Registration

The registration procedure adds new users to the user registry and enables data synchronization.

Situation

You want to work with others via an application and corresponding data shall be exchanged securely. This involves several questions:

1. How do others notify you that they want to join?

2. Who allows others to join your application?

3. How do users learn about new users?

4. How is the secure communication channel initialized?

Approach

The registration procedure requires an admin instance and the user instance that wants to register. It comprises three steps.

1. User generates a registration request as a file

   • contains user information (see login) including the user’s public keys for signing and encrypting data

   • encrypted with the admin public key

   • sent to admin, typically via email

2. Admin reviews the registration request, updates the user database and generates a registration response as a file

   • user roles are set during review

   • can include sections of the configuration typically, at least, including the credentials for the shared storage to exchange the user registry

   • response data is encrypted with the user’s public key

   • sent back to the user, typically via email

3. User loads the registration response

Not highlighted in the diagram is the synchronization of the user registry and other files via data synchronization, which is triggered..

• ..upon the last step of the registration to ensure the new user has access to all required data.

• ..upon the second step of the registration to share the updated user registry with existing users.

• ..every time on application startup for the user registry to ensure correct user permissions for any data synchronization during the session.

Implementation Incomplete

The registration procedure is implemented, including a transfer of configuration data but due to the missing data synchronization, there is no automatic synchronization of the user registry.

v0.0.4.dev4