Terminology

Terms you may need to be familiar with when using greenID Web

Verification Tokens

When a verification session is initiated, a unique verification token is fetched from greenID, and is used to identify that session.

When the verification session is complete or abandoned, the verification token is appended to the form as a hidden HTML input field.  The token is also passed to javascript callbacks, if they are implemented.

In order to call the SOAP or RESTful Web Service to securely query the outcome of the verification process, the web service password is required; note this is not the same as the verification token.

A verification token is a SHA-1 hash, and so will always be 40 alphanumeric characters long, with no special characters.  For example:

4a1f2fb3f26a5bf16263901b3238b98e734a2c7f

Verification IDs

When an individual is registered with greenID, the verification attempt is assigned a unique identifier, referred to below as the verificationId.  This verificationId is required whenever a call is made to any of the greenID web services.  greenID Web will track the verificationId for the verification session, and it is passed to the customer’s page via a callback (see Callbacks).  The verificationId should be stored.

Sessions and Timeouts

As mentioned above, unique tokens are used to identify verification sessions, and these tokens expire 30 minutes after the last activity seen from the session.  Put another way, if a person with a current verification session has a period of inactivity greater than 30 minutes, then the next action they take will fail with a timeout error.

If a timeout is encountered, then the verification process may be re-started, as per the returning person scenario.