Creating user with no password in Meteor

Question

I have a unique user creation flow which is as follows:

1. User comes to my site for the first time and they click a button.
2. I create a User in the DB for them and set a localStorage key with the UID.
3. Use goes about creating data and I save the data in the DB and associate it with the UID.
4. User comes back, and if they have UID set in localStorage, I show them the data they previously created.
5. User can click Register to create a "real" account from which point they will have to login with username and password or another service (e.g. Facebook).

So, how would I accomplish this with Meteor Accounts and the User model?

In a nutshell:

• I need to create User mongo document with no information (about the user).
• I need to authenticate a user by just having a UID (acting as a "password").

Answer 1

1. Register onCreateUser to add an "anonymous" field ({anonymous:1}) when a random password is used, maybe generated with Meteor.uuid().
2. Add a timestamp field ({created:new Date()}) to clean out old, anonymous accounts.
3. Perform old anonymous user maintenance, like deleting anonymous users more than one hour old: Meteor.autorun(function() {Meteor.users.find({anonymous:1,$where:"new Date() - this.created > 360000"}).forEach(function (user) {
Meteor.users.remove({_id:user._id})}});
4. On the client:
   1. Always prompt for a "nickname." This will become the official username, or will sit in the system forever used.
   2. Check if client is logged in. If not, create a user with nickname and a "magic number" password, which logs you in. When they click register, write "Register" at the top, but actually just change their password and $set:{anonymous:0}

Don't use localStorage, and don't use UIDs. The session cookie IS your UID.

Answer 2

I don't know how to help with the authentication, but as for creating a blank User object, I've successfully done the following on the server-side (with a different name...):

Meteor.users.insert({profile: {name: 'Oompa Loompa'}, foo: 'bar'});