Own-Id 004

Just released a new version of Own-Id. Now gives more detail in error messages.

Incidentally, we now have 188 ids now on Own-Id. As ever, I'm always keen to hear about your experiences with Own-Id.

For testing Own-Id on my local machine, I use the MyId OpenId server which is great because it's so simple to set up, and it uses Digest Authentication which is a RESTful method that makes testing easy. For me, the one problem with MyID is that is uses a META tag to redirect the browser, but I find it easier for testing to have a HTTP 302 redirect, so I modified the source (just a simple change) to achieve this.

Own-Id outage

Own-Id was down from 2008-01-18 15:16 GMT to 2008-01-19 12:47 GMT. Sorry to everyone for this outage. The reason was that the Java VM ran out of memory. This means that Own-Id probably has a memory leak.

One of the problems was that it took a long time for me to find out that the server was down. I've now set up Montastic to send me an email if the server goes down again, they also provide a web feed of server status. This should mean that if there's another outage, I should know much sooner.

There remains the problem of finding the memory leak. I'll let you know how I get on!

Own-Id 003

I've made a new release of the Own-Id code. There's no single big change, just an accumulation of small things. At the suggestion of John Murray I've changed the 'about' page to a FAQ. Let me know what you think.

Own-Id fact: there are now 88 OpenIds on Own-Id.

Own-Id: A reader writes

Ariën asked of Own-Id:

Why do you make people redirect to your domain? isn't it easier to add the meta
tags?

I think the easiest method of delegating your OpenId depends on several factors:

1. Do you have an editable web page under your own domain name?
2. Are you comfortable with basic HTML?
3. Do you know what to add to the html?
4. Do you know the URL of your OpenId server?
5. How easy is it to add a CNAME record to your DNS?

If the answers 1-4 are 'yes' and the answer to number 5 is 'not very', then it's easiest to go ahead and edit the html. If your DNS hosting company has an easy web interface (like GoDaddy) and you're a bit shaky on the other questions, then I'd suggest that http://www.own-id.com/ is for you.

Own-Id: Yadis Document

Own-Id used to create it's own Yadis document for each domain. I realized this was ridiculous, and so now I've changed things so that the Yadis document is the one from the provider. All this should mean fewer glitches. Please let me know of any web site / provider combination that fail with Own-Id, but that work with the provider's own id.

Own-Id

Just released a new version that fixes some bugs:

• Now deals with fully qualified domain names
• When pages aren't found, gives a proper 404 status code and message.

Also, 35 domains have now been set up using Own-Id.

Own-Id: DNS propogation bug

I was going through the Own-Id error log and found a bug that affects new users only. It occurred when the DNS propagated to the user's browser before it reached the Own-Id server. I've now changed the code so that no DNS look-up is ever done on the domain name that the user is trying to set up.

Own-Id: Bug fixes and future

Yesterday I released a new version of Own-Id which fixed all the outstanding bugs. The main bug was not correctly picking up the OP Endpoint URL, which affected claimId.com ids. There were also some minor bugs, such as handling fully qualified domains properly. Thank you to the people who reported bugs and such, it is much appreciated. If you find anything wrong with Own-Id, please do let me know.

What's the future for Own-Id? The next thing is to allow people to have a link to their homepage on their id page. What do you think?

New Own Id setup instructions

In response to Hugo Hallman's comment I've changed the instructions to make it a bit easier to set up a domain name. Thanks to Hugo for his feedback.

I've also changed the XRDS document so that Own-Id now supports all versions of OpenId.

Btw, we now have 13 users (domains).

Down with passwords!

There's a new version of OwnId:

• No password to remember, authentication is done with OpenId.
• Now supports version 2 of OpenId.

We've now got 3 users, including me!

New site - Own Id

We've got a new domain name, and redesigned the site for http://www.own-id.com/. We're sort of trying it out at the moment, so let me know what you think.

Own Id

I've put up a gadget that lets you use your own domain name (e.g. id.tlocke.org.uk) as an OpenId identifier. The code is released as Free Software.