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Web Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)

Web Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)

BOINC projects export a number of Web RPCs for creating, querying and updating accounts and host records, and miscellaneous other purposes. These can be used by account management systems and credit statistics web sites.

BOINC's RPC mechanisms have the following conventions:

Each RPC is an HTTP GET transaction.
The input is the GET arguments, i.e. a string of the form

?param1=val1&param2=val2&...&paramn=valn

where param1 ... paramN are the parameter names, and val1 ... valn are the values. Parameter values must be URL-encoded (for example, using PHP's urlencode function).

The output is XML.
If the project's get_project_config.php file includes a <rpc_prefix> element, its content should be used as the URL prefix; otherwise use the project's master URL.
Optional values are shown enclosed in square brackets.
If an RPC fails, the returned XML document is

<error>
    <error_num>N</error_num>
    <error_string>xxx</error_string>
</error>

where N is a BOINC error number and xxx is a textual description. BOINC error numbers are in lib/error_numbers.h; common errors are:

-1: Generic error (error_string may have more info)

-112: Invalid XML (e.g., the preferences passed to am_set_info.php are invalid)

-136: Item not found in database (bad ID of any sort, or ID refers to an item not owned by the caller)

-137: Name is not unique. The EMail address or team name is already in use.

-138: Can't access database (treat same as -183)

-161: Item not found (deprecated; treat same as -136)

-183: Project is temporarily down

-205: Email address has invalid syntax

-206: Wrong password

-207: Non-unique email address (treat same as -137)

-208: Account creation disabled

-209: Attach failed. Perhaps due to invalid invitation code.

Project configuration

action: Export project or account manager configuration info.
URL: project_url/get_project_config.php
input: none.
examples

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/get_project_config.php

output

<project_config>
    <name>Project name</name>
    <master_url>URL</master_url>
    [ <local_revision>12345</local_revision> ]
    [ <web_stopped>0|1</web_stopped> ]
    [ <account_creation_disabled/> ]
    [ <client_account_creation_disabled/> ]
    [ <min_passwd_length>N</min_passwd_length> ]
    [ <account_manager/> ]
    [ <uses_username/> ]
    [ <rpc_prefix>URL</rpc_prefix> ]
    [ <error_num>N</error_num> ]
    [
      <platforms>
        <platform>
          <platform_name>i686-apple-darwin</platform_name>
          <user_friendly_name>Mac OS X (Intel)</user_friendly_name>
        </platform>
        <platform>
          <platform_name>i686-pc-linux-gnu</platform_name>
          <user_friendly_name>Linux/x86</user_friendly_name>
        </platform>
        ...
      </platforms>
    ]
    [ <sched_stopped>0|1</sched_stopped> ]
    [
      <system_requirements>
        [ <p_fpops>N</p_fpops> ]
        [ <p_iops>N</p_iops> ]
        [ <p_membw>N</p_membw> ]
        [ <m_nbytes>N</m_nbytes> ]
        [ <m_swap>N</m_swap> ]
        [ <d_free>N</d_free> ]
        [ <bwup>N</bwup> ]
        [ <bwdown>N</bwdown> ]
      </system_requirements>
    ]
</project_config>

name: Project name
master_url: Master URL
local_revision: The SVN changeset number of the project's server software.
web_stopped: Nonzero if the project's database is down, which means the data-driven web pages are turned off.
account_creation_disabled: If present, this project is not allowing creation of new accounts
min_passwd_length: Minimum password length (for new account creation)
account_manager: If present, this is an account manager, not a BOINC project
uses_username: If present, this project uses names (rather than email addresses) as the primary account identifier
client_account_creation_disabled: If present, new accounts can be created only via the web (not via the client software).
rpc_prefix: Prefix to use for web RPCs, instead of the master URL.
error_num: The project is currently down. A BOINC error number is returned.
platforms: A list of platforms for which the project has application versions.
sched_stopped: Nonzero if the project's scheduler server is down, which means you can't get new work or report completed work.
system_requirements: Hardware requirements for participating in this project. If a computer doesn't meet these requirements it may not get sent any work by the project. All requirements are 'net'; e.g. the CPU requirements are after factors like on-fraction, active-fraction, and resource share have been taken into consideration. NOT IMPLEMENTED YET.

