HN Explorer

Ask YC: Open-Source User Management System

1 points by bporterfield ↗ HN
I've been scouring the web for an open-source user management system to integrate into a web application. There seems to be limited support for a simple system that can handle user login, signup, and maybe emails...and yet almost every web app needs it! How can this be?

Any solutions that anyone knows of that aren't full-fledged CMS systems? PHP preferred...

5 comments

[ 5.9 ms ] story [ 15.2 ms ] thread
unalone
I remember coming across one a year or two ago, but I didn't bookmark it. It was either open source or very cheap (10 dollars or so).

It sounds like an interesting sort of thing to base a project around, though. Out of curiosity, what exactly do you think service like that would have to be able to handle?

bporterfield
I would imagine it would be a set of APIs a website could use for new user signup, logging in, session tokens, logging out, and retrieval of lists of users based on some criteria.

This could be a hosted solution or one that you install on your own servers (preferably self-installed and easily modifiable) - either way you'd set it up, code your own visual interface for logging in, signing up, etc, but use the user management API on the back end for storing user data, storing new user data, etc. It would also utilize smart encryption techniques, allow for mass emails, etc.

I understand that these issues are mostly straightforward, but it seems crazy that every new web app has to re-invent the wheel for user management!?

unalone
I think it's because so many sites rely on very simplistic log-in systems for the sake of simplicity. Sometimes it's easier to just make a basic thing on your own than it is to use somebody else's system.
bporterfield
Agreed that it should be simple, but it seems that there's enough room for error with security, sessions, etc, and enough functionality that needs to be built out that's common (mass email, sign-up email, sign-up verification email, for example) that I'm quite surprised that I'd have to build out my own solution.

I'd imagine a few open-source php classes and one or two standard DB tables would do the trick, and maybe a simple interface for managing users and emails.

unalone
True.

I'm not much of a coder but this seems like it might be easy enough to try out. I might give this a go, if it's not done by the summer (which is when I have free time again).