Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 19:07:19 +0200 From: Christoph Sold <so@server.i-clue.de> To: Ed Scott <ed@wickiup.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Suggestions for a project Message-ID: <395B8247.C5ECCFC6@i-clue.de> References: <000701bfe1d8$be6c0900$0c32fea9@wolf>
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Longish Question with longer reply follows... you have been warned :-) Ed Scott wrote: > > We need some advice for a system that we may get to build. It should run > through a browser. An automated task in C/C++ and PERL would collect > numerical data, process it and convert the result into GIF or PNG images. > This collection and processing task might run once a day or several times > per day depending on the source of data. The image files will be very > small. We have heard that MySQL would be a good choice since it is fast and > we do not need transactions. MySQL is a database, thus i assume you want to store the created images in the database instead of inside the filesystem. Both possibilities exist an can be easily realized using ports. > The other part of the architecture is for users via intranet or web browser > and consists of a series of pages that are like templates to display a set > of images (data) selected by time period. Currently we have a simple mockup > using JavaScript and DHTML which works well with canned pages. We are > thinking to use Apache. We may eventually want to allow users to add > annotation that could be entered into the database but this application will > primarily be a one way pipe. Am I reading you right: you plan a web interface to the automatically generated image database? > Questions: > > 1) What other software can you suggest? Apache, perl, php, and some graphics library. Nothing else needed. > 2) Are there any descriptions or examples as web pages, books or etc., of > architectures similar to this? Lots. The most prominent example I can think of is http://setiathome.berkeley.edu, although they render graphics on the fly AFAIK. > 3) What tutorials, courses or books suggestions can you offer on software > components like Apache, MySQL and etc.? O'Reilly has soime very nice books on the topic. The MySQL book is somewhat weak on the SQL side, its better suited to MySQL administration and installation. > 4) The potential development platforms are SuSE, Mandrake and FreeBSD - any > tradeoff comments? The deliverable platform is the same but we may also > need to run on Sun Solaris. Comments? FreeBSD has this nice port system. (Obviously I prefer it -- you asked at a FreeBSD forum.) > 5) Does FreeBSD contract consultant/mentoring for projects like this? FreeBSD cannot do such a thing: it's an Open Source Operating System, just as Linux is. Of course, there are consultants (including us) hungrily waiting for some bait (read money) to do any job you want. > Typical costs? We can build it ourselves I think but would benefit from > Apache, MySQL and etc. advice. To buiold the database part from the scratch, I would need about a week (including testing). Anyhow, I cannot comment on the cost, since a) I am based outside America and b) you did not provide enough detail on the project. Contact BSDi, Walnut Creek CDROM or any other consultant listed in the FreeBSD website (http://www.freebsd.org/commercial/consulting_bycat.html) to learn about consulktants supporting FreeBSD. HTH -Christoph Sold -- i-clue GmbH, Endersbacher Str. 57, D-71334 Waiblingen Fon: (0 71 51) 9 59 01-12, Fax: (0 71 51) 9 59 01-55 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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