Bumps in the road. What to do when you have to divert your path.
source, abc.net.au news site
So, I finally got through all the obstacles, got myself a webserver development environment up and running for a project. I first had to wade through the process of configuring the PHP interpreter to have the necessary cryptographic extensions enabled, and I am still to ensure I have got a database set up in my development environment. I've mostly got that end of it sorted out, actually, and it's probably simpler for me to write the script that creates the necessary schema directly.
So my road to completing my assignment, is like the picture above. I have a bit of a sense of being under the gun, because this project is sure to generate income, one way or another, there is several ways to monetise it, but I need it to get up to speed soon so I have the money to pay my next month's rent, or whatever it ends up being that I do next instead.
What to do?
Well, I am continuing my line of questioning with the web host directly, they simply need to make a small custom configuration change to the virtual host that will run the project. I tried to make the solution method open, but I have had to simply say 'ok, just do it this way, I know it is simple', and hopefully they will come back quickly with an answer, and a cost for the slightly more complex service involved in a short time period. I have also let the project assigner know what my issue is.
Fortunately, I have another small project, namely a recurring post involving me going out on walks, and capturing images of interesting things around this city of Sofia, Bulgaria, then come back, upload the photoset, and publish it, hopefully to generate lots of upvotes, and continue to improve my earning prospects and give myself a way to move forward.
Maybe while I am out and about, more ideas will come to me as well. But this is the current situation, and I figured, why not write about it, in case it gets some votes, and a little more income avenues opening.
We can't stop here! This is Whale country!
As somebody with an interest in cryptography, but who hasn't dealt with PHP in quite some time, I'd be interested in reading which cryptographic extensions you are using for your PHP interpreter, why you chose to include cryptographic extensions, and what value they add. Thank you.
It was the easiest one to get at, that was already on the host's PHP installations, openssl. The purpose of them is generating nonces using a hash function on, probably, a time string, or so, which would ensure that there was no duplicates in thousands of iterations, but nothing specifically identifying. I used the ripemd160 hash because I know it's pretty resistant to collisions. I mean, I could implement the necessary function with a simple increment but it's more code, basically.
The algorithm just automatically generates a string, one for 'user' and another for individual items for each user, so they can bookmark the link with the query string containing the 'user' code, and from that there is a database with user code (or nothing), item code, and a datestamp.
I did it this way because I figured it was the shortest, quickest way to generate unique IDs for each user. Something like a weaker version of the elliptic curve that is used for Steem. With steem, the username is not actually important, in fact I don't know where it actually appears, I am thinking probably in the initial.
But it doesn't matter so much, so long as there is no duplicates, and I know of no better way to ensure this within what will probably be at most maybe 20,000 'users' and amongst their items, the combination should yield a unique key for each entry.
It is just, really, a quick and dirty database application purpose, I will reveal exactly what it is for once it is up and running. I have got the answer to the question about the server configuration that I need, and the capabilities for the application, so I am just waiting on my 'boss' to make the subscription, and move the domain over to the new host that allows what I require.
Once it's complete and I've polished it with some nice CSS, next I will look into how to build a google chrome extension that integrates with it. Then the user can just set their UUID with it, and hopefully, I can then get it to automatically populate a form item that will mean they can use this with all of their posts automatically.
I imagine that if you are a clever person you probably have some idea what the purpose is, but I think I will get the jump on this and have something people can start using right away with little inconvenience.