Digital Arts Service Corps - PHP

CUWiN-Ware Configuration Webapp

Matthew Isaacs — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:24:54 +0000

I recently started on a new project to improve the ease of use of the CUWiN network system. The project is a web application (PHP based) to allow communities and other collaborative entities to create and manage custom firmware images for their wireless nodes. The first is finished but not live. It addresses the issue of needed secure passwords node shell users (those with access to the actually OS prompt, i.e. root). We have a password database we use internally on the network here in C-U, however we don't distribute that for obvious reasons. The precompiled images we provided have a very unsecure and published default password. While it is possible to change this password from the console, this is inefficient in a large network and changes such as this do not generally persist across equipment reboots. This application addresses this gap by allowing the user to securely manage a list of users and passwords through the web. This information is stored in their own password database. The next phase of the application will integrate with the firmware build system. Partially compiled firmware will be available to the web application, which can then, at the users request, complete a build of the software, including their custom user/password database, and then provide then a secure link to download the file. Features to be added are the ability to customize the main configuration file (which controls how all the network interfaces are configured, the wireless settings, etc), and the ability to select hardware type and disk geometry. This application will go a long way to increase the ease of use of the technology.

Community Wireless Maps

Matthew Isaacs — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 22:48:36 +0000

One of my more recent projects has been re-working the network map for the local community wireless network. My efforts thus far can be found at http://map2.cuwireless.net. Credit for the CSS and the text accompanying the map goes to Ross. This is just the first part. The next stage is to add an admin/management interface.

The map is powered by PHP and the Google Maps API (which uses javascript). The Google Maps API is incredibly easy to use and has lots of features.

For anyway who is interested, this little project will be distilled into an open-source package once it is complete (should be sometime this month).

Tools of my trade

Kamala Kalluri — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 16:53:43 +0000

At present my work is focused mainly on a small software development project for which I write code in php. I have to write code to interact with a database and generate forms and reports.

Among the tools I am using for this project, Pear::DB and Smarty are more significant. PEAR is allowing me to write code which is database neutral. That is I do not have to write database functions addressed to a specific database. I need to do it only once in a single statement when I connect to a database of my choice. This is a cool concept that allows portability. For example same code can be used to connect to MySQL or SQLite or PostgresSQL data bases with changes only to configuration parameters.

Another tool that I am using is “Smarty templates” for report layout. With Smarty I can write code separating presentation details from the processing logic. Additionally Smarty allows me to use conditional logic and looping within the template, thus allowing me to separate not only the template but also the logic, this ability to use some level of logic, instead of just plugging in the variables, gives me more control over the display

For example I have been able to code the display of a form containing a list box filled with the results of a data base query. I am also able to create a table, populated with records from database with a layout based on a condition. Using smarty has simplified and reduced my php code as well. I find, having HTML files (templates)separated from PHP files is convenient in terms of running through HTML validator, linking to style sheets, debugging and editing.