Appnet Laravel Package

Getting Started

Before you install anything, understand what you're getting: App.net (ADN) shut down in January 2017. This package is a Laravel Socialite OAuth 2.0 provider for a service that no longer has a running API. There is no account.app.net to authenticate against, so a "first use case" in the normal sense does not exist. Treat this package as a reference implementation of a Socialite provider rather than something you wire into a live app.

Minimal install (for study or fork):

composer require socialiteproviders/appnet

Where to look first:

1. The parent monorepo — SocialiteProviders/Providers. The README there documents the shared SocialiteProviders\Manager\ServiceProvider registration and the event listener pattern that this split relies on. The split itself has no separate docs.
2. The provider class in src/Provider.php. It's a small OAuth2 provider; read it to see how getAuthUrl, getTokenUrl, and getUserByToken are wired.
3. The composer.json to confirm which Socialite and PHP versions it targets. The 4.1.0 release bumps the package to declare PHP 8 support, so it now installs cleanly on a modern Laravel 9/10-era stack — but a PHP constraint bump is metadata, not a functional revival. The OAuth flow itself is unchanged since the original bulk tag.

If you actually need App.net-like federated identity today, stop here and pick a live provider (Mastodon, Bluesky via AT Protocol, GitHub, etc.). The value of this repo is pedagogical.

Implementation Patterns

The package follows the standard SocialiteProviders split pattern, and the only realistic workflow is copying that pattern to a live provider.

Registration (as it would look if the API existed):

// config/app.php — providers array
SocialiteProviders\Manager\ServiceProvider::class,

// app/Providers/EventServiceProvider.php
protected $listen = [
    \SocialiteProviders\Manager\SocialiteWasCalled::class => [
        \SocialiteProviders\AppNet\AppNetExtendSocialite::class,
    ],
],

// config/services.php
'appnet' => [
    'client_id'     => env('APPNET_CLIENT_ID'),
    'client_secret' => env('APPNET_CLIENT_SECRET'),
    'redirect'      => env('APPNET_REDIRECT_URI'),
],

// routes/web.php
Route::get('/auth/appnet/redirect', fn () => Socialite::driver('appnet')->redirect());
Route::get('/auth/appnet/callback', function () {
    $user = Socialite::driver('appnet')->user();
    // $user->getId(), ->getNickname(), ->getEmail(), ->getAvatar()
});

Reference patterns worth extracting:

• Stateless token calls — the provider's getUserByToken uses the bearer token returned by the token endpoint. Copy that shape when writing providers for APIs that expose /me-style endpoints.
• Scopes — App.net used custom scopes (e.g. stream, write_post, follow, messages). The provider's getScopes() default is a good template for mapping app permissions to Socialite scopes.
• Subtree split hygiene — do not send PRs here. All changes go to SocialiteProviders/Providers; the split is generated automatically. If you fork to adapt for a live API, fork the parent repo.

If you're using this as a scaffolding template for a new provider (say, a niche Mastodon instance or a self-hosted OAuth2 server), the workflow is:

1. Copy src/Provider.php and src/AppNetExtendSocialite.php, rename namespaces.
2. Update getAuthUrl / getTokenUrl to real endpoints.
3. Override mapUserToObject to match your API's user payload.
4. Register the event listener and config exactly as above.

Gotchas and Tips

• The service is gone. Any call to Socialite::driver('appnet')->redirect() will send users to a dead domain (account.app.net). Do not ship this in production; a redirect there is a broken UX at best, a phishing-looking dead-end at worst.
• 4.1.0 is a compatibility bump, not a revival. The only change is declared PHP 8 support. No endpoint, scope, or user-mapping logic was touched, so everything below about the OAuth flow and getEmail() still holds verbatim. Treat the version number as "someone ran the monorepo's bulk release tooling again," not "this provider is alive."
• The 2020-12-01 release was a bulk sync. The monorepo mass-tagged every provider to keep versions aligned. The gap between then and 4.1.0 is over two years, which is the honest signal about maintenance cadence — expect this to fall behind again.
• Read-only split. Issues and PRs opened here are ignored. Check the parent repo's issue tracker for any historical discussion — even there, expect crickets.
• Socialite version drift is the real risk now. The PHP 8 bump gets you past composer install, but it tells you nothing about laravel/socialite API compatibility. This provider still descends from the ~4.x/early-5.x era. Verify getUserByToken return shapes and AbstractProvider signatures against whatever Socialite is actually installed, and be prepared for the 6.x-era SocialiteWasCalled / extend pattern to differ subtly.
• getEmail() returns null by design. App.net never guaranteed an email scope; guard against null if you're copying the pattern for a provider that does the same.
• Config caching footgun. As with any SocialiteProviders package, forgetting php artisan config:clear after adding services.appnet is the #1 "driver not supported" red herring.
• Extension point that still matters: the SocialiteWasCalled listener pattern is the one durable lesson here. It's how every socialiteproviders/* package plugs in without touching Socialite core — worth mastering even though this particular instance is inert.
• Dependency audit note: with 0 stars and 0 dependents, there's no community pressure keeping this aligned with current Laravel. The PHP 8 bump buys you one upgrade cycle, not a maintenance guarantee. If you install it, run composer why socialiteproviders/appnet and be ready to drop it the moment the next PHP or Socialite major lands.