Remote Alternative To Local Storage For Low-security User Data?

Suppose you're developing an independent, small sub-page for a big and well frequented web portal. The sub-page shows entries from a public event calendar, and allows users to high

Solution 1:

We have a similar system on our site, where users can bookmark pages to a planner/wishlist function. The saved items are sent via a webservice and stored on our server, and there is a corresponding get webservice.

We have a 'lazy register' system. The first time a user saves an item, they are asked for their email (but no password, as nothing is confidential). This is hashed and saved locally using a cookie, then used to set/get the saved items. When the user uses a different computer they are again asked for their email.

The key is that a register and a login are the same operation, so there is no need for any password reminders or any reset functionality.

Solution 2:

The Google Docs API provides programmatic access to Google Docs, where you can create and store documents and spreadsheets. Your application could have its own Google login, which it uses to create one or more documents per user. These documents could be used to store the user settings.

Provided you can get a unique ID from each user (an email address, or something more secure, perhaps), this should be fairly simple. You can even organize the files into folders—one per user.

Alternatively, you could combine Google Docs with the Google Spreadsheets API, where I have just noticed this rather handy feature:

Tables & Records Interact with spreadsheets as if they're a database using Tables and Records.