Authorising #oAuth in Widar

Tools like AutoList and Reasonator get a boost from their ability to apply changes to Wikidata. Reasonator shows labels in the languages you know and missing labels in your language can be added. AutoList enables you to add multiple statements to items that it shows in a list.

This is powerful stuff. It helps when you understand how it works. Widar is the tool that does handle the authorisation for oAuth. It remembers the authorisation by using cookies. These cookies are associated with your browser. When you use multiple browsers, you have to authorise multiple times.

As Reasonator is used everywhere, people will authorise often. As the cookies persist, it is important to end the authorisation for Widar. The functionality to do so has been added recently.
Thanks,
     GerardM

#Reasonator: add #labels in *YOUR* language

Sangargali is a place in the Belgaum district of #Karnataka, #India. Several languages are spoken in Karnataka. When you look at the information for Sangargali you would expect the information to be available in Kannada, the official language.

The latest and greatest functionality of Reasonator, allows you to do what you would like to do the most; add the missing labels in *YOUR* language. It is easy when you have set your personal settings.

When you add a label, just consider what it does; everywhere where this property is used the new label will show. Just by using Reasonator and adding missing labels you will make a difference really quickly. In my opinion there is little you can do that is as effective in making information available in *YOUR* language.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Reasonator ... reasoning and automating

When you look at "random items" in the "Reasonator", you will get the odd category, templates etc. Typically they have a colon in their name. When such an item has no statements, Reasonator will give you the opportunity to identify them as categories, templates etc.

It makes use of the oAuth technology; you have to authorise Widar to make statements on your behalf. For as long as you are logged on to a WMF wiki you can identify such items with just one click.
Thanks,
       GerardM

The need for both #OpenID and #OAuth

Many words have been used on the merits of OpenID and OAuth. There are many misconceptions and many of those have everything to do with perspective. In order to get a better understanding I asked on the Wikitech mailinglist a use case for OAuth. The answer I received helps.

OpenID is an identity management system. It allows users to authenticate to one site using another site as their identity. A use case for this is, for example, using your Facebook account to log in to Wikipedia. This may be useful, as it would allow users to more easily register for Wikipedia

OAuth is a third-party authentication and authorization system that allows outside applications to do stuff on behalf of a user. The reason for this is because currently toolserver applications, etc. authenticate to Wikipedia using a plaintext username and password, which is extremely insecure for a number of reasons I will not elaborate on here.

When you read the answer, there are some observations to make. The most obvious is how do you assure that the software that is to use OAuth will be secure. Given the power of many Toolserver tools how do you make sure that only trusted people make use of the Toolserver functionality.

Enter OpenID, it does provide identity management. OpenID is able to provide more information than just "this is indeed the indicated identity" as part of the "OpenID Attribute Exchange". When the Wikimedia Foundation implements OpenID as a service, it will be possible to identify the users that have a "bot flag" on the user profile. 

As it is, the Toolserver tools are not necessarily secure. With OAuth it will become even less secure to run the software because it will be the software itself that includes the authorisation to run, never mind its configuration, never mind how it is used or by whom. When OpenID authenticates users, it becomes possible to ensure that only people with a bot flag can run Toolserver software on the production Wikimedia projects.

To make the use of the Toolserver tools secure, it is necessary to complement OAuth with OpenID. Oauth in isolation will make the Toolserver tools easier to use but it does not make them more secure to run.
Thanks,
      GerardM