Why should I register for the products generator?

You now need to register your email address to use the XRT products generator. This is a simple process of supplying and verifying your email address, and then ensuring that you enter it on the form when you request products. We have provided a new option to remember your email address (on a given browser/computer) so that this can be automatically filled in for you when you visit the page.

But I've used this service for years without registration, why the change?

The primary reason for this change is to support the launch of the API for this tool. To prevent abuse of the system when the API is available, and to enable some features of this service, we need to restrict access to only people who have supplied validated contact details.

A secondary reason for requiring email addresses is that occasions have arisen where we needed to contact a job submitter, but had no means to do so. Reasons include (for example) a case where a user has submitted a large number of jobs which are overwhelming the system; or where a user is requesting a series of jobs which are producing error reports.

Do I get any benefit of registering?

Yes! Once you have registered, your jobs will be logged and associated with your email address. On the main web page, once you enter your email address a new link will appear above the form, “Copy previous request.” If you click this a table will appear showing you all of the products you have requested since registering. Clicking on the jobID in that table will cause the form to be completed with the same values used in that previous request, making it easy to rebuild old products when new data have been received, for example. Also, if the products are still on disk then a link is given you so you can access them even if you've forgotten the URL.