OpenID integration on schedule

For the last 3 weeks we have been working on integrating openID into myVersionControl's authentication systems.

There have been several hurdles to overcome to ensure that the functionality integrates seamlessly and does not interfere with our existing authentication systems. As always, security and privacy of your repositories is of the utmost importance. But I'm pleased to say that we are almost there.

As part of the OpenID integration project, we will also be phasing out the .htaccess authentication method we have been using for control panel access in favour of a more user friendly forms authentication process.

Stop Press
OpenID authentication will be released along with the control panel upgrade which is scheduled for mid to late June 2009.

PayPal subscription payments imminent

We're just putting the finishing touches to the new PayPal subscription engine. This has been on our ToDo list ever since we introduced the 50meg account. We've had numerous emails from subscribers who would rather use a payment service provider like PayPal when dealing with small subscription amounts, rather than using their credit or debit cards.

It was an interesting challenge to integrate PayPal into the current subscription workflow. We needed to be mindful that subscribers could be changing from paying by card to PayPal or vice-versa so obviously we wanted to avoid double charging. myVersionControl accepts payments in 3 currencies (USD, EUR and GBP) so this added an extra level of complexity too.

What we came up with was rather simple in the end. First we have the Account Home page which details your last and next payment, along with your chosen payment method and an option to change it:
The payment details page shows the account you are paying your subscription from, whether that be your PayPal or Debit/Credit card.

You then have an opportunity to add credit or debit card details. If you are just looking to upgrade and stick with PayPal as your subscription method, then any one of the package options on the upgrade tab will take you to the relevant PayPal subscription page.


I want to say a bit on the look and feel of the UI at the moment. It was tempting while putting in the PayPal subscription engine to freshen up these pages - but have you ever heard the expression about putting lipstick on a pig?

We've already embarked on a complete overhaul of the look, feel and functionality of the control panel. It's all part of a wider plan we're working to. So we decided the goal here was to get the engine right so it could be ported to the new interface without too much rework and offer the PayPal subscription functionality in a way that fits with the (dated) UI we have on offer at the moment.

The new PayPal subscription service is due for release on Monday 16th March 2009.