GSOC2019_Rocket_Chat_Aditya_Bhardwaj.md

Service Accounts in Rocket.Chat

Student:

• Aditya Bhardwaj (@bhardwajaditya)

Mentors:

• Peter Lepeska (@bizzbyster)
• Karan Bedi (@kb0304)

Primary Objective

Adding the service accounts to the exisitng Rocket.Chat application. This would focus on being very modular and should work well with the existing code base.

A brief description of the solution

The project aims to add the functionality of Service Accounts in the existing Rocket.Chat application. Service accounts will be an upgrade to regular user accounts, they will have a well-defined purpose. Regular users can subscribe to this account to get information regarding the context mentioned in the description of the Service account.

References (PRs)

They include required demo videos also.

1. Service Accounts Settings and Dashboard

• Exclusive settings for service accounts
• Added dashboard where admin can approve new service accounts.

2. Service Accounts Creation method

• Creation UI for service account.
• New accounts are created without using email addresses.

3. Service Accounts Creation callback

• Callback added to add broadcast room for service account

4. Service Accounts Login method

• Meteor login with token method used to switch between service accounts.

5. Service Accounts Directory feature and subscription method

• A new directory tab for service accounts was added.
• Clicking on the service account entry opens a chat room with service account and user is subscribed to it

4. Service Accounts Sidenav type

• Service accounts listed as subscriptions in sidenav

5. Service Accounts Notifications

• Notifications for new messages to service account owners.

6. Service Account Broadcast feature

• Broadcast message feature for service accounts.
• Message sent to this room are sent to all the subscribers.

7. Service account configurable approval process

• Configurable approval process and settings for service accounts.

8. Service Accounts bugs fixed

• Implementation bugs fixed

9. Service Accounts Broadcast Rate limiter

• Limit number of broadcast messages a service account is allowed to send in a fixed time interval.

10. Service Accounts Tests

• Tests for new server methods

11. Service Accounts creation button location changed

• Change done to make UI more convincing

12. Service Accounts Transfer

• Service account ownership can be transfered.
• Settings and UI created for the same

Misc:

Repo: bhardwajaditya/Rocket.Chat

Notable Features/Improvements

• Service Accounts Creation method
• Service Accounts Login method
• Service Accounts Directory feature and subscription method
• Service Accounts Notifications
• Service Account Broadcast feature
• Service Accounts Transfer

Final PR

• Pull request authored by Aditya Bhardwaj

To Do

• Add the ability to add multiple owners
• Add bot support for service accounts