SeatBelt: Switch OpenID Providers Easily

September 9, 2007 in OpenID by Carsten Pötter | View Comments

Eventually I have managed to check VeriSign’s SeatBelt a little bit more. SeatBelt is a add-on for Firefox which supports users managing different OpenID providers directly from within their browser and makes logging in to OpenID enabled websites rather foolproof. Additionally it helps detecting phishing sites and is displaying a warning message to users.

How Does it Work?

After installing the add-on and restarting the browser users can add links to their OpenID providers; currently SeatBelt is supported by VeriSign’s own PIP, myOpenID, myXlogon, and AOL. It is also possible to add a delegation URL and the corresponding provider.
Update (Sept 10): It is a little bit difficult to find the correct URL for the AOL Identity Provider, so here it is: https://api.screenname.aol.com/auth
It might have been posted somewhere else, though I have discovered it in the comments of this blog post on the AOL developers site.

If you are not logged in to your provider already – it’s possible to enable a login at he default provider at the start of the browser – SeatBelt indicates that you are logged off by displaying an icon in the bookmark bar of the browser (don’t be fooled by the German messages, by default they are English). logged_off
So when you are on an OpenID enabled website and click into the OpenID sign in field SeatBelt tells you that you are on website supporting OpenID authentication and asks if you would like to sign in to your provider.

discovery

It then redirects you to your provider’s login page which is also indicated by changing the colour of the icon: login

sign_in

Then you are back to the OpenID enabled website, the sign in field is auto-filled and you can log in. Pretty easy. logged_in

auto_fill

Problems

Occasionally the icon disappears from my browser, especially when starting the browser again. I haven’t discovered any scheme to reproduce it. I have to go to the add-on dialogue of the browser to make it visible again.

Also it doesn’t detect all OpenID enabled websites, e.g. the sign in field on Ex.plode.us is not detected. Though I guess the problem might be Ex.plode.us’ OpenD implementation.

Though apart from those problems it works well. SeatBelt is especially useful for people who have at least accounts at two of the supported providers and actually use them on different sites. It makes switching providers very simple because users don’t have to browse to their provider’s login page first.

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  • All: Okay we finally nailed this one. There was a bit of a timing issue on load and the latest release should now fix this which by now all of you should have been upgraded to.

    Also shortly we'll be adding Slovenian and Spanish translations to the list of supported languages: German, French and Korean.

    Thanks for all the help.
  • Sean C
    Sent it from a different address, in case that was the problem.
    Sean.
  • Sean - no I never did. Could you try sending it again? Not sure if internal spam filters may have caught it.

    Thanks for your patience.
  • Sean C
    Did you get the email?
  • Sean: Can you please contact me directly? I want you to try SB in "debug mode"

    My email: gkrall AT verisign DOT com

    Oh and one more quick one - do you see any difference in behavior between status bar versus bookmark position for SB?

    Thanks.
  • Sean C
    Oh, and no themes.
  • Sean C
    Here are some facts:
    Firefox 2.0.0.6 on XP
    I have Seatbelt in the statusbar not the toolbar area.

    Addons (too many!):
    Adblock Plus
    Answers
    Better Flickr
    ColorfulTabs
    CustomizeGoogle
    del.icio.us Bookmarks
    Download Statusbar
    Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
    Gmail Space
    Google Notebook
    Greasemonkey
    IE Tab
    Last.fmCode
    LocationBar
    NoScript
    Nuke Anythng Enhanced
    OpenBook
    Sage
    StumbleUpon
    TalkBack
    Torbutton
    Seatbelt
  • Hi Sean:

    Just curious if you are using the standard FF theme or something else?

    We still cannot reproduce this...

    Thanks,

    Gary.
  • Sean C
    Hmmm. Really struggling to get my del.icio.us buttons back again now!
  • Sean C
    @Gary
    Thanks for the response. After thinking I'd sorted out the del.icio.us problem, it seems to recur when I close and restart firefox. I'll do a bit of experimentation and report back.
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