Project graphics in the BOINC Manager simple view

The BOINC Manager simple view? (5.8)?) uses graphical representations of projects and applications:

• The project is represented by a 40x40 pixel icon.
• Each application is represented by a sequence of images, each up to 290x126 pixels. These are shown as a slideshow, changing once every few seconds.

For example, in the following screenshot of the simple view, the two icons at the bottom represent CPDN and SETI@home, and the earth-map image in the middle represents the particular CPDN application that is currently running.

Specifying project files

Project graphics files are specified in a configuration file project_files.xml that you put in your project's root directory. This file specifies a set of 'project files' that will be automatically downloaded to clients (this can be used for purposes other than graphics).

The format of 'project_files.xml' is:

<file_info>
    <name>X</name>
    <url>X</url>
    <md5_cksum>X</md5_cksum>
</file_info>
...
<project_files>
    <file_ref>
        <file_name>X</file_name>
        <open_name>X</open_name>
    </file_ref>
    ...
</project_files>

For each file, this specifies:

• its URL (where to download it from)
• its physical name; it will be stored in the project directory on the client under this name.
• its MD5 checksum (use 'openssl dgst' to get this).
• its logical name; a 'soft link' file will be created with this name, linking to the physical name.

All file_info records must appear before the project_files record. As with all BOINC files, project files are immutable. If you want to change the contents of a file, you must use a new physical name.

Project Icon

A project icon is a 40x40 image, PNG, JPG, GIF, or BMP format. Transparency is not supported in GIF and PNG images.

An example would look like this:

<file_info>
    <name>stat_icon_01.png</name>
    <url>http://www.example.com/download/stat_icon_01.png</url>
    <md5_cksum>186c5385c8f2a48ccc7e4f64251fcda1</md5_cksum>
</file_info>
<project_files>
    <file_ref>
      <file_name>stat_icon_01.png</file_name>
      <open_name>stat_icon</open_name>
    </file_ref>
</project_files>

Two things to note here:

• The '01' in stat_icon_01.png is used for versioning.
• The physical name for the project icon is 'stat_icon_01.png' while the logical name for the project icon is 'stat_icon'. The manager looks for 'stat_icon' and resolves it to a physical name.

Application Slideshow

You can have one or more images displayed in the Simple GUI when BOINC is running one of your apps. Each image can have a height up to 126px and a width up to 290px, and can be any of the following image types: PNG, JPG, GIF, and BMP.

The logical names of these files must be either:

• slideshow_APPNAME_NN where APPNAME is the (short) application name, and NN is an integer (00 to 99). This provides a slide show for a particular application.
• slideshow_NN provides a slide show for all (other) applications.

The physical names can be anything you want.

An example:

<file_info>
    <name>image0.png</name>
    <url>http://www.example.com/download/image0.png</url>
    <md5_cksum>186c5385c8f2a48ccc7e4f64251fcda1</md5_cksum>
</file_info>
<file_info>
    <name>image1.png</name>
    <url>http://www.example.com/download/image1.png</url>
    <md5_cksum>3b262da3d69d6b9eb55add88b66cdab4</md5_cksum>
</file_info>
<project_files>
    <file_ref>
      <file_name>image0.png</file_name>
      <open_name>slideshow_exampleapp_00</open_name>
    </file_ref>
    <file_ref>
      <file_name>image1.png</file_name>
      <open_name>slideshow_exampleapp_01</open_name>
    </file_ref>
</project_files>

In the logical name slideshow_exampleapp_01, 'slideshow_' labels it as a slideshow file, 'exampleapp' is the application short name, and '01' is the index of the slide within the slideshow.

Example

Here is the 'project_files.xml' file SETI@home is using:

<file_info>
    <name>arecibo_181.png</name>
    <url>http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sg_images/arecibo_181.png</url>
    <md5_cksum>f9b65230a594098d183d2266511bc648</md5_cksum>
</file_info>
<file_info>
    <name>sah_40.png</name>
    <url>http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sg_images/sah_40.png</url>
    <md5_cksum>5791ba1be2d33eaa5f90ecf5de89a53d</md5_cksum>
</file_info>
<file_info>
    <name>sah_banner_290.png</name>
    <url>http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sg_images/sah_banner_290.png</url>
    <md5_cksum>39839286db7f580bef5377322d15ed35</md5_cksum>
</file_info>
<file_info>
    <name>sah_ss_290.png</name>
    <url>http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/sg_images/sah_ss_290.png</url>
    <md5_cksum>caf95504208aedd6ac6d82201e2fd8b1</md5_cksum>
</file_info>
<project_files>
    <file_ref>
      <file_name>sah_40.png</file_name>
      <open_name>stat_icon</open_name>
    </file_ref>
    <file_ref>
      <file_name>sah_ss_290.png</file_name>
      <open_name>slideshow_setiathome_enhanced_00</open_name>
    </file_ref>
    <file_ref>
      <file_name>arecibo_181.png</file_name>
      <open_name>slideshow_setiathome_enhanced_01</open_name>
    </file_ref>
    <file_ref>
      <file_name>sah_banner_290.png</file_name>
      <open_name>slideshow_setiathome_enhanced_02</open_name>
    </file_ref>
</project_files>