= Controlling account creation =

BOINC has two mechanisms for creating accounts:

* RPC-based: The [WebRpc#create_account create_account] RPC. This is used by BOINC Manager and by account managers.

* Web-based: the user fills out a web form (join.php or create_account_form.php). This has the advantages that you can use !ReCaptcha (to prevent mass account creation by spammers) and you can customize it however you want.

By default both mechanisms are enabled.

== Disabling account creation == #disabling-account-creation

To disable all account creation, edit [ProjectOptions config.xml] and add
{{{
<disable_account_creation>1</disable_account_creation>
}}}

Note: 1 = True, 0 = False.

To disable RPC-based account creation, add
{{{
<disable_account_creation_rpc>1</disable_account_creation_rpc>
}}}

== Restricting account creation via 'invitation codes' == #invite-codes

You can restrict account creation to those who present an 'invitation code'.

To do so, add to the file '''html/project/project.inc''' a definition for a PHP constant '''INVITE_CODES'''
as a [http://php.net/reference.pcre.pattern.syntax Perl-Compatible Regular Expression (PCRE)]
for the set of invitation codes.
For example:
{{{
define('INVITE_CODES', '/yohoho|blunderbuss|!grog4U/');
}}}
This allows someone to create an account if they enter any of the words 'yohoho', 'blunderbuss', or '!grog4U'.

'''INVITE_CODES''' applies to both web and RPC-based account creation.
To restrict only RPC-based account creation, use

{{{
define('INVITE_CODES_RPC', '/yohoho|blunderbuss|!grog4U/');
}}}