Chapter 1. Introduction
Often developers who use Yahoo! Web services and APIs provide applications that allow their users to access their own Yahoo! user data. This requires you as the developer (the third party) to have your own OAuth Consumer Key and Secret, while ensuring each of your users (the fourth party) also have their own distinct OAuth credentials.
The Create Consumer Key (CCK) API allows developers to easily provide Yahoo!-issued Consumer Keys, Consumer Secrets, and Application IDs (collectively referred to as Yahoo! Information) to their users.
An example of a company that benefits from the CCK API is Janrain, which provides OpenID-based registration and login solutions.
Prior to the Create Consumer Key API, JanRain asked their users of Janrain Engage to separately go to the Yahoo! Developer Network in order to sign up for Yahoo! Information. This extra step was disruptive to the sign-in flow and required users to manually copy and paste credentials. With the CCK API, their new flow uses a simplified pop-up window that guides users through the process of getting Yahoo! Information and never leaves the Janrain site.
Benefits
The CCK API offers the following benefits to developers whose users need their own Yahoo! Information:
- Streamlines the process of using your application: Your users do not separately request an OAuth Consumer Key from the Yahoo! Developer Network (YDN).
- One call: Simply create one form providing the necessary information for a Consumer Key, such as access scopes and redirect URLs.
- One-click authorization: Your users do not need to know about access scopes and you have the option to automatically send Yahoo! Information back to your application with no copy-and-pasting necessary for your users.