Changes between Version 1 and Version 2 of SimpleAttach

Timestamp:

Dec 31, 2014, 11:48:28 AM (10 years ago)

Author:

davea

Comment:

--

SimpleAttach

@@ -1 +1 @@
 = Simplified Attach =
 
-== Current ==
+== Current attach process ==
 
-Currently, attaching to a project involves several steps:
+The process of attaching to a project, for a first-time volunteer,
+involves several steps:
 
-New volunteer case:
-
- * Visit the project web site (say, via a link in a news story).
- * Click on "Download" on the project site, taking you to the BOINC download page.
- * Click on "Download BOINC".
- * When the download is done, click on the installer
- * Click on "defaults" in the installer.
- * The Manager runs and brings up the Attach wizard.  Click on Add Project.
- * Find the project in the project list (hopefully you still remember its name).
+ 1. Visit the project web site (say, via a link in a news story).
+ 1. Click on "Download" on the project site, taking you to the BOINC download page.
+ 1. Click on "Download BOINC".
+ 1. When the download is done, click on the installer.
+ 1. Click on "defaults" in the installer.
+ 1. The Manager runs and brings up the Attach wizard.  Click on Add Project.
+ 1. Find the project in the project list (hopefully you still remember its name).
    Note: if the project is new and is not in the list,
    you need to go back to its web site, find the URL,
    and copy/paste it into the wizard.
    New volunteers are unlikely to figure this out.
- * Click on New User
- * Enter email address and password.
+ 1. Click on New User.
+ 1. Enter email address and password.
 
-A lot of steps; we lose a fraction of volunteers at each step.
+This is a lot of steps, and we lose a fraction of volunteers at each step.
 
-Existing volunteer case:
+For existing volunteers (already running BOINC on this computer) the steps are:
 
- * Visit project web site; figure out what to do next
+ 1. Visit project web site; figure out what to do next
    (standard project front page doesn't say).
- * Open the BOINC Manager
- * Open Attach wizard
- * Click on Add Project
- * Find project in list
- * Click on New User
- * Enter password (email should be pre-populated).
+ 1. Open the BOINC Manager.
+ 1. Open Attach wizard.
+ 1. Click on Add Project.
+ 1. Find project in list.
+ 1. Click on New User.
+ 1. Enter password (email should be pre-populated from previous attach).
 
-== Proposed ==
+== Proposed attach process ==
 
 This document describes a new scheme that simplifies both scenarios.
 
+Project web sites have 2 buttons:
+ * "Join (download BOINC)"
+ * "Join (already running BOINC)"
+
 New volunteer case:
 
- * Visit project web site, click on "Join (download BOINC)".
+ 1. Visit project web site, click on "Join (download BOINC)".
    Download happens, browser remains on project web site (see below).
- * When download is done, click on installer.
- * Click on Defaults in installer
- * Manager runs and brings up Attach wizard at the "enter email/password" page;
+   Possibly (depending on OS/browser) goes to a page describing how to
+   run the installer after download is done.
+ 1. When download is done, click on installer.
+ 1. Click on Defaults in installer
+ 1. Manager runs and brings up Attach wizard at the "enter email/password" page;
    no need to select project etc.
+   This page also has name/info of project.
    Enter email/password.
 
 Existing volunteer case:
  
- * Visit project web site, click on "Join (already running BOINC)".
- * Taken to page saying "open BOINC Manager" and select Add Project.
- * When they do that, it brings up Attach wizard at "enter email/password" page.
+ 1. Visit project web site, click on "Join (already running BOINC)".
+ 1. Taken to page saying "open BOINC Manager" and select Add Project.
+ 1. When they do that, it brings up Attach wizard at "enter email/password" page.
+
+== Implementation ==
+
+=== What projects must do ===
+
+Project must add the following to config.xml:
+ * <project_desc>: a few-sentence description of the project
+ * <project_inst>: the host institution
+ * <vbox_required/> : if present, this project requires VirtualBox
+
+In the home page, put:
+ * a "Join (download BOINC)" button
+  linked to the URL returned by ''join_download_url()'' PHP function in util.inc.
+ * a "Join (already running BOINC)" button
+  linked to the URL returned by ''join_no_download_url()'' PHP function in util.inc.
+
+If this project requires VBox, replace "BOINC" by "BOINC+VirtualBox" in the above.
+
+=== The join_x_url() functions ===
+
+The ''join_x_url()'' functions extract from config.xml:
+ * the master URL
+ * the project name
+ * the project description
+ * the project institution
+ * vbox_required
+
+and pass these as URL args to a URL on the BOINC web server (concierge.php).
+If the user is logged in on the project site, it also passes
+ * the user name
+ * the user authenticator
+
+'''join_download_url()''' also passes a "download_required" flag.
+
+=== The concierte.php script ===
+
+The concierge.php script looks at the master URL to see if the project is in BOINC's list.
+
+If "download_required" is set,
+it looks at the user agent string to find the computer's platform,
+and gets the URL of the current BOINC installer for that platform.
+(If vbox_required is present, it uses the BOINC+Vbox installer).
+
+It then sends the following cookies (from the boinc.berkeley.edu domain):
+
+'''attach_known''':: 1 if the project is known to BOINC
+'''attach_master_url''':: the master URL
+'''attach_project_name''':: the project name
+'''attach_project_desc''':: the project description
+'''attach_project_inst''':: the project institution
+'''attach_user_name''':: the user name (if present)
+'''attach_auth''':: the user authenticator (if present)
+
+These cookies are sent with a 24-hour expiration time.
+
+If "download_required" is set,
+the script then redirects to the URL of the installer file.
+On current browsers this doesn't change the web page
+(which is still the project's main page);
+it starts a download of the BOINC installer,
+which is displayed in the status bar or elsewhere.
+
+If "download_required" is not set, it does something
+to avoid showing a web page (need to figure this out).
+
+=== Manager ===
+
+When the manager starts up, it looks for the '''attach_master_url''' cookie from
+the boinc.berkeley.edu domain.
+If this is present, it puts up the Attach Wizard,
+at the email/password page.
+
+It does the same check when 
+
+== Comments ==
+
+There are actually four scenarios, corresponding to:
+
+ 1. Whether the user has installed BOINC on the computer.
+ 1. Whether the user has an account on this project.
+
+This design is geared to the cases where 2 is false.
+We should handle the other cases as well.