ClickTime Blog

ClickTime and OpenID

Our latest release of ClickTime offers support for OpenID. This is significant for a couple of reasons: it lets us offer single-sign-on to those customers who desire or require it. But more importantly, OpenID is a lightweight technology that is gaining traction in the enterprise -- and it's the ideal link between corporate identity management and hosted services like ClickTime.

If this is all new to you, here's a quick FAQ:

Q: What's OpenID?
A: It's a "Single-Sign-On" technology. With OpenID, you don't need to type in usernames and passwords to securely enter the web sites and applications that support it. You can manage one set of credentials and one password for all your web apps.

Q: How does ClickTime use it?
A: It's easy: instead of managing your password in ClickTime, you enter your OpenID server information in ClickTime. As long as you've already logged into your OpenID, you'll go directly into ClickTime without needing to enter a password.

Q: How do I get an OpenID for myself/my company?
A: Here are some suggestions:

1. Use one of the popular OpenID servers on the web (AOL, MyOpenID.com, most blog sites, etc.)
2. Install your own OpenID server (a great way to connect your OpenID to an existing Active Directory, LDAP server, etc.) Instructions are at www.openID.net

Q: Is all this secure?
A: We think OpenID offers excellent security without adding complexity. So do Microsoft, Sun, AOL, Yahoo, Verisign, and other major tech firms that have endorsed the standard.

Q: How do I get started?
A: Try using your OpenID with ClickTime and see what's available to you. OpenID is enabled by default for new accounts. Current subscribers can enable it easily in their company preferences.

Summer Internships

Are you a college student or recent graduate looking for a summer internship? Do you want to learn about the web application industry and watch your efforts make a real difference? Working at clicktime.com will provide you an opportunity to learn about all areas of the company, not just the department you're interning for. We also let you work on real projects, including one big project. Because of our short development cycles (a new release every 2-4 months) you'll experience the entire process.

We're located in San Francisco; so if you'll be in the Bay Area this summer (housing not included), check out our Summer Intern 2008 information (PDF) for details on applying.

Safari 3.0 beta

Back in June, Apple released a beta version of their Safari 3.0 web browser for Mac and Windows. The browser received a great deal of attention due to its availability for Windows and our customers definitely noticed. We are seeing people logging into ClickTime every day with beta versions of Safari.

Officially, we don't support beta versions of browsers and there's a good reason why. Beta versions of web browsers typically have bugs that impair usability and the current beta version of Safari is no exception. We like playing with new tech toys just like many of you do, but we don't want this new technology to interfere with your ability to be productive. We strongly recommend you use a web browser from our supported list.

Of course, we're already testing ClickTime using the beta version of Safari 3.0 to detect any issues. We're currently aware of the following bugs with the current Safari beta version (3.0.3) when used with ClickTime:

1. The stopwatch feature may not work properly.
2. An error can occur when running reports due to Safari's incorrect handling of the date range selector.
3. Errors can occur when saving time due to issues selecting tasks in the time entry interface.

We have reported these bugs to Apple and look forward to a new release of Safari that fixes the problems.

Until Safari 3.0 is finalized, we recommend you use Safari 2.0 or an alternative web browser.