# Using OpenID as Single-Sign-On option for rails apps?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-openid-as-single-sign-on-option-for-rails-apps/92085>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 15, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-openid-as-single-sign-on-option-for-rails-apps/92085 "2007-04-15T23:12:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tino\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@Tino\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tino_B)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-openid-as-single-sign-on-option-for-rails-apps/92085/1 "2007-04-15T23:12:08Z")

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Hi,

I investigated the possibilities for creating a single-sign-on service  
for  
two custom rails applications and a beast forum. The two apps use the  
restful\_authentication plugin, slightly modified. I read about different  
SSO  
approaches and found OpenID pretty nice. So I’d like to know whether  
there  
are others who have used OpenID for their app suite.  
Basically I would like to setup the openid server, then adapt my apps to  
use  
this server for register, login, change password and so on.  
Is that the way to go or are their more appropriate SSO solutions for  
rails  
applications?

Thanks in advance,  
Tino

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**Author:** ![Tino\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@Tino\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tino_B)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 12:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-openid-as-single-sign-on-option-for-rails-apps/92085/2 "2007-04-16T00:56:20Z")

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On 4/15/07, Tino B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> applications?  
> This is what Highrise and Beast currently use:  
> [http://svn.rubyonrails.org/rails/plugins/open\_id\_authentication/README](http://svn.rubyonrails.org/rails/plugins/open_id_authentication/README)

Also, you don’t have to setup your own OpenID server, there are plenty  
of them out there.

–  
Rick O.  
[http://lighthouseapp.com](http://lighthouseapp.com)  
[http://weblog.techno-weenie.net](http://weblog.techno-weenie.net)  
[http://mephistoblog.com](http://mephistoblog.com)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tino\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@Tino\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tino_B)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 11:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-openid-as-single-sign-on-option-for-rails-apps/92085/3 "2007-04-16T11:59:09Z")

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Thank you Rick for pointing me to the openid plugin, I didn’t recognize  
that.  
I thought about using a public OpenID server, but it doesn’t fit into  
the  
solution I would like to have. So probably I’ll use a own OpenID server  
to  
be kind of independent and more flexible.

Tino

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tino\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@Tino\_B](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Tino_B)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-openid-as-single-sign-on-option-for-rails-apps/92085/4 "2007-04-16T17:07:59Z")

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I wrote some info on integrating that plugin with the  
acts\_as\_authenticated plugin here:

[http://www.bencurtis.com/archives/2007/03/rails-openid-and-acts-as-](http://www.bencurtis.com/archives/2007/03/rails-openid-and-acts-as-)  
authenticated/

–  
Building an e-commerce site with Rails?  
[http://agilewebdevelopment.com/rails-ecommerce](http://agilewebdevelopment.com/rails-ecommerce)

Meet up at RailsConf:  
[http://railsconf2007.conferencemeetup.com/](http://railsconf2007.conferencemeetup.com/)