GineverAccount
 |
This article is incomplete. Please help to expand it if you can. |
GineverAccount is a unified single sign-on networking service provided and administered by the Ginever Alliance. It is currently in its fourth revision.
Contents |
GineverAccount v1.0
In December 2008, a system was needed to allow members of The Ginever Block.com to access a beta version of Invision Power Board 3.0, without having to make users register for a new account. In order to make this possible, the Invision Power Converge system was installed, allowing members to use their Ginever Block account with both IPB 2.3 and IPB 3.0. The official name for this system was the Unified Account Management System (UAMS). This first version of the system was rather rudimentary, allowing only authentication in the form of an e-mail address and password. In order to log in to a UAMS-enabled website, it was necessary to actually visit the UAMS, which would in turn redirect the user to a logged-in version of either IPB 2.3 or IPB 3.0 beta.
Due to the site being closely interlocked with IP.Converge, and users having registered using their e-mail address (rather than by log-in name as required by the default IPB accounts system), it became inconvenient to remove IP.Converge once the installation of IPB 3.0 was finalised. As a result, a new authentication module was added to the site, which allowed members to sign in using their UAMS account without having to actually visit the UAMS website.
A notable issue with the Converge-driven account system was that users still had to input a log-in name during registration, which was never used. Their e-mail address was also unchangeable, which ended up being particularly inconvenient for users who infrequently changed their e-mail address. Additionally, due to an unfixed bug with Converge, deleting an account from within RJD AdminPanels did not actually delete the account from IP.Converge, which resulted in unwanted accounts having to be deleted twice (first from the AdminPanels and then from Converge).
GineverAccount v2.0
The second revision, known as the Ginever.net Account, was introduced in Autumn 2009 as a result of the formation of the Ginever Alliance. This second revision of the accounts system was much more advanced than before, and allowed members to sign in to various different systems including MediaWiki, WordPress, and the GAPIDS.
Technologically, it consisted of a mish-mash of different authentication systems which were tied directly into the TGBv3 and IP.Converge account tables, first allowing authentication by use of IP.Converge, and then forwarding this authenticated session to The Ginever Block.com where more detailed account information could be retrieved.
While this worked fairly well, it was a particularly slow and inefficient way of handling accounts. It was also STILL powered primarily by IP.Converge, and as a result, suffered from the same weaknesses as the original design, where e-mail addresses could not be changed, an unused log-in name was still required during registration, and unwanted accounts could not easily be deleted.
GineverAccount v3.0
GineverAccount 3.0 was introduced in April 2011 as a stepping-stone between the Ginever.net Account and the accounts system for The Ginever Block v4.0. Compatibility-wise, it allows access to the same systems and services as v2.0, and the upgrade was barely noticed by members.
The primary change is that IP.Converge is no longer used to authenticate users, with the Alliance sites and services authenticating users directly from The Ginever Block.com instead. This is a considerably faster way to authenticate users, and fixes the issues that were caused by the badly-designed IP.Converge software.
GineverAccount v4.0
GineverAccount 4.0 was introduced in August 2011, at the same time as Ginever.net v4.0. It is a direct evolution of GineverAccount 3.0, authenticating users directly with Ginever.net. The distinction between avatars and profile photos was removed, and a new country identification feature and 'real name display' were introduced.
The new accounts system is designed to allow easier integration with external applications, offering users the ability to view the applications connected to their account and revoke access to them if they wish. It also has an improved achievement system, which will be integrated with GANG, allowing applications to award achievements to users.
