Sunday 10 May 2015

Misconception about OAuth and the ignorance of history

I feel the usage of the OAuth is often misunderstood. It is interpreted as a mechanism which can be used to secure the access of data behind some web API. This is often incorrectly extended to an understanding of OAuth as an authentication protocol.

OAuth is in an authorization protocol. It is was designed for allowing a user to authorize third party applications to access her resource without having to share her credentials with the third party application. Plenty of documentation and posts already exists online which stress on the same aspect. 

I wasn't born knowing this. I just happened to give the "History" section of the documentation equal importance, as I did to the structure and protocol workflow. The history of a software/programming language/standard or any solution, is as important as the solution itself. It helps one understand the actual problem it solved by coming into existence. This understanding helps a great way in assessing the usage or application of a solution for a specific problem. 

In my opinion, there is no better way to avoid committing less mistakes when solving a problem than understanding the previous attempts to solve it.

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