Post4VPS Forum | Free VPS Provider - Web Development

Features for OpenSource Exam System v2

Sun, 04 Jul 2021 13:00:30 +0000

Hello, here is the first version and proof of concept that the exam system works and can be very useful.
So here are few core features that I am adding to the free Open Source Version of the application.

I am also creating a quiz app with an advanced feature set, which will help me survive.

Unlimited Category and Sub-Category For Questions.
Per Question point/marks/numbers.
Overwrite Question default marks when exam default marks are given.
Exam Time Limit.
Show result immediately after examination ends.
User auto registration (With email activation) and social media login.
Bulk Question Upload / Download.
Result (Details/Rank) Shows after result ends or.
Leader Board only for Registered Users.
Only One administrative role.
User Manager.
Web View Android App.
Exam Schedule.
Simple Exam Analytics.
Installation service and full video and written tutorial on how to set up your app.
Google Analytics

Please share have you used any examination system?
Do you think this feature set is enough for a standard examination web app?
If not what you wanted to see improved?
What should I add to its paid version?

NOTE: This is a MVP Version more features will be added in future.

AWS from deployment to launch

Sat, 12 Jun 2021 01:51:22 +0000

Hi all! It's been a little bit since I've done a in-depth post, but I am back and I've got hopefully a great writeup for Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is going to be a little bit of a different writeup because of how modular the components for AWS are so I will start with development and end with deployment and scalability. Hopefully this is a great resource for those looking at AWS deployment!

Development:
So the task at hand was to create a new website for work, that was scalable and would be able to host an active Community, eCommerce and Support Services. We began by creating our EC2 which is the server itself. With Amazon EC2 servers, you have a large variety of OSs to select from, starting at Amazon Linux 2 all the way to macOS and Windows. I selected a Linux Ubuntu EC2, as that is what I am the most familiar with on the Linux side and Amazon Linux 2 uses an entirely different package manager and firewall that I've researched and is a little more difficult to deploy and Apache or NGINX server. The next part of our Development Stack was to select storage requirements, networking components, and modular elements such as off server storage, cdn, load balancers etc. On our server, we allocated 30gb to host Wordpress, Apache, PHP 8.0.4 with modules and your basic odds and ends to get the Wordpress Framework up and running. Knowing that we will have customers all around the globe, I created an S3 attachment which in simple terms is a storage block that we are offloading all of our images, videos and other uploadable content. We attached a CDN on the S3, that way we get great SEO management and customers are able to visit our website and have content delivered as quickly and responsibly as possible. With an Amazon S3, you can use their native CDN service Cloud Front, or you can implement CDNs like CloudFlare as well. With the S3, we also have the website backing up to a separate bucket so if things crash, corrupt, or we need to continue to scale we will EASILY be able to scale up our server needs and redeploy with little to no downtime. The next step of our development process here in the next few weeks is to add on a load balancer, which will work with the CDN to help cache and serve assets so that the main server is not taking a total beating all the time, and add on RDS which is external database block storage, so we will be able to keep our database separate from the main server just for additional security and scalability options.

Deployment:
As we neared closer to launch day, it was super simple to port and migrate our domains and secure the server for live use. We had a few issues with Images caching between the CDN and the live version, but things quickly resolved themselves once GoDaddy made the official DNS transfer from our old host to our EC2 deployment. We also used Yoast SEO paired with SEM Rush and our SEO scoring with google is already up 25% from where we are and the organic traffic we are collecting is already paying for itself just optimizing our website, services and frameworks.

Scalability:
If you are looking at scalable development AWS is honestly an amazing route for you to consider especially if you are looking at eCommerce or Community Driven content. We will be able to easily upgrade our services, storage, hardware without a second of down time. There is a cost associated with all of this, but we went from spending about $600 USD a month to spending about $350-400 USD a month, so it is not cheap, but having the modular scalability is going to make it so simple for our business to scale as we continue to grow. I would love to show off specs, but since this is my job I can't share this information, but I can provide a TL;DR.

TLDR:

Deployment: 7/10 - The AWS console is a little intimidating at first, but they provide amazing documentation to get your EC2, IP, Storage and more created and associated together.

