I made an application using Flex,php,mysql. Now to give it
to a client, I am bundling this flex application with
xampp. There are few problems with this approach :
1. Whenever the flex application runs, an xampp window
also opens up.
2. The Apache port number, which I am giving to the client
is fixed. Same for mysql port number.
What could be a better alternative to overcome these?
It sounds like you are trying to make a desktop-like app right? If so, your approach was the wrong one. AIR lets you access a local sqlite database, so you don't need to write serverside code at all. Now, that's kind of a lame thing to hear now that you're already done, but if you'll always have some quirks if you go your current direction.
If you are building a web application (for instance, if you application has to be accessible by many people, from any computer in the world that has access to the Internet), it should be deployed on a web-server somewhere, and not on your client's desktop machine.
As a sidenote : in that cas, you'll probably have to deal with some kind of authentication mecanism, to make sure only the "right people" have access to it.
There are loads of hosting companies out there ; depending on your exact needs, many of those would probably be OK for you : PHP+MySQL is quite common nowadays ; just note they generally run PHP on Linux, and not Windows, which might imply some little differences (like case-sensitivity in files names, for instance)
Depending on the type of company your client works in, maybe they already have some hosting possibilities ?
In that case, they should deploy the application on one of their webservers, which would make it accessible to anyone on the company (depending on their configuration, but that's why webservers exist, after all)
If that didn't help, could you elaborate a bit more on your needs ?
Thanks :-)
If you are building some kind of desktop application, that needs to be installed on only one computer and used by one personn and no more... Well, PHP is not the best tool for that ^^
Related
I have made an appointment management php app for a department of an institution. They insist to keep the app in their server, because the database is holding sensitive informations, and they don`t want to hand it for a 3rd party.
If they give my app for the other departments or make a copy and run it on other institution's server, i would never know about it, which i really don`t want.
Can i somehow give them a really hard time to make changes on my app and make it impossible (or at least difficult) to move to other servers without my permission ?
I really appreciate any kind of idea.
There is no such thing as perfect protection, given enough time any copy protection can be broken. That said the most universally accepted solution to this is IonCube. If you want to lock it to the system, perhaps check some hardware thing and hard code it in, such as the system's IP and/or MAC address.
Most hosts are happy to run the IonCube extension and it is pre-packaged with cPanel hosting environments and the like.
You could make some services on your own server, called by your scripts, like SaaS and that would probably be the best protection - you could then guard the calls to the services using some tokens, oAuth, whatever...
Basically, I want to provide a web application (built in PHP, MySQL, Apache) to users with source code in case they don't have Internet connection. But with that, I have to take care that they web application package (with Apache, PHP, MySQL and actual application with data) cannot be copied and run in another machine (may be we can bind authentication with Hard Disk serial id).
The first solution stroked in my mind was to build stand alone application but we don't have that option because we have limitation to go with web application only.
One solution, I thought is to create a web browser like container (which may be using one of the system's browser inside) in Java or any other stand alone programming language where we have additional authentication for current machine and internally it uses system's browser for HTTP requests/responses.
Please share your idea about feasibility/implementation of above solution or any other better solution.
One thing to keep in mind that, we are providing all source code with servers, so authentication with database or PHP won't be much useful.
But with that, I have to take care that they web application package (with Apache, PHP, MySQL and actual application with data) cannot be copied and run in another machine (may be we can bind authentication with Hard Disk serial id).
This is, strictly speaking, impossible.
The first solution stroked in my mind was to build stand alone application but we don't have that option because we have limitation to go with web application only.
Have you ever heard of IDA Pro? JD-GUI? ILSpy?
Stand-alone applications can trivially be reverse-engineered. This will protect nothing.
Your best options are:
Provide a cloud service, which is totally agnostic towards HTTP clients, so you can own the back-end machines that contain your source code, then give your customers a dumb open source front-end that speaks to the back-end.
Enforce your software policies (i.e. only allowed to run one copy of the software) with the appropriate tool for the job: Lawyers and contracts.
I'm trying to diagnose a server where the website is loading very slowly, but unfortunately my client has only provided me with FTP access.
I've got FTP access so I can upload PHP scripts, but can't set up any other server side tools.
I have access to phpMyAdmin, but not direct access to the MySQL server. It is also unfortunately a Windows server (and we've been a Linux shop for over a decade now).
So, if I wan to evaluate MySQL & disk speed performance through PHP on a generic server, what is the best way to do this?
There are already tools like:
https://github.com/raphaelm/php-benchmark or https://github.com/InfinitySoft/php-benchmark
But I'm surprised there isn't something that someone has already set up & configured to just run through and do some basic testing of a server's responsiveness.
Every time we evaluate a new server environment it's handy to be able to compare it to an existing one quickly to see if there are any anomalies. I guess I'd just hoped that someone else had written up a script to do this already. I know I have, but that was before Github when there was a handy place to post scraps of code like this.
You've probably already done this, but just in case... If I were in your shoes, the first thing I'd be looking at are the indexes on the mysql tables and the queries in the application. I've seen some sites get huge speed boosts just by fixing a join or adding a missing index.
Don't forget to check the code for performance issues or calls to sleep(). If you haven't yet, it may be helpful to get the code running locally so you can run it through xdebug.
Have done some research and found some stuff that may be helpful.
I would like your opinion about my approaches on this.
