform WebID authentication on HTTPS connections; and Web::ID::Certificate::Generator, a module that allows you to generate WebID-enabled certificates that can be installed into web browsers.

Constructor¶

"new"

Standard Moose-style constructor. (This class uses Any::Moose.)

Attributes¶

"certificate"

A Web::ID::Certificate object representing and x509 certificate, though a PEM-encoded string will be coerced.

 

This is usually the only attribute you want to pass to the constructor. Allow the others to be built automatically.

"first_valid_san"

Probably fairly uninteresting. This is the first subjectAltName value found in the certificate that could be successfully authenticated using Web::ID. An Web::ID::SAN object.

"uri"

The URI associated with the first valid SAN. A URI object.

 

This is a URI you can use to identify the person, organisation or robotic poodle holding the certificate.

"profile"

Data about the certificate holder. An RDF::Trine::Model object. Their FOAF file (probably).

"valid"

Boolean.

Methods¶

"node"

Returns the same as "uri", but as an RDF::Trine::Node object.

"get(@predicates)"

Queries the "profile" for triples of the form:

 

  $self->node $predicate $x .
    

 

And returns literal and URI values for $x, as strings.

 

$predicate should be an RDF::Trine::Node, or a string. If a string, it will be expanded using RDF::Trine::NamespaceMap, so you can do stuff like:

 

  my $name   = $webid->get('foaf:name', 'rdfs:label');
  my @mboxes = $webid->get('foaf:mbox');
    

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS¶

Any::Moose¶

This module uses Any::Moose which means that if it detects that you're using the rather heavyweight Moose toolkit, then this module will use it too. But if you're not using it, then this module will use the lighter-weight Mouse toolkit. Similarly, this module will use either MouseX::Types or MooseX::Types. As the decision to use Moose or Mouse is made at runtime, this makes expressing Web::ID's dependencies rather challenging. Web::ID requires either:

•

Any::Moose,

•

Mouse, and

•

MouseX::Types

or:

•

Any::Moose,

•

Moose, and

•

MooseX::Types

The installation script for Web-ID checks the first set of dependencies, but if you only ever plan on using Moose, and never Mouse, then you don't need them - you need the second set. Yes, it's possible to have the installation script figure out a list of dependencies dynamically when you install Web-ID, but that's not especially helpful, as Any::Moose makes its decision about what module to use at run time, not at install time. The long and the short of it is: if you use Web::ID as part of a Moose application, then make sure you have MooseX::Types installed.

Other¶

Please report any other bugs to http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Web-ID <http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Web-ID>.

SEE ALSO¶

Web::ID::FAQ. Web::ID::Certificate, Plack::Middleware::Auth::WebID. RDF::ACL provides an access control system that complements WebID. CGI::Auth::FOAF_SSL is the spiritual ancestor of this module though they share very little code, and have quite different APIs. General WebID information: <http://webid.info/>, <http://www.w3.org/wiki/WebID>, <http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/webid/spec/>, http://lists.foaf-project.org/mailman/listinfo/foaf-protocols <http://lists.foaf-project.org/mailman/listinfo/foaf-protocols>. Mailing list for general Perl RDF/SemWeb discussion and support: <http://www.perlrdf.org/>.

AUTHOR¶

Toby Inkster <tobyink@cpan.org>.

THANKS¶

Thanks to Kjetil Kjernsmo (cpan:KJETILK) for persuading me to port my old CGI-specific implementaton of this to Plack. Thanks Kjetil Kjernsmo (again), Florian Ragwitz (cpan:FLORA), and Jonas Smedegaard for help with testing and advice on dependencies. Thanks to Henry Story, Melvin Carvalho, Simon Reinhardt, Bruno Harbulot, Ian Jacobi and many others for developing WebID from a poorly thought out idea to a clever, yet simple and practical authentication protocol. Thanks to Gregory Williams (cpan:GWILLIAMS), Tatsuhiko Miyagawa (cpan:MIYAGAWA) and the Moose Cabal for providing really good platforms (RDF::Trine, Plack and Moose respectively) to build this on.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE¶

This software is copyright (c) 2012 by Toby Inkster. This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES¶

THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.