Scalability: 10/10 - Everything is separate from the storage to the IP, so you can easily upgrade and plug and play with little to no downtime!

Security: 10/10 - Amazon has thought of everything when it comes to security, so in my case only myself and my counterpart can access our SSH and console and it takes both of us to unlock or reset a password.

Price: 5/10 - Services is not the cheapest, by any means, but you get so much for what you pay for. If you can overlook the cost and/or are using this for clients that have a significant budget, this will be honestly an amazing route for you to investigate.

Overall: 8/10 - I highly recommend this solution, with some exceptions for smaller developers.

Emergency Project, Covid Resource Local

Tue, 11 May 2021 07:51:18 +0000

Hello, I am creating an emergency project for available covid resources in my area. The main feature is users can find using their Pincode it is that simple.
I have started building it yesterday, and need your review for this app. Thank you.

Here is a screenshot of the app -
I am releasing this app tomorrow hopefully. Please let me know your valuable opinion. Thank you.

184143838_1587869748069149_4452571800041087517_n.png (Size: 155.28 KB / Downloads: 42)

[Wordpress] Cookie Consent

Mon, 03 May 2021 07:40:15 +0000

So I just get my hand back to Wordpress to redesign my client's website. They usually have a banner that celebrate holidays, so I think I'm going to put that up in a pop up instead. I used Popup Maker, it's awesome and free. I cannot afford to pay USD 35 for a popup maker that specialized in Divi, so I found this and it's free and I'm happy now.

So then, after getting my first popup on air, I get a new problem. This still related to that popup since I setup the popup to not reopen multiple times for the same user. We must have ask user if they agree for us to track them. I found a plugin that do that for us: https://wordpress.org/plugins/complianz-gdpr/

I'm going to have my hand in this plugin soon. What do you guys think? Do you have ever find this plugin or other plugin that does similar things?

How to Change URL of a myBB Forum

Sat, 24 Apr 2021 13:05:54 +0000

I need to change URL of a forum from www. Website to www. website/forum/. I think I should do it by changing 'bburl' file /inc/settings.php. But I don't remember if there anything else. Maybe something in Admin control panel too?

Which type of IDE do you use? Paid or Free?

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 06:16:18 +0000

Hello, do you use a paid one or a free code editor? I don't use freemium one. I use sublime text it's free to use for life, but I am thinking to give VS Code a try.
What do you use?
VS Code, sublime, atom, brackets, or any others? Share with me.

My 2nd Opensource project, exam taking app.

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 15:26:28 +0000

Hello,
I am building another app, a free exam-taking app. This will be free for all. Anyone can install it to Heroku and vercel for free. The SASS version will have a free plan but will have more feature and options. I will be opensource this app soon no date is yet fixed. Please if you wanted to test here is the URL.

Vercel App For OpenExam

My first open-source web app, Blood Donation Diary.

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 07:17:56 +0000

Hello,
This is my first public open-source free to use app. It is made using laravel. The blood donation crisis is big and with time it's getting worse. This app will help groups or manager to solve and take requisition and share them publicly over social media. For the full feature please visit the website. Your opinion is very valuable please let me know how do I improve the code or have some great idea.

I am currently making a tutorial for this app, how a user can deploy it to Heroku and vercel, as they are a free hosting provider and stable ones.

Thank you.

GitHub repo for Blood Donation Diary

[Tutorial] Deploy git to vercel.

Sat, 03 Apr 2021 06:04:03 +0000

I am working on a project on a Blood Donation Diary app. After completing the project I needed to deploy my project to see its behaviour in the live environment. I have limited free option. Here I am sharing how I managed to deploy to vercel with MySQL database support. Vercel is a pass provider. You can deploy non-commercial projects for free here with up to 100GB bandwidth and no storage.

To start you need the following things-

1 . Git account
1.a. How to add the remote repo to a local dev environment
2. Vercel Account
3. Remote enabled MySQL database access.

Here I am demonstrating how to make work with the laravel app.

