There has been a lot of discussion of the way users are handled in zoho and I think many developers are frustrated with it.

 

Here is my two cents:

 

1. If I create an app for a client, I would like all of the interface to be through my URL.  I think it looks a bit unprofessional when a user goes to my site, and is redirected to creator.zoho.com/.../.../.../.. to sign in and use the app.  If they are a bit curious, they will go to the root site and be greeted with "Create your own database for free."  I don't know, to me, I would like to avoid the client knowing what the back end is.  Especially, because if they see this, they would investigate a bit and see if they can make the app themselves and save some money.  Just doesn't seem professional.

 

(If you are thinking I should just embed my forms onto my own site: This does not work well with Mac, iPhone, iPad.  Safari will not allow the user to authenticate from am embeded login windows, because the information being transmitted does not match the actual URL which the user is visiting.  So the security settings would need to be taken below default levels for it to work-- and its not a good idea to ask a client to disable security settings on all of their browsers in order to use my app)

 

My suggestion would be to have all user names related to the host developer whose app they are using.  For example, I would create a CNAME under my domain and point it to the zoho server, to mask zoho.com.  Zoho in return would look at the referer of this site and pull up my own front page, rather than a generic login or zoho page.

 

So zoho would have a developer section and a user section.  I think it is pretty dumb to offer everyone who signs up the ability to be a developer.

 

Example:

lets say I make a sub-domain called IBM.mydomain.com

if zoho sees that as the referral URL, it would pull up the specific login page that I have designed, and only allow my users to log into the site.  So this could open up hundreds of login names.  Many developers using multiple apps can have user names like Johndoe, jsmith, etc.

 

2.  I would like more control over my users permissions.  Right now the options are to make a user a developer or a regular user.  I think there should be another option such as administrator.  This option would allow the user certain rights like import/export data, manipulate reports, etc.  However, this user would not be able to see my code.  In fact, this user is just a high level employee of the client with some technical skills.  They would not even know that they are using the zoho backend.

 

3.  I would like to be able to put users in categories.  If a client has hundreds of employees, they each need an account.  If a person is fired, it is easy to delete they from the main share page.  However, if a person is newly hired, I would like to place this user in a specific category and allow them differential access to certain forms, views, reports without having to manually add them to each one.

I hope this makes sense.
-Kamran