iFreeTools now opens up for all Google Apps User Accounts

iFreeTools CRM - our free CRM built over Google App Engine and iFreeTools Creator - our free online database application builder, which were - until now - open only to users with Google Accounts, have now been opened up to allow all Google Apps users directly.

Thanks to adopting new features enabled recently by Google, for its Google App Engine platform, Google Apps users need not look for work-arounds and request separate deployments to use iFreeTools.

Users can also continue to login with Google Accounts, as before.

Once user has logged in using either Google Accounts or Google Apps User Accounts, our app will check for the email-id of the logged-in user to identify the user and to authorize operations. We also plan to enable full OpenID support, very soon.

What was until now just "CRM for Google App Engine" is now happy to call itself the "CRM for Google Apps, built over Google App Engine".

Hope you find our new feature useful. Feel free to check out our apps and send in your feedback.

Google Accounts & Google Apps user-accounts - authentication options in Google App Engine

The issue discussed in this specific post has been solved. We have now added support to enable Google Apps users to login directly into iFreeTools CRM & Creator. So, no more confusions.. no more work-arounds. You may skip this post.

This is a short note on the default authentication modes possible with Google App Engine and how we have configured it for our free CRM and our online application builder apps.

There are 2 modes in which applications can be deployed over Google App Engine..

• Open to all Google Accounts --or--
  
• Restricted to a specific Google Apps domain.

Our default application instances (with application identifiers sahasvat-ifreetools for CRM and sahasvat-ifreetools-creator for Creator) are deployed in the first mode, so as to enable access to users with normal Google Accounts.

Since Google wants to treat Google Accounts and Google Apps accounts differently, it can create confusions for users. This means that users with just a Google Apps user-account cannot login to access our default apps.

There are 2 suggested approaches for this scenario..

• Creating a new Google Account using your Google Apps email-id and proceeding to use the application for free.
  
• Have a separate application instance deployed for you over App Engine, with authentication restricted to your Google Apps domain. For details on such a custom deployment, with optional customizations, kindly refer to http://crm.ifreetools.com/about.

You may also read the following blog post which details the confusions caused by the different account types and options to have things working..
Fixing the Google Account problem [www.equalsdrummond.name].

We also plan to offer a free deployment - equivalent to the $299/year plan, but with ads - to enable Google Apps authentication for such deployments. If you are interested, use the feedback form or send an email raj@sahasvat.com to request for details on using such a deployment.

With the OpenID & OAuth support in Google App Engine's road-map, these confusions can be avoided altogether.

If you have any further queries, feel free to write to raj@sahasvat.com or use our feedback form.

The issue discussed in this specific post has been solved. We have now added support to enable Google Apps users to login directly into iFreeTools CRM & Creator. So, no more confusions.. no more work-arounds. You may skip this post.