Create a laravel app using composer

Code:
composer create-project laravel/laravel laravelapp

Make Updates to or customise to it.

create these files in your root directory

Create this file

Code:
api/index.php

.vercelignore

vercel.json

Please note there is a dot file.

Now add these codes to their files

api/index.php

PHP Code:

// Forward Vercel requests to normal index.php
require __DIR__ . '/../public/index.php'; 

.vercelignore

PHP Code:
/vendor 

[font=Monaco, Consolas, Courier, monospace]vercel.json[/font]

PHP Code:
{
    "version": 2,
    "functions": {
        "api/index.php": { "runtime": "vercel-php@0.3.1" }
    },
    "routes": [{
        "src": "/(.*)",
        "dest": "/api/index.php"
    }],
    "env": {
        "APP_ENV": "production",
        "APP_DEBUG": "true",
        "APP_URL": "https://yourproductionurl.com",

        "APP_CONFIG_CACHE": "/tmp/config.php",
        "APP_EVENTS_CACHE": "/tmp/events.php",
        "APP_PACKAGES_CACHE": "/tmp/packages.php",
        "APP_ROUTES_CACHE": "/tmp/routes.php",
        "APP_SERVICES_CACHE": "/tmp/services.php",
        "VIEW_COMPILED_PATH": "/tmp",

        "CACHE_DRIVER": "array",
        "LOG_CHANNEL": "stderr",
        "SESSION_DRIVER": "cookie"
    }
} 

Note: you can get all kind of info on the supported framework using this vercel PHP here

https://github.com/juicyfx/vercel-php

Now create and push to your git. (I am assuming you know how to do that. Google if you can't.)

Now you need to create a project into vercel and add a GitHub account with vercel.

Now add GitHub repository to your project here

Code:
project > settings > git > Connected Git Repository

Now with every push, your site will auto-deploy.

Now you need to add apps environment variables

Code:
project > settings > git > Environment Variables

From your command line inside the local dev app run

Code:
php artisan key:generate --show

This will create a key,(and display) for your app and add these lines as env in vercel

Code:
APP_KEY = *****

You can add your MySQL details here or just hardcoded to the app, I have found env not so reliable. So I have to hard code it. Please note hard coding to GitHub repo is not recommended and it is exposed. you can do that inside your config/database.php file.

Code:
DB_CONNECTION=mysql

DB_HOST=**

DB_PORT=3306

DB_DATABASE=****

DB_USERNAME=**

DB_PASSWORD=**

Replace ** with their values.

You have to migrate your MySQL database ahead of time because vercel does not provide a terminal.

So here is how I did use vercel to check on my development in a production environment.

I am using vercel for 2 days now. I will update as I learn more.

Have you used this tutorial to get a free hosted website for yourself? please share. I will update with another free PostgreSQL service.

[WIP] Modernize Theme - MyBB

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 12:47:45 +0000

Hello folks,

I had recently started working on a new MyBB Theme called Modernize.

Here are few Pics so far:

Suggestions are always welcomed.
I was also looking forward to making it responsive and add a dark variant.

Any one with experience - scraping WP site from Wayback Machine?

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 11:20:22 +0000

Is there any one here with experience of scraping material from the WayBack Machine? I Googled it, and there are so many options, but I'm not comfortable with how legit or otherwise some of them are.

So this starts as a sad story. When Gigarocket closed, one of the members from Iran failed to respond in time, and as a consequence lost his blog. Initially I didn't take it to heart, as in this day and age it is very difficult for me to understand when someone doesn't make regular backups of their Website, particularly if it is a valued Website. But then I learned this guy has rheumatoid arthritis, and can barely use his fingers. The blog was really important to him. I had hoped that the owner of Gigarocket had made some backups of all of the hosting accounts, but learned that that had not happened, so the blog was no more.

I then checked first with DuckDuckGo to see whether I could find bits and pieces, which I could. When I read the bits and pieces I began to develop an understanding that this guy must be a lecturer or professor in engineering with lots of IT capabilities. The blog posts were written in excellent English so I began to understand that he must have put a lot of energy in it. It must be a great loss to him. I then thought to check the WayBack Machine to see whether I could find any material there, being doubtful initially as I wouldn't have thought the WayBack Machine would take copies of a personal blog. But then discovered that the blog had been "photographed" by the WayBack Machine 57 times, the last one on 31 October. It was that good a blog with substance.