Server status

action: Get project status. Can be used used to make web sites showing the server status of multiple BOINC projects. Do not poll more often than 10 minutes.
URL: project_url/server_status.php
input
[ xml ]: output formatting. 0=HTML (default), 1=XML.
examples: http://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/server_status.php?xml=1

output

<server_status>
    <update_time>1128535206</update_time>
    <daemon_status>
        <daemon>
            <host>jocelyn</host>
            <command>BOINC database</command>
            <status>running</status>
        </daemon>
        <daemon>
            <host>castelli</host>
            <command>master science database</command>
            <status>running</status>
        </daemon>
        <daemon>
            <host>klaatu</host>
            <command>data-driven web pages</command>
            <status>disabled</status>
        </daemon>
        <daemon>
            <host>galileo</host>
            <command>feeder</command>
            <status>not running</status>
        </daemon>
    </daemon_status>
	<database_file_states>
        <results_ready_to_send>614830</results_ready_to_send>
        <results_in_progress>1208959</results_in_progress>
        <workunits_waiting_for_validation>8</workunits_waiting_for_validation>
        <workunits_waiting_for_assimilation>2</workunits_waiting_for_assimilation>
        <workunits_waiting_for_deletion>4</workunits_waiting_for_deletion>
        <results_waiting_for_deletion>15</results_waiting_for_deletion>
        <transitioner_backlog_hours>0.00083333334</transitioner_backlog_hours>
    </database_file_states>
</server_status>

Create account

action

Create an account. If the project already has an account with that email address, and a different password, it returns an error. If an account with that email address exists and has the same password, it returns the authenticator. Otherwise the project creates an account and returns the authenticator.

If <opaque_auth> is included in the reply, all subsequent RPCs that reference the account must supply the given string as well as the authenticator.

URL: project_url/create_account.php

input

email_addr: email address.
passwd_hash: The MD5 hash of the concatenation of the user's password and the lower case form of their EMail address. The user password itself is never sent in an RPC call.
user_name: the user name.
[ invite_code ]: Invitation code if project requires invitation to create accounts.

example::

http://ralph.bakerlab.org/create_account.php?email_addr=user@example.com&passwd_hash=2ab548fae3162ccfa1a2d41a55557a92&user_name=CrunchAll

output

<account_out>
    <authenticator>XXX</authenticator>
    [ <opaque_auth>xxx</opaque_auth> ]
</account_out>

Look up account

action: If passwd_hash is given and is correct, the user's authentication string is returned. This authentication string is required for many of the other RPCs. If no account with the EMail address provided exists, an error is returned.

If <opaque_auth> is included in the reply, all subsequent RPCs that reference the account must supply the given string as well as the authenticator.

URL: project_url/lookup_account.php
input

email_addr: email address
[ passwd_hash ]: The MD5 hash of the concatenation of the user's password and the lower case form of the account's EMail address.
[ get_opaque_auth ]: Return the opaque authenticator for the user if the project provides one.

examples

http://ralph.bakerlab.org/lookup_account.php?email_addr=user@example.com&passwd_hash=2ab598faf3160ccfa1a2d41a95557a92&get_opaque_auth=1

output

<account_out>
    [ <authenticator>XXX</authenticator> ]
    [ <opaque_auth>xxx</opaque_auth> ]
</account_out>

Get account info

action: returns data associated with the given account
URL: project_url/am_get_info.php
input
account_key: Authentication string for account to retrieve information about. See create account RPC or lookup account RPC
opaque_auth: opaque authenticator, if present.

output

<am_get_info_reply>
    <success/>
    <id>ID</id>
    <name>NAME</name>
    <country>COUNTRY</country>
    <weak_auth>WEAK_AUTH</weak_auth>
    <postal_code>POSTAL_CODE</postal_code>
    <global_prefs>
        GLOBAL_PREFS
    </global_prefs>
    <project_prefs>
        PROJECT_PREFS
    </project_prefs>
    <url>URL</url>
    <send_email>SEND_EMAIL</send_email>
    <show_hosts>SHOW_HOSTS</show_hosts>
    <teamid>N</teamid>
    [ <teamfounder/> ]
    <venue>X</venue>
</am_get_info_reply>

Set account info

action

Updates one or more attributes of the given account. If email address is changed, you must also change the password hash. If the project uses opaque_auth, then it will be returned on the reply.

URL

project_url/am_set_info.php

input

account_key

Authentication string of user account being changed. See create account RPC or lookup account RPC

opaque_auth

opaque authenticator, if present.

