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Posted by Jerry Stuckle on 02/04/06 06:00
E.T. Grey wrote:
>
>
> Jerry Stuckle wrote:
>
>> E.T. Grey wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have an interesting problem. I have a (LARGE) set of historical
>>> data that I want to keep on a central server, as several separate
>>> files. I want a client process to be able to request the data in a
>>> specific file by specifying the file name, start date/time and end
>>> date/time.
>>>
>>> The files are in binary format, to conserve space on the server (as
>>> well as to increase processing time). The data in each file can be
>>> quite large, covering several years of data. New data will be
>>> appended to these files each day, by a (PHP) script. The server
>>> machine is likely to be a Unix machine, whereas my clients will be
>>> running on windows machines. My clients program is written in C++.
>>>
>>> My two main problems/questions are as follows:
>>>
>>> 1). Transfer method issue:
>>> What is the best (i.e. most efficient and fast way) to transfer data
>>> from the server to clients ?. I think SOAP is likely to be too slow,
>>> because of the sheer size of the data
>>>
>>> 2). Cross platform issue:
>>> How can I insure that that the (binary?) data sent from the Unix
>>> server can be correctly interpreted at the client side?
>>>
>>> 2). Security issue:
>>> How can I prevent clients from directly accessing the files (to
>>> prevent malicious or accidental corruption of the data files.?
>>>
>>
>> Since this is going to be on a Unix machine, might I suggest one of
>> the Unix/Linux groups? Other than the fact this is going to be
>> appended to by a PHP script (which isn't part of your question), I
>> don't see anything indicating PHP in involved, much less a PHP question.
>>
>
> With the benefit of hindsight, I did not make myself clear. A further
> clarification is thus in order:
>
> I have implemented the server side of the solution using PHP. I am
> communicating with the C++ frontend using SOAP (i.e. communicating
> between PHP on the server and C++ at the client).
>
>
> My first question is asked because I (assume) SOAP is too heavy for file
> transfer (ok not directly a PHP question)
>
> My second question was asked because the files will be created (and
> appended) using PHP scripts - and I was wondering if binary files
> written by PHP on Unix, may be able to be read by a C++ application
> running on Windows.
>
> My third question was asked because I'm a realitive WAMP/LAMP & PHP
> newbie and I do not fully understand security issues in this framework.
> I simply know that I want to prevent clients from directly accesing the
> files.
>
> Hope this helps clarify things
>
Well, as for reading and writing the files - C++ should be able to read
any file written by PHP, COBOL or any other language. You may be forced
to do some massaging of the bytes, but that should be all.
As for not accessing the files directly - just don't put them in your
web root directory (or anywhere below it). Then someone can't access it
through the website.
--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================
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