Mastodon is a free, open-source social networking service that’s decentralized and distributed. It was created in 2016 as an alternative choice to centralized social media platforms similar to Twitter and Fb.
One of many key options of Mastodon is the usage of the WebFinger protocol, which permits customers to find and entry details about different customers on the Mastodon community. WebFinger is a straightforward HTTP-based protocol that permits a person to find details about different customers or assets on the web through the use of their electronic mail deal with or different figuring out info. The WebFinger protocol is vital for Mastodon as a result of it permits customers to search out and comply with one another on the community, no matter the place they’re hosted.
WebFinger makes use of a “well-known” path construction when calling an area. Chances are you’ll be acquainted with the robots.txt conference. All of us simply agree that robots.txt will sit on the prime path of everybody’s area.
The WebFinger protocol is a straightforward HTTP-based protocol that permits a person or search to find details about different customers or assets on the web through the use of their electronic mail deal with or different figuring out info. My is first title eventually title .com, so…my private WebFinger API endpoint is right here https://www.hanselman.com/.well-known/webfinger
The thought is that…
-
A person sends a WebFinger request to a server, utilizing the e-mail deal with or different figuring out info of the person or useful resource they’re making an attempt to find.
-
The server seems to be up the requested info in its database and returns a JSON object containing the details about the person or useful resource. This JSON object is named a “useful resource descriptor.”
-
The person’s consumer receives the useful resource descriptor and shows the data to the person.
The useful resource descriptor comprises numerous varieties of details about the person or useful resource, similar to their title, profile image, and hyperlinks to their social media accounts or different on-line assets. It will probably additionally embody different varieties of info, such because the person’s public key, which can be utilized to ascertain a safe reference to the person.
There’s an awesome explainer right here as properly. From that web page:
When somebody searches for you on Mastodon, your server will likely be queried for accounts utilizing an endpoint that appears like this:
Observe that Mastodon person names begin with @ so they’re @username@someserver.com. Identical to twiter could be @shanselman@twitter.com I could be @shanselman@hanselman.com now!
So maybe https://www.hanselman.com/.well-known/webfinger?useful resource=acct:FRED@HANSELMAN.COM
Mine returns
{
"topic":"acct:shanselman@hachyderm.io",
"aliases":
[
"https://hachyderm.io/@shanselman",
"https://hachyderm.io/users/shanselman"
],
"hyperlinks":
[
{
"rel":"http://webfinger.net/rel/profile-page",
"type":"text/html",
"href":"https://hachyderm.io/@shanselman"
},
{
"rel":"self",
"type":"application/activity+json",
"href":"https://hachyderm.io/users/shanselman"
},
{
"rel":"http://ostatus.org/schema/1.0/subscribe",
"template":"https://hachyderm.io/authorize_interaction?uri={uri}"
}
]
}
This file needs to be returned as a mime kind of utility/jrd+json
My website is an ASP.NET Razor Pages website, so I simply did this in Startup.cs to map that well-known URL to a web page/route that returns the JSON wanted.
providers.AddRazorPages().AddRazorPagesOptions(choices =>
{
choices.Conventions.AddPageRoute("/robotstxt", "/Robots.Txt"); //i did this earlier than, not wanted
choices.Conventions.AddPageRoute("/webfinger", "/.well-known/webfinger");
choices.Conventions.AddPageRoute("/webfinger", "/.well-known/webfinger/{val?}");
});
then I made a webfinger.cshtml like this. Observe I’ve to double escape the @@ websites as a result of it is Razor.
@web page
@{
Structure = null;
this.Response.ContentType = "utility/jrd+json";
}
{
"topic":"acct:shanselman@hachyderm.io",
"aliases":
[
"https://hachyderm.io/@@shanselman",
"https://hachyderm.io/users/shanselman"
],
"hyperlinks":
[
{
"rel":"http://webfinger.net/rel/profile-page",
"type":"text/html",
"href":"https://hachyderm.io/@@shanselman"
},
{
"rel":"self",
"type":"application/activity+json",
"href":"https://hachyderm.io/users/shanselman"
},
{
"rel":"http://ostatus.org/schema/1.0/subscribe",
"template":"https://hachyderm.io/authorize_interaction?uri={uri}"
}
]
}
It is a static response, but when I used to be internet hosting pages for a couple of particular person I would need to take within the url with the person’s title, after which map it to their aliases and return these accurately.
Even simpler, you may simply use the JSON file of your individual Mastodon server’s webfinger response and SAVE IT as a static json file and replica it to your individual server!
So long as your server returns the suitable JSON from that well-known URL then it will work.
So that is my template https://hachyderm.io/.well-known/webfinger?useful resource=acct:shanselman@hachyderm.io from the place I am hosted now.
If you wish to get began with Mastodon, begin right here. https://github.com/joyeusenoelle/GuideToMastodon/ it looks like Twitter circa 2007 besides it is not owned by anybody and is predicated on net requirements like ActivityPub.
Hope this helps!
About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, marketing consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft worker. He’s a failed stand-up comedian, a cornrower, and a e book writer.