[ name ]

[ country ]

[ postal_code ]

[ global_prefs ]

[ project_prefs ]

[ url ]

[ send_email ]

[ show_hosts ]

[ teamid ]

zero means quit current team, if any

[ venue ]

[ email_addr ]

[ password_hash ]

The password hash is MD5(password+lower_case(email_addr)).

output

<am_set_info_reply>
    <success/>
    [ <opaque_auth>xxx</opaque_auth> ]
</am_set_info_reply>

Set host info

action

Updates the host's venue

URL

project_url/am_set_host_info.php

input

account_key

Authentication string of user account owning the host being changed. See create account RPC or lookup account RPC

opaque_auth

opaque authenticator, if present.

hostid

venue

output

<am_set_host_info_reply>
    <success/>
</am_set_host_info_reply>

Get account/host credit information

action: Returns info about an account. If called with the authentication string, returns a list of hosts associated with the account.
URL: project/show_user.php
input
[ userid ]: User ID to display. Either id or auth must be specified.
[ auth ]: Authentication string of user to display. See create account RPC or lookup account RPC. Either id: or auth: must be specified.
opaque_auth: opaque authenticator, if present.

format: output formatting. 'xml' is only supported value (default is HTML formatting)

examples

http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?userid=123&format=xml http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_user.php?auth=X&format=xml

output

<user>
    <id>123</id>
    <cpid>fe0b2753a355b17864ec061eb1b9e8de</cpid>
    <create_time>918948493</create_time>
    <name>Joe Smith</name>
    <country>United States</country>
    <total_credit>3806.869739</total_credit>
    <expavg_credit>200</expavg_credit>
    <expavg_time>1110833427.64028</expavg_time>
    <teamid>114322</teamid>
    <url>example.com</url>
    <has_profile>1</has_profile>
</user>

or

<user>
    <id>123</id>
    <cpid>fe0b2753a355b17864ec061eb1b9e8de</cpid>
    <create_time>1101918807</create_time>
    <name>David</name>
    <country>United States</country>
    <total_credit>0.293197</total_credit>
    <expavg_credit>0.000883</expavg_credit>
    <expavg_time>1116963330.83107</expavg_time>
    <teamid>0</teamid>
    <url>example.com</url>
    <has_profile>1</has_profile>
    <host>
        <id>123</id>
        <create_time>1287339128</create_time>
        <rpc_seqno>123</rpc_seqno>
        <host_cpid>fe0b2753a355b17864ec061eb1b9e8de</host_cpid>
        <total_credit>0</total_credit>
        <expavg_credit>0</expavg_credit>
        <expavg_time>0</expavg_time>
        <domain_name>Sorabji</domain_name>
        <p_ncpus>1</p_ncpus>
        <p_vendor>Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 2.20GHz</p_vendor>
        <p_model>Pentium</p_model>
        <p_fpops>330806175.78458</p_fpops>
        <p_iops>409200165.535107</p_iops>
        <os_name>Microsoft Windows XP</os_name>
        <os_version>Professional Edition, Service Pack 2, (05.01.2600.00)</os_version>
    </host>
    ...
</user>

Get result list with pending credit

URL: project/pending.php
input
format: Output formatting. 'xml' is only supported value (deafult is HTML formatting)
authenticator: Authentication string for user account to retrieve pending credit information about. See create account RPC or lookup account RPC
opaque_auth: opaque authenticator, if present.

examples

http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/pending.php?format=xml&authenticator=X

output

<pending_credit>
    <result>
        <resultid> N </resultid>
        <workunitid> N </workunitid>
        <claimed_credit> N </claimed_credit>
        <received_time> N </received_time>
    </result>
    [...]
    <total_claimed_credit> N </total_claimed_credit>
</pending_credit>

Create team

action

Creates a team

URL

project/create_team.php

input

account_key

Authentication string of team founder's user account. See create account RPC or lookup account RPC

opaque_auth

opaque authenticator, if present.

name

name of team.

[ url ]

team URL.

type

one of these types.

[ name_html ]

team name, with HTML formatting.

[ description ]

text describing team.

[ country ]

team country (if present, must be one of these countries).

output

<create_team_reply>
    <success/>
    <teamid>N</teamid>
</create_team_reply>

Look up teams by name

action

Teams with names matching *string* will be returned. A maximum of 100 teams will be returned.

URL

project/team_lookup.php

input

team_name

Substring of team name

[ format ]

Output formatting. 'xml' is only supported value (deafult is HTML formatting)

examples

http://boinc.bakerlab.org/team_lookup.php?team_name=BOINC&format=xml

output

<teams>
    <team>
        <id>5</id>
        <name>BOINC@AUSTRALIA</name>
        <country>Australia</country>
    </team>
    <team>
        <id>9</id>
        <name>BOINC Synergy</name>
        <country>International</country>
    </team>
    <team>
        <id>16</id>
        <name>BOINC.BE</name>
        <country>Belgium</country>
    </team>
    <team>
        <id>23</id>
        <name>HispaSeti & BOINC</name>
        <country>International</country>
    </team>
</teams

Look up team by ID

action

Show info on team with the given ID.