The blog is a WordPress blog, but I get the feeling some of it was designed by the owner of the blog himself. Like the design is based on a WordPress Micro Blog template. Obviously I can't get the database, but I was able to copy and paste the source of the pages and CSS stylesheets to NotePad++, but there are still lots of material missing. Such as the images.

So if there is any one who has suggestions of how to scrape the WordPress site deeper than what I've been able to do, this will be much appreciated.

Buy Sell Website

Sun, 29 Nov 2020 12:15:05 +0000

Hello experts,
I hope everything is fine and you will be doing all well. As we know PUBG Mobile is rising as a worldwide best multiplayer game.I don't know if people do sell/buy accounts outside the Pakistan. But here in Pakistan people are doing it. I have found a lot of people dealing for accounts on there WhatsApp. I have decided to try out making a website where people do buy/sell their PUBGM accounts. So, i don't know whether it will work or not. I am going to use WordPress for this. I don't know if WordPress is good for it. So i am just asking here about thoughts on WordPress. Is WordPress good for trade ?

database: networking and security

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 18:48:29 +0000

I am dipping my toe in sql lately. My goal is to extend the games I've been working on with multiplayer functionality. I've had some success, but it's a steep learning curve as I'm not well versed with php or sql, the systems being used to integrate the database with the client.

While I experiment with new and interesting ways of organizing user data to enhance the gaming experience, I've got my thoughts centered on security. To have a multiplayer game, I need a way to identify different users, and each must be unique. This necessitates a user database, and means that I'll have to maintain user data and keep it safe while being able to access it and transmit it over the interwebs as needed.

Here's what I've tried so far:

After a great deal of thought, I decided to create a wordpress site to start the database. While probably not the most secure option, it is "the industry standard" as the most popular cms in the world, and with many minds working on it, it's probably better than anything I could come up with on my own on the fly.

Wordpress does make the effort to hash passwords before storing them, and there are numerous plugins to extend security, and regular updates: which I feel good about.

Next, I create my php scripts. The php scripts take a POST response over https and use it to move data into the database. The output is passed as JSON back to the client.

I am by no means an expert in security, but I did make some effort: I made sure to use PHP VALIDATE filters and on all user inputs. But I've noticed after hours of research that there are a ton of topics on this subject, more than I could ever read; which makes me wonder: What's the best way to go about it? It's like buying shampoo... how do I know what's the best shampoo when there's a whole aisle full of options, more than I could ever try?

I'm still a little apprehensive about transmitting user data over the internet, and would like to keep considering other options to increase security and safety for myself and others.

I have thought of creating a login token that would expire after a time; an hour or two? This could become tedious for the end user, but I'm less anxious about transmitting a randomly generated token than sending a user name/password, and expiring tokens would limit the opportunities for cheating. I could even bind each token to an ip although some users might not appreciate having their ip stored :/ I think there is no perfect solution. I need to focus on finding the best solution for my particular scenario.

After all that, here are the questions for any who might have an answer, and wish to extend the discussion:

1. At current, how "safe" would my operation be? I know that no system is completely secure, but can I proceed with relative confidence that I've made a solid effort to protect the integrity of the data?

2. If not, what other systems should I consider putting in place? What search terms can I put in google to return the topics I would be well to learn?

Hide iframe src from view source?

Mon, 07 Sep 2020 20:02:40 +0000

Hello everyone, I have a question that is there anyway to hide a src iframe from view source? I have searched many sources online but have yet to find the best answer, I have this code but it is not completely hidden, although but it is still visible in javascript

Here is my code:

Code:

  " src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Code:

And this is view source:

Please help me, thanks so much

Hosting multiple HTTPS domain under a server.

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 03:08:38 +0000

Usually I have used the netlify to get such stuffs done. Yesterday, I have got a VPS for some other purposes and I decided to host my website on it too. Any idea on how to do it?