I need some guidance around how to develop the app I'm working on.
It's basically a backend system to manage photos and slideshows (eg arrange photos in albums, decide which ones to publish, update names and captions etc)
I would like to avoid giving the source code to clients but would like to keep the actual photos and thumbnails on the client's server.
I'm not sure what would be the best way to achieve this. In my mind the steps are:
a) client uploads a photo to MY site
b) photo is registered into my DB
c) the original photo is moved to client's server
d) thumbnails are generated and saved on client's server
then the public site:
e) install the public website on my client's server;
f) when a user is browsing the client's website, the script gets the list of images to show from my database, and gets them from the local server.
(hope I made myself clear)
basically the question is: what's the best way to give the client minimal/no access to the source code?
I agree with benjy, however, you can get away with using an API to manage the system specific calls, and just have an upload handler that communicates back to your API on the clints box, so they still have some code, it is minimal, and the code requires an API call to function. That way you reduce the DB need, and reduce the resources required to manage the clients code.
API is used to authenticate / manage communication while the upload / manage scripts handle the upload/image handling.
IMO, this seems a little unnecessary. What exactly is your concern about having the source code rest on a client's server? All you need is a signed license agreement between you and the client preventing them from doing anything with it.
Or, if you really don't trust them, just sell it as hosted software. No point in the above procedure, which is rather convoluted (no offense), when you can just have everything on one server.
Just my $.02.
You can obfuscate the code with a commercial tool like IonCubelink text, or you can develop your application and license it using a SaaS model, and provide an API for the client software to use.
Zend Guard, SourceGuardian, IonCube, and similar are other viable options if you cannot keep it local but want to make it difficult to find out what the "source" is.
Related
I came across quite a few video distribution services (one is heyspread). The video they have on their home page is like, you upload your video only once and it is distributed to other video sharing sites. To me, it looks like they have coded it in Php.
Can anyone explain me the logic behind it? How is possible? Also, will it take the bandwidth of uploading it only once or uploading it to all the sites that we are using?
Also, if I had to code one like that, are there any links which I can use as a start up to kick off?
Here is my explanation based on what I know and your requirements:
Can anyone explain me the logic behind it?
You basically act as a mediator for all the sites. What the users do is given the site their permission to use their credentials that they set up in this multiple sites and allow you to upload video on their behalf so they don't have to do it themselves thereby saving them time
How is possible?
Many of the video hosting websites operate on HTTP protocol. In order to upload on your behalf the video distribution service do the following for each of the website (I have generalize the steps, there could be more than these steps for some of the sites):
Authenticate using the credentials that you give
Upload the video using one of the following ways:
If there is API available, then this is the preferred way for the service to upload on your behalf as the interface to authenticate/upload are clean and well define
If no API is available for a particular website, then the service has to simulate the HTTP sequence as if the request is made from the browser by the user. This is not the best way but sometimes is the only way. This approach is not as robust as the first one because the contract could change and you don't necessarily get the confirmation message (for success/failure of upload for example) other than via parsing the HTML
Also, will it take the bandwidth of uploading it only once or uploading it to all the sites that we are using?
It will use your bandwidth once to upload the video the first time. In order to upload to other websites on your behalf, the video distribution service will use its datacenter/cloud service bandwidth
Also, if I had to code one like that, are there any links which I can use as a start up to kick off?
I don't know any that does exactly like that, but you should look at each site that you want to mediate and see if they have the API first. You might want to start with those who have before trying to simulate user's click for those who don't have API. For example YouTube even goes further by providing the Client Library for you to use based on your language of choice.
I'm writing a web application in PHP which needs to store images and image meta data. In future, the application may need to work offline on the client. A user might need to download all the images and data to his laptop before going to a remote area without internet access. Whilst at the remote location the user could add new images to the system and be able to compare them with his local copy of the image database. When returning to an area with internet access, the user would run a sync operation which would copy his new images to the server and retrieve any new ones.
I've looked at the new web storage / localstorage options in HTML5 (web sql database seems to have been dropped) and I think this is going to be too limited as there is only 5MB space and one or two images could easily exceed that.
Is what I want to do actually possible / practical with a browser-based web application? Or should I be looking at writing a desktop/tablet application with local file storage capabilities for users without net access. Initially, it does need to be a web application, I'm just trying to think ahead. Will I give myself more options in future by using something like couchDB for the backend from the start? As I understand it, this comes with good syncing functionality.
Thanks,
I decided to use Titanium Desktop.
http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-desktop-application-development/
I am trying to build an app for a photographer. These are his requirements:
Photographer can upload photos or files (files up to 20-30mb).
Photographer can categorize photos and files by client.
Photographer can create client username and passwords.