THE GOAL
I will develop an application in PHP (That's the only language I know and unfortunately I don't have time to learn another one right now). I want this application to be able to run offline and locally to any pc. I will use Wamp server and cakePHP framework for this.
THE PROBLEM
This application will be for sale. So I will need some activation method to prevent each app from being used in multiple computers. I don't want something complicated or very very secure. I just need something simple, to prevent non-programmers to run this app in any computer. Of course, the more secure, the better! :)
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS I AM THINKING OF
First of all, I am thinking to force users to activate their application, by going online during installation. That way they could get a unique KEY from my online database.
I found php's shell_exec command. So I am thinking, during online installation, to get the Host ID (Machine ID) of that computer, send it to my server and store it to my database next to a unique KEY. Then Machine ID and unique KEY can be stored to a php file. (Could I store it somewhere more secure? Maybe encrypt it?)
Every time the user opens the application, php will read machine ID. If not the same with the one stored in php file, an activation will be required. (Maybe could store computer's name too or some other id?)
Is that a good approach? Would it be possible?
Another approach I am thinking of, is to have a guy create a non php installation file. When run, will promp wamp installation and when installation finishes, will transfer all necessary files to wamp root folder (automatization for the user). I can only guess though this will work, as my knowledge over other languages is limited...
Could I benefit from this in validation terms? Can a non php file interact with my php application and validate it, for only one unique computer?
Any info will be very appreciated. I have just started building the application and want to know if there is a good way (or non) to secure it.
Thanks!
There is no point in all of this because if people want they can simply crack any of the copy protection methods you came up with. This also applies to any other app written in any other language. If people want to use it without permissions there are ways to do that.
There are some ways to obfuscate the code (see Is there a code obfuscator for PHP?) but these solutions are just silly because if people really want they can get the code in plain text anyways.
A better idea might be to run the app on your server and allow people to pay for it monthly, Software as a Service like Google Apps for Business.
i have a database that is written in access. the access mdb file connects via ODBC to a local mysql database. i have a bunch of sql and vba code in the access file. i dont expect the database to surpass 100mb. currently it is around 10mb. i will need to have multiple user access. (no more than 10 users at a time)
i need to convert this database from being a local one to a web server, and i need to make a web interface for it.
how do i get the current local instance of mysql database to run off a webserver? i am currently running it off wampserver 2.0. i dont have experience putting a database on a webserver.
i have an OK vb.net background. i have never done any web applications. here's a picture of the access form that i may need to replicate to work off a website:
alt text http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/1025/83882488.jpg
which platform should i use as the front end to this thing?
would it be possible to just run this access file off a webserver instead of programming a new front end for it? is that not a smart idea?
thank you for your help!
If your webserver has TCP connectivity to your existing database server, and its hosted in a suitable place (eg, don't have your webserver in a datacenter connecting to a database server on your office DSL connection), then no move is required.
If you do need to move it, it's as easy as creating a backup/dump, and restoring it elsewhere.
As far as the frontend, there are MANY technologies that will do what you need (ASP.NET, PHP, Python, Ruby, Perl, Java being the most popular ones, not necessarily in that order).
Use something you are comfortable with, or that you are interested in learning (provided you have the time to do so)
Use something that runs properly on your target webserver. Really, ASP.NET is the only one that has any major issue here, as it's limited to Windows.
Access itself has no direct web-accessible version. A Google search finds some apps that claim to convert Access forms to web-based, but I will not link to any because I don't know how well they work. I'm certainly leary of anything like that, because web apps are a different breed from Windows apps. If you are going to go that route, be sure they actually generate HTML output; make sane, clean source; and offer a free trial so you can verify it actually works.
Really though, a form like that is reasonably easy to reproduce with some basic knowledge of server-side programming and some HTML.
I don't have any experience migrating access to a web-based interface, although I have heard of people going straight from access to a web page. MySql is exceptionally easy to migrate. MySQL.com has a program called mysqldump that comes with the standard install of MySQL that allows you to export your database straight to a text file that can be used then with mysqldump to import it on another server. I don't believe the WAMP server comes with the command line tools although they can be downloaded from mysql.com. However, if it has phpMyAdmin, then there is also an export feature with that as well that will generate a .sql file that can be imported to the webserver using phpMyAdmin. One thing to keep in mind though is that I have had very little success mixing and matching these methods: ie, I've never been able to get a mysqldump-created file to work with phpMyAdmin and vice versa.
Good luck!
The link will help you to export and import mySQL database
May be on Windows web server there is an opportunity to run Access files, you can check, but any way if you have some programming skills, I would say that it is not difficult to crate a php script which will query your database info and will edit.
Migrating an Access application to the web is quite difficult, because you can't translate an Access form 1:1 into a web page. Web apps are stateless, whereas Access is built around the concept of bound controls and bound datasets.
Secondly, it is impossible to easily replicate an Access subform.
Third, you lose tons of events that Access forms and controls are built around.
In general, a web page that performs the same task as an Access form will bear little or no resemblance to the Access form, simply because the methods for accomplishing the same tasks and the UI widgets available to you are so completely different.
One thing to consider is whether your users need a web application or if they just need to use your existing Access application over the Internet. If the latter is the case, Windows Terminal Server/Citrix can do the job for a lot less money, since there's no conversion needed. You do need to provision a Windows Terminal Server, set up a VPN and purchase CALs for the users, but the costs of those are going to be much less than the cost of rebuilding the app for web deployment.
It may not be an appropriate solution, but it's one that you should consider, I think.