You may be wondering why we removed OpenID support in Beanstalk. While we love OpenID, it just did not fit with Beanstalk’s system. Since Subversion requires a user/pass (no OAuth love for svn yet), it makes OpenID less valuable.
In addition to this, our OpenID support was never really complete. We lacked the proper verification and over time, it became a little difficult to maintain. This month we discussed internally whether we should finally improve OpenID implementation in Beanstalk. As we discussed the effort, we decided that it may be better to just remove it. This creates less maintenance for us and does not remove too much value for our customers since a user/pass is still required for SVN.
We’re hoping we can revisit this in the future as we improve integration options, especially if SVN gets OAuth support.
12 Comments
That’s too bad. I really liked being able to use openid, even if I had to keep track of my password for the occasional svn task I didn’t already have my password saved for.
Duane Day — May 27, 2009, 12:06 pm
I have to say, while I’m a supporter of the OpenID effort, I am increasingly hard-pressed to see the value. Early on, it was one of those things that our clients asked to be integrating into their websites, but when I asked why, they never had much of an answer — and we certainly didn’t see much adoption among the user base. I do think OpenID (or Facebook Connect) have value on blogs, where you might want to leave a comment but not necessarily “sign up” for that particular website. For a web app, though, the value just isn’t there.
We faced this at Bloom Apps. I was excited by the idea of integrating OpenID or Connect right into our web app, but it became clear really fast that — especially for the 1.0 release — it’s just not a make-or-break feature.
I hope our customers don’t disagree when we launch. :)
Chris — May 27, 2009, 2:19 pm
While I hate logging in with OpenID on web sites on the iPhone – it’s more effort – I use it everywhere I can for a myriad of web-based apps that I run my business on. Basecamp/Backpack/Highrise, Harvest, Sifter…
I have to say, I didn’t see a problem being able to use OpenID on the Beanstalk site and u/p for SVN connections. I log into the site as an admin frequently enough that OpenID made it easy, and Versions stores my u/p for me.
Mark — May 27, 2009, 4:47 pm
I have to say I haven’t had much experience with OpenID on my iPhone. I do wish, like the Mac, the iPhone had some Keychain support, though.
That’s another interesting question though. How many people use OpenID? Do you build and support a feature in an app that caters to a minority of people? I have to say, sometimes the answer is absolutely yes. But even we are struggling right now. We let a little bit of line shine in on our app to a few select customers or colleagues, and we get this list of things they “must have.”
Now these “must haves” are completely different from potential customer to potential customer. And when we look at our target demographic generally, none of these must haves are very important to them. So why are they popping up in this smaller set, and is it important for 1.0 that they be included?
I absolutely insisted on using Mail.app for my Google Apps e-mail. I felt a rich client experience was vastly superior to a web app like gmail. My “must have” was a real user interface. But last week I forced myself to take Mail out of the dock, load gmail in Firefox, use a full-screen plugin to make that email window cover my second display, and I find I’m much happier for it. It’s a much better workflow for me, and much faster, since I’m not actually downloading email into a local database (well, except for Gears support).
So my “must have” wasn’t very important after all. And if I said to Google, hey, make me a rich client desktop mail program, they would have smartly said, “No!” :-)
Anyway, thanks for following us over at Bloom Apps. We’re working hard and committing good code to beanstalk every day!
Chris — June 3, 2009, 8:52 am
Hi Chris,
Sorry you weren’t completely satisfied with OpenID on the first go around. Have you taken a look at our RPX offering (http://rpxnow.com)? It allows website visitors to sign in to sites using an existing account from major identity providers like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, AOL, MySpace, Windows Live ID, AOL and Twitter.
RPX essentially aggregates the separate APIs for each of these providers into one, easy to deploy API. Most tell us that RPX can be up and running on a site in a few hours or less, and since it’s a hosted cloud service, we handle all the maintenance and updates on our end.
We offer both free and prremium versions of RPX, and you can scope the user experience at http://uservoice.com/session/new.
One more thing, Chris – I also noticed that you are a board member for Cities2Night. We recently received an inquiry from them and I’ve had the pleasure of conversing a bit about potential RPX implementation there. New England Nightlife, which operates a similar series of websites, has deployed RPX on http://www.providencenightlife.net. I encourage you to take a look.
Thanks for your time, and please feel free to follow up with me if you have questions.
Michael Olson — June 3, 2009, 3:13 pm
I disagree that it makes open id less valuable
Granted we still need the user/pass for svn interactions but openid was brilliant for logging into the web interface. Logging into open id lets me stay logged into all web apps i use which support it.
BBX — June 6, 2009, 2:50 am
In the future you may want to remove any reference such as “You may also use your open ID if you have one.” from help.beanstalk.app Knowledge Base prior to moving forward on feature changes.
Paul — June 8, 2009, 12:24 pm
Thanks for the feedback everyone.
Paul: We found and updated the article.
Chris Nagele — June 9, 2009, 5:39 pm
This is very disappointing. I am usually logged into openID already so it makes login much easier. Yes, a user/pass was still required for svn access but I kept that cached so never had to enter it again. I see this as a step backwards.
Braxton Beyer — June 10, 2009, 12:24 pm
Please bring back OpenID! Extra maintenance or not, it provided REAL value for your customers and we want it back.
Irakli — June 13, 2009, 4:35 am
Just wanted to drop in and say that I agree with your decision. I like being able to just use the same user/pass that I access Subversion with.
Chris Jones — June 16, 2009, 1:13 pm
I definitely was an avid OpenID user and I’m sad to see it go. I suppose it’s not a huge loss for me personally as I’m currently working on learning git and migrating over to github anyway (no offense to Beanstalk – I LOVE your app, git just seems the right version control system for me currently).
stevenhaddox — June 22, 2009, 11:20 am
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