Photographer can send email from web interface to link to download. (which requires client login)
Client can login and view and download photos and files assigned to his account.
Photographer mentioned 1-2 terabytes of data needs to be stored.
So, my questions:
Is there an open source system out there that already does this.
Is there an app already out there that does this. Photographer currently uses "yousendit" but the free solution is not sufficient since data is lost after 2 weeks.
He mentioned he could host it on a box at his office, but his connection is limited.. thaughts? At that point storage space would not be an issue. I would have to code this app.
GoDaddy hosting for example does unlimited storage with one of its plans that is reasonable. If I coded my own app, this would be perfect. I do hate GoDaddy though..
I will listen to any alternative suggestions.
Thanks!!
I'm not sure about building an app like this, but SmugMug is an existing app that hits most of your requirements.
Can upload unlimited JPGs as part of base cost, other files can be uploaded at additional cost
Photos can be categorized into galleries per client.
Galleries can be locked down, with clients getting unique user/pass to their gallery
Not 100% sure if you can email a link directly from the site, but I believe you can.
Additionally, if you get a pro account, clients can order prints online (no need to build your own payment processing), you can "theme" the galleries how you like, automatic watermarking, etc.
The base cost is $40-$150/year, depending on what level you choose, plus whatever you need for additional file storage. Not sure if it meets all your needs, but just throwing it out there. Note: I am not affiliated w/ SmugMug, just a satisfied user.
The first question you need to answer is whether you will store the files in the database or on the file system. Given the amount of data in question, I would store the file on the file system and keep meta data about the files including their location in the database. The catch to this approach is that you have to keep the two in sync with each other. It is not particularly difficult to build that system.
The second question relates to where you store the files. You could store the at the same place where you host the site or you could use a cloud storage option like Amazon's S3 (or DreamHOst mentioned by J_B). One advantage of using cloud storage is that the site can hosted anywhere without affecting the location of the files.
DreamHost might not mind. They say they will give you all the storage your site needs with all plans (+ some extra for storing whatever you want).
I don't know about an app that does that. Doesn't sound REAL hard to write.
I am about to deliver an Adobe AIR app to a customer.
But it's my first delivery of any sort, I.e. I have
no experience whatsoever with licensing etc.
Users of this app may or may not be online, so
can't count on that. In fact it's 99% sure that
they will be offline.
Nor do I expect them to very tech-savvy, who will
spend enough time scouting for ways to "crack" it.
So, is there an okeish type of way to protect this
app. That is, I don't want people to simply copy
the installation folder, take it to another machine
and run it. It should be slightly harder than this.
Oh, and I am also using PHP and MySql, with which
this AIR app communicates. So anything you guys could
help me with is very very welcome.
protect the php api and not the frontend app. have a license key which is bound to an ip address and authenticate the request (which contains the key) is coming from the correct ip.
If you want to protect your Flex app you can use irrObfuscator. There is a 30 days free demo.
If you wish to obfuscate your PHP code I would suggest ioncube. There is an online obfuscator that you can pay per à-la-carte. Pretty usefull. Tho you need ioncube loaders which is a set of PHP extension that you will find into the products section. Not sure but I think you can install loaders without playing with PHP config so it's shared-hosting friendly.
You can not protect anything that's webbased or javascript based, purely because there is complete sourcecode.
Anyone who knows how to use 'right click' could copy your files. You can obfuscate your code, but you cannot protect it. If you think that this shouldn't be possible, write a desktop app in a 'real' programming language.
When the app installs, I would do the following:
Create a file in "app-storage" that basically indicates the app has been installed.
Fire off a service call and make a record of the install
Change a file in the app directory to indicate the app has been installed
On subsequent startups, check for the presence of the file as long as the file in the app directory indicates the app has been installed. If you see the customer keeps installing their app over and over, this could be flagged in their account and appropriate action taken. If you want to get fancy, the file in "app-storage" could a one-way hash of some information from the file in the app directory (install date?) plus some value baked into the AIR application.
In general, I think the key here is to trust your users and not make the assumption they are trying to steal. You want to make the system as painless as possible. It does not build a good relationship with customers when you treat them like criminals, so creating an "ironclad" approach probably isn't even the best idea.
I think pretty much the only good way to do this is to require activation after installing (online activation, with a phone backup).
From what you're saying, it seems like the backend is installed on-site and would not be able to provide adequate copy protection.
I have a PHP/AJAX/MYSQL chat application. I want to add video chatting to my application. How can I create live video streaming to be used for live video conferences/chatting in a PHP application. What are the key-terms I need to know if I wanted to build such a system? Is it a good idea in the first place to use PHP? Is there something I'm not thinking about? What other languages can I use, perhaps in conjunction with PHP?
I am not saying that you have to abandon PHP, but you need different technologies here.
