Why can't we have a unified API across the fediverse to use in mobile apps?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨adonis@kbin.social⁩ to ⁨fediverse@lemmy.world⁩

https://kbin.social/m/fediverse@lemmy.world/t/258105

Is there a reason why all the services, that use the ActivityPub protocol don't have a unified API?

None of the mastodon apps allow me to log in with a lemmy/kbin account.

Also none of the lemmy apps allow me to log in with a kbin account.

Even though kbin has both mastodon (microblogging) and lemmy (threads, communities) functionality.

Also, Pixelfed recently introduced "login with Madtodon", but all it really does is just create a new user on it's instance and copy over the mastodon followers and profile info?

Why can't we just have one account to rule them all?

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Comments

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CombatWombatEsq@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
We’re working on it! Here’s the spec-in-progress: www.w3.org/TR/did-core/

These things take time. We’ll get there.

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- Wats0ns@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Barely understood it, but thanks for your work!
  
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Steve@compuverse.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
A unified API and a single login, are two separate things.

A single federated authentication could be a good idea. But the various federated services are different enough that they should have different APIs.

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- Tatters@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Yes, they are completely different things.
  
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Crul@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I’m not an expert, those who know more, please correct me.

Regarding the log-in with one account into another instance, I think that’s not how it’s intended to work. But I’m oot sure I understand what you’re asking.

Regarding the unified client API, 2 days ago Manton Reece (Creator of Micro.blog) wrote a response to Dave Winer’s open voicemail in where he says:

There is a lot of work to do, even outside of ActivityPub. As Dave mentions, we also need a common posting API. The most popular Mastodon client apps do not support either ActivityPub or Micropub. But a lot of progress can be made focusing on interoperability for the server-to-server part of the API. That should be the top priority with Threads set to join the fediverse.

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- adonis@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  logging in with one account into another instance
  
  I'd imagine a OAuth/JWT-like workflow, where pixelfed.social can ask a kbin-API whether my user exists on kbin.social.
  
  If it does, I should be able to post images on the pixelfed app that show my username as @adonis.
  
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  - Crul@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    If it does, I should be able to post images on the pixelfed app that show my username as @adonis.
    
    It cannot work as stated because there could be another @adonis accounts in other instances and the only way to prevent that would be to centralize all the signups which goes against the whole idea of decentralization. That’s why the user must be @adonis1@kbin.whatever as it is shown now.
    
    Regarding the OAuth/JWT, again… not an expert, but what I understand is that that kind of integration is much stronger than the current system. AFAIK, it could work as you say, but that would make things much more complex for the servers; you usually provide OAuth authentication for a few services, I don’t know how well that scales. But, who knows, maybe in the future it’s implemented in one way or another.
    
    We should take into account that this technology is fairly new and people are still building on it.
    
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  - cwagner@lemmy.cwagner.me ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    [deleted]
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DoomBot5@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Here is the reason: xkcd.com/927/

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- joel_feila@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Fine ill go make my own standard but with black jackc and hookers
  
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- Callie@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  There is a comic for everything
  
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ShittyKopper@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
ActivityPub has a C2S (client to server) API in addition to the S2S (server to server) API, it’s just that nobody cared about it to implement it.

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skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
[deleted]
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- rglullis@communick.news ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  With extensive work, these tools can all be made to work together under a single username. Every tool needs to be made aware of every other tool, and a lot of the actual federation code needs to be externalised to an all-encompassing server. This can be done without breaking any spec and without becoming incompatible with the rest of the Fediverse, but it’ll require a LOT of work.
  
  You basically summarized my original plan for communick. The basic idea is:
  
  Take the existing services, provide commercial hosting
  
  Use the revenue to fund development of protocol-level integrations, contribute back to open source
  
  Make it easy for companies to migrate away from Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/WhatsApp and own back their internet presence again
  
  ???
  
  Destroy Big Tech.
  
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shrugal@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Because they are still different apps with different needs, architectures and formats. They just synchronize most of their content between each other.

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pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
b

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