URL

project/team_lookup.php

input

team_id

Team number of the team to lookup.

examples

http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/team_lookup.php?team_id=111

output

<team>
  <id>9</id>
  <create_time>1109465921</create_time>
  <userid>77</userid>
  <name>BOINC Synergy</name>
  <url>www.boincsynergy.com</url>
  <type>1</type>
  <country>International</country>
  <total_credit>226527.840602</total_credit>
  <expavg_credit>12.798762</expavg_credit>
  <expavg_time>1178908429.9883</expavg_time>
</team>

Get team member list

action: Show list of team members. If authentication string is that of a team administrator, show email addresses, and flag indicating whether the user opted out of getting emails.
URL: project/team_email_list.php
input
teamid: database ID of team
[ account_key ]: Authentication string of a team administrator's user account. See create account RPC or lookup account RPC
opaque_auth: opaque authenticator, if present.
xml: output formatting. 0=HTML, 1=XML. (default is 0)
examples: http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/team_email_list.php?teamid=2241&account_key=Y&xml=1

output

<users>
    <user>
        <id>1</id>
        [ <email_addr>pdq@example.com</email_addr> ]
        [ <email_ok>yes|no</email_ok> ]
        <cpid>232f381c79336f0bd8df02bbce2f2217</cpid>
        <create_time>1076897105</create_time>
        <name>David</name>
        <country>United States</country>
        <total_credit>9.907264</total_credit>
        <expavg_credit>0.023264</expavg_credit>
        <expavg_time>1142628426.48937</expavg_time>
        <url>example.com/~pdq</url>
        <has_profile>1</has_profile>
    </user>
    [ ... ]
</users>

Set forum preferences

action: Update user's forum preferences
URL: project/edit_forum_preferences_action.php (NOTE: this uses POST, not GET)
input
account_key: Authentication string of user account to change preferences for. See create account RPC or lookup account RPC
[ opaque_auth ]: opaque authenticator, if present.
[ avatar_url ]: Note: the image will be downloaded and stored locally. Only JPG and PNG accepted.
[ avatar_select ]
[ forum_images_as_links ]
[ forum_link_externally ]
[ forum_hide_avatars ]
[ forum_hide_signatures ]
[ forum_jump_to_unread ]
[ forum_ignore_sticky_posts ]
[ forum_low_rating_threshold ]
[ forum_high_rating_threshold ]
[ forum_minimum_wrap_postcount ]
[ forum_display_wrap_postcount ]
[ signature_enabled ]
[ signature ]
[ forum_sort ]
[ thread_sort ]
[ faq_sort ]
[ answer_sort ]
[ forum_filter_user ]
[ removeID ... ]
output: A lot of HTML (not XML)

Get user's last posts on the forum

action

Get user's last posts from the forum, or get user's last threads from the forums.

URL

project/forum_get_data.php

input

method

"user_posts" to retrieve post details, "user_threads" to retrieve thread details.

userid

Numeric user ID you wish to see forum data about.

[ count ]

number of entries to return. Maximum 50, default 10.

[ contentlength ]

number of characters to return from post content. Default returns whole post. Only used when method=user_posts.

examples

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_get_data.php?method=user_posts&userid=18&count=20&contentlength=256 http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_get_data.php?method=user_threads&userid=182&count=20

output

<rpc_response>
    <count>1</count>
    <posts>
        <post>
        <id>4157</id>
        <threadid>76</threadid>
        <threadtitle><![CDATA[Example thread title]]></threadtitle>
        <timestamp>1162847905</timestamp>
        <content><![CDATA[Example post content]]></content>
        </post>
        [ ... ]
    </posts>
</rpc_response>

<rpc_response>
    <count>1</count>
    <threads>
        <thread>
            <id>356</id>
            <forumid>2</forumid>
            <replies>11</replies>
            <views>612</views>
            <timestamp>1159062318</timestamp>
            <title><![CDATA[Example forum thread title]]></title>
        </thread>
        [...]
    </threads>
</rpc_response>

Get list of application versions

URL

project/apps.php

input

[ xml ]

output formatting. 0=HTML, 1=XML. (default is 0)

examples

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/apps.php?xml=1

output

List of applications and application versions. For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<app_versions>
<application>
    <name>Upper Case</name>
    <version>
        <platform_short>i686-pc-linux-gnu</platform_short>
        <platform_long>Linux/x86</platform_long>
        <version_num>511</version_num>

        <date>21 Apr 2006 19:38:26 UTC</date>
        <date_unix>1145648306</date_unix>
    </version>
    <version>
        <platform_short>windows_intelx86</platform_short>
        <platform_long>Windows/x86</platform_long>
        <version_num>515</version_num>

        <date>8 May 2007 21:15:42 UTC</date>
        <date_unix>1178658942</date_unix>
    </version>
    ...
    </application>
</app_versions>

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