Let's start off simple (without Akamai :-)) and think about the implications here. Video, chat, etc. - it's all client-side in the beginning. The user has a webcam, you want to grab the signal somehow and send it to the server. There is no PHP so far.
I know that Flash supports this though (check this tutorial on webcams and flash) so you could use Flash to transport the content to the server. I think if you'll stay with Flash, then Flex (flex and webcam tutorial) is probably a good idea to look into.
So those are just the basics, maybe it gives you an idea of where you need to research because obviously this won't give you a full video chat inside your app yet. For starters, you will need some sort of way to record the streams and re-publish them so others see other people from the chat, etc..
I'm also not sure how much traffic and bandwidth this is gonna consume though and generally, you will need way more than a Stackoverflow question to solve this issue. Best would be to do a full spec of your app and then hire some people to help you build it.
HTH!
Please note that the below described service is no longer available as
it was based on FLV media (Flash)
This project which utilizes the Red5, Flex and PHP for Live Video Streaming and Recording has many features
Stream Live video to the viewers
Record the streams from your cam or other video input devices to the server
Preview the recorded streams and files and thumbnail the frame which you would like to display for the video.
Upload the videos from your computer and convert them to FLV which can be streamed using Red5 .
Choose from any resolutions
Can be plugged to any script
Each website user can have a separate Directory for storing their videos and thumbnails use this link
http://code.google.com/p/red5-flex-streamer/
PHP will let you build the pages of your site that make up your video conferencing and chat applications, but it won't deliver or stream video for you - PHP runs on the server only and renders out HTML to a client browser.
For the video, the first thing you'll need is a live streaming account with someone like akamai or the numerous others in the field. Using this account gives you an ingress point for your video - ie: the server that you will stream your live video up to.
Next, you want to get your video out to the browsers - windows media player, flash or silverlight will let you achieve this - embedding the appropriate control for your chosen technology into your page (using PHP or whatever) and given the address of your live video feed.
PHP (or other scripting language) would be used to build the chat part of the application and bring the whole thing together (the chat and the embedded video player).
Hope this helps.
PHP/AJAX/MySQL will not be enough for creating the live video streaming application There is a similar thread here. It primarily suggests using Flex or Silverlight.
For live video conferencing you can't ignore the need of a streaming server.
Yes, flash will let you display video from a webcam within the local flash control, but that won't let you then send that video over the network - for that you need a streaming server to send it to.
If you're going to build something like this it's prudent to think about how you're going to host the video from a very early stage as it will influence how you build the application. Flash/Flex/Silverlight/Windows Media....etc....
There are a lot of "off-the-shelf" 'servers' that will run in your environment.
Most of these utilize the aforementioned Flex or Silverlight to implement the actual video itself but I'm pretty sure all will run under LAMP/PHP.
The challenges will picking the best software from everything that's available and getting your hosting-provider to let you stream video (it goes without saying that streaming is heavy on bandwidth).
You can easily build a website as per the requirements. PHP will be there to handle the website development part. All the hosting and normal website development will work just as it is. However, for the streaming part, you will have to choose a good streaming service. Whether it is Red5 or Adobe, you can choose from plenty of services.
Choose a service that provides a dedicated storage to get something done right. If you do not know how to configure the server properly, you can just choose a streaming service. Good services often give a CDN that helps broadcast the stream efficiently. Simply launch your website in PHP and embed the YouTube player in the said web page to get it working.
Same problem/answer here, quoted below
I'm assuming you mean that you want to run your own private video
calls, not simply link to Skype calls or similar. You really have 2
options here: host it yourself, or use a hosted solution and integrate
it into your product.
Self-Hosted
----------------- This is messy. This can all be accomplished with PHP, but that is probably not the most advisable solution, as it is
not the best tool for the job on all sides. Flash is much more
efficient at a/v capture and transport on the user end. You can try to
do this without flash, but you will have headaches. HTML5 may make
your life easier, but if you're shooting for maximum compatibility,
flash is the simplest way to go for creating the client. Then, as far
as the actual server side that will relay the audio/video, you could
write a chat server in php, but you're better off using an open source
project, like
janenz00's mention
of red5, that's already built and
interfacing with it through your client (if it doesn't already have
one). Or you could homebrew a flash client as mentioned before and
hook it up to a flash streaming server on both sides...either way it
gets complicated fast, and is beyond my expertise to help you with at
all.
Hosted Service
----------------- All in, my recommendation, unless you want to administer a ridiculous setup of many complex servers and failure
points is to use a hosted service like
UserPlane or similar and offload all the
processing and technical work to people who are good at that, and then
worry about interfacing with their api and getting their client well
integrated into your site. You will be a happier developer if you do.