I recently decided to start getting back into computer things and have decided I want to learn how apis and things work and also am moderately interested in websites and hosting things (mostly for fun). Which is what lead me to this question.
Can I attempt to make a WordPress Plugin using the vivo API. I seen there is an old one that hasnt been updated, and I’m not sure if it’s salvageable or not.
I would be learning everything from scratch and will probably need help so question two would be would anybody here be willing to help whenever I get stuck and once I finish help make sure it is secure and actually well made (or at least good enough)?
The old one is not working or salvageable because it relies on the deactivated legacy platform. New API is much more versatile and capable. I would definitely support you in trying to make it WordPress plugin for it in any way that I could.
Some of our design goals for the existing plugin included;
use VivoKey as an alternative to password based login so it could be added or removed from an account at will by the user.
allow user (or via admin global override) to select if an account has one (or more) VivoKey chips associated with it, that the account can use it OR a password, use it WITH a password (2fa style), or ONLY use it (password disabled).
use the sub claim from the jwt to link to the account properly even though most systems want to link by email address which is not part of the auth api
I am definitely willing to try. I don’t have a lot of experience with this kinda stuff, but this seems like a feasible goal to learn everything with. Everything i would have to use seems well documented.
i have hit my first question. I do not know how to setup a testing environment for wordpress/php. i have a basic skeleton put together, and i got the skeleton to load on my live wp site, but i tried adding something and it broke the admin page. currently using eclipse because im familiar with it and it has a php plugin.
I’m not familiar with building Wordpress, but have you tried using any LLMs such as ChatGPT, Mistral, or Claude? They are super useful for troubleshooting and piecing together code.
probably the easiest way is to go with a Digital Ocean one-click deploy droplet. These are great because you can set up a VPS and deploy everything automatically to your own server which you control completely, unlike a hosting service where you might have to ask permission to deploy test code and tweak wordpress during development. The overall cost is like $6/mo for one of these droplets.
That’s essentially what I came up with too while thinking about it. But I’m going with a locally hosted VM. Found out that WordPress has built in debugging too. But I’m making progress.
Im not at that stage of needing help yet, still doing the basics which are easy enough. I was looking for a way of testing it, and it seems the best way is hosting a private WordPress session.
After a brief hiatus i am back to working on the plugin. Got distracted by work, a cold, and D&D . Actually have a vm server now and next step is going to be figuring out debugging. Once I have that down, I believe the rest of this will be smooth sailing .
I am finally beginning to understand what I’m looking at. I didn’t realize how maddening it would be to figure this out, but html seems super easy and php is just easier java.
I figured out a very crude method of debugging (and it should be all ill need for a bit) and now that i have that i think ill be able to have a basic prototype by the end of May.
My first main goal will be getting wordpress and vivokey api communicating and once i have that done i will likely release what i’ve been working on so that y’all can provide criticism/input/suggestions.
The goal after that is going to be basic user functionality.
also I might start using this page to write all significant progress down as a basic notes for myself, but I’m not sure if that would cause any issues with you guys. (basically just update the forum whenever I get anything accomplished on top of coming here for any questions i might need help with)
I’m interested to see how you solve the hurdle of communicating with the chip. The API is there yes, but browser support for communicating at a lower level with NFC transponders is pretty sparse. I think Chrome supported web-nfc at one time?
Really this is why we are working on VivoKey Cloud… it will have an app that handles scan requests and interact with the backend platform to do chip validation, then translate that to web-based authentication standards like saml / SSO.
I’m brainstorming … I think we will make a dead simple VivoKey Verify mobile app for phones that will accept custom protocol URL requests directly from websites and perform a mutual auth with supported chips, then pass the JWT back to the website via a javascript client library.
We will work on developing this and get it out for you to use soon™.
In my brainstorming, I’ve come up with making a second WordPress plugin that just adds Google chromes NFC abilities in. It would make it android only until chromium updates. But it would mean that the vivokey plugin would have a prerequisite. Though the NFC plugin would just be generally useful too.
That would be cool. The chrome limited part of my plan is a major flaw, but it’s good enough to get the concept working. And if you guys finish your project first then I should be able to just use that app.
Though I’ve also thought of attempting to make a WordPress NFC enabling app. But that is insane and something that would take me a long time to accomplish (especially on the iOS portion)
. Actually have a vm server now and next step is going to be figuring out debugging. Once I have that down, I believe the rest of this will be smooth sailing 
.