Web Interface For the BOINC Client

[lfield]

It would be great if the BOINC client could be controlled via a HTML page. This would enable a platform independent GUI to be created and hence avoid some of the issues with the current manager. This would also help to improve usability by allowing for more dynamic content that could guide volunteers through some more complex activities such as running VirtualBox applications.

[lfield]

A prototype HTML GUI is available in the LHC@home dev project. This currently only works on Linux and requires the following steps:

1. Go to the directory
   cd /var/lib/boinc-client
2. Create a self signed certificate in the boinc client directory
   openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -out self.pem -keyout self.pem
3. Run websockify
   sudo websockify 31416 -- /usr/bin/boinc
4. Trust the cert by going to https://127.0.0.1:31416 and install the certificate.
5. Restart websockify to use the GUI

The main functionality is provided by a JavaScript library. Other functions are built upon this:

• ping
• get_vbox_version
• event log
• project_status
• task_status

For this to work support for WebSockets is required in the BOINC client

[lfield]

This is being discussed further in PR #2275