Imagine the typical backend tasks for user authentication would exist right in the browser. How would the code look like? This is what I came up with. Forks & comments much appreciated! #nobackend #dreamcode

account_dreamcode.js

// sign up
account.signUp('joe@example.com', 'secret');

// sign in
account.signIn('joe@example.com', 'secret');

// sign in via oauth
account.signInWith('twitter');

// sign out
account.signOut();

// change password
account.changePassword('currentpassword', 'newpassword');

// change username
account.changeUsername('currentpassword', 'newusername');

// reset password
account.resetPassword('joe@example.com');

// destroy account and all its data
account.destroy('currentpassword');

// all methods could alternatively accept a parameter hash
// that would also allow for additional user info
account.signUp({
  username: 'joe2000',
  password: 'secret',
  birthday: '1984-05-09',
  email: 'joe@example.com'
});

// that would also allow for a general change method,
// that changeUsername or changePassword would simply
// be shortcuts for
account.change({
  birthday: '1984-05-09',
});
account.change({
  username: 'joe3000',
  password: 'secret'
});

something like u = User().email('a@b.c').password('').sudo() could give me a window.user and if pass is wrong, just send an email that allows to sign in once, or change password + autosignin in the other window. Omittting .password() would make the signin code attempt to use whatever browser or other APIs available and fallback to the email-as-login approach. If browser has multiple possibilities like Persona, Oauths, SQRL, then a stored cookie is used to record stats on how succesful the approaches have been, to avoid begging for Facebook Oauth from someone who never used it before, but show it immediately to one who exclusively prefers it.