[Opensim-dev] RFC: Ways of creating profiles for creators who willnever log in

[Chris Hart]

Option 3 sounds most logical - I don't like the idea of ghost accounts
in the users table, and the option of mixing a standard account with a
hollow profile seems wrong too. Splitting into two may be a little more
effort, but a logical data layer makes for a more easy to understand and
administer backend. The code can handle the magic of profile-only versus
regular user accounts if it's done well.


-----Original Message-----
From: opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de
[mailto:opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de] On Behalf Of Justin
Clark-Casey
Sent: 26 March 2009 21:00
To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
Subject: [Opensim-dev] RFC: Ways of creating profiles for creators who
willnever log in

Hello,

For Inventory Archives I plan to preserve item creator information.
When the archive is loaded I would like to recreate 
these profiles where possible/necessary (grid operators can choose not
to allow this and that will be the default, I 
expect).

However, unless an item creator has an account on the OpenSim to which
the archive is loaded, they shouldn't be able to 
login to that instance.

So far I've thought of 3 ways to create a profile without automatically
allowing login.


(1)  Create a normal user account but set the password to something
random.

PROS
* Doesn't require any changes to what we have today

CONS
* Creates user accounts which are never intended to be used for login
* No way to distinguish archive created accounts from legitimate
accounts
~~~~~

(2)  Add a 'ProfileOnly' flag to the Users table

PROS
* Minimal changes to what we have today
* Makes it clear that an entries has been created for its profile only,
which can be used as a flag to disallow logins

CONS
* Creates user accounts where many details will be irrelevant unless
item creators then get accounts on the instance.
* Complicates administration tasks (e.g. create user).
~~~~~

(3)  Separate the current 'users' table into 'userprofiles' and 'users'
tables.

'userprofiles' will largely contain all the metadata about a user that
you can see in the profile on the Linden Labs 
Second Life client today (name, about, interests, 1st life, etc.).

'users' will contain the data associated with a particular account
(passwordHash, passwordSalt, homeRegion, 
homeLocationX, etc.)

PROS
* Makes it possible to create user profiles without creating user
accounts.
* Makes it possible to have somewhat separate profile and authentication
plugins allow mix & match.  However, the reuse 
of avatar name as the login identifier makes things a bit awkward.
* Simplifies database understandability - the only people in the 'users'
table are those with actual accounts, though on 
the other hand this does create 2 tables instead of 1.

CONS
* Short term adjustment pain for systems accessing OpenSim's databases
directly
* Complicates administration tasks (e.g. create user).
~~~~

I suspect that archiving isn't the only potential use for this
functionality.  For instance, the Hypergrid may also find 
it useful to preserve user information when a user rezzes an object on a
foreign system.

Of the above approaches, I prefer (3) over (2) since it seems to me to
be the better long term approach even if there is 
some short term pain.  I'm don't think that (1) is a good option.

I've reproduced most of text at
http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Creating_profiles_not_used_for_login for
reference.

Comments?

-- 
justincc
Justin Clark-Casey
http://justincc.wordpress.com
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