To create an account with BOINC projects, a participant must:
- locate BOINC project web sites,
read them, and decide which to join;
- Download and install the BOINC client software.
and then for each selected project:
- fill out a web registration form;
- handle an email;
- cut and paste a URL and account key into the BOINC client.
If the participant chooses N projects,
there are N forms to fill out,
N emails to handle, and N dialog interactions with the BOINC client.
This is tedious if there are lots of projects.
Furthermore, it involves cutting and pasting long random strings,
which is intimidating to some participants.
This document describes BOINC's support for account management systems,
which streamline the process of finding and joining BOINC projects.
A typical account management system is implemented as a web site.
The participant experience is:
- Visit the account manager site,
set up a 'meta-account' (name, email, password),
browse a list of projects, and click checkboxes to select projects.
- Receive email from each selected project,
and click on a link in the email.
- Download and install the BOINC client software from the account manager.
- Enter the meta-account name and password in a BOINC client dialog.
This requires about 1/3 of the interactions of the manual approach,
and avoids dealing with long random strings.
Implementation
An account management system works as follows:
- The participant sets up his meta-account and selects projects.
- The account manager issues a create account RPC
to each selected project.
- The project creates an account (marked as 'unconfirmed')
and sends an email to the participant.
- The participant opens the email and clicks on a link in it,
causing the account to be marked as 'confirmed'.
- The account manager periodically polls each selected project
with a query account RPC,
waiting for all accounts to become confirmed.
- When all accounts are confirmed,
the participant downloads and installs the BOINC client software
from the account manager.
The install package includes a file
(specific to the account manager)
containing the URL of the account manager.
- The BOINC client runs, and asks the participant to enter
the name and password of his meta-account.
- The BOINC client does a query accounts RPC
to the account manager, obtaining a list of accounts.
It then attaches to these accounts and proceeds.
The create account and query account RPCs
are described here.
Core client functionality
The BOINC core client uses the following files to
keep track of account manager information.
-
acct_mgr_url.xml
-
This file identifies the account manager.
It is typically bundled with the BOINC client in
an installer package.
Its format is:
".html_text("
Name of BOINC account management system
http://acctmgr.com/
")."
-
acct_mgr_login.xml
-
This file contains meta-account information.
Its format is:
".html_text("
name
xxx
")."
If the core client finds acct_mgr_url.xml but not acct_mgr_login.xml,
it prompts for a name and password,
stores them in acct_mgr_login.xml,
and makes an account manager RPC.
The core client offers menu items for making an account manager RPC,
and for changing the name/password.
Account manager RPCs
";
list_start();
list_item("URL", "Given in the file acct_manager_url.xml");
list_item("input", "name
password"
);
list_item("output",
html_text("
[ MSG ]
[
URL
KEY
...
]
")
);
list_item("action",
"returns a list of the accounts associated with this meta-account"
);
list_end();
page_tail();
?>