Demonstrations

A number of demonstrations of the various applications developed by our Principal Consultant, Alan Chandler, will be made available over the coming few weeks. Check back here to see which ones are available.

MB Chat - A Secure Communications Application

MB Chat was originally developed to help the Leadership Team at Melinda's Backups hold meetings remotely. However it worked well and was made into a facility that anyone who was a member could use. This original version was based on each client polling a database every two seconds to see if a new message had arrived. This was fine when the numbers where low, but one time Melinda Doolittle (the artist the site is a fan club for) came to chat and a large number of people tried to join also. The throttling controls of our hosting company prevented the software working. A new approach was needed.

In addition, potential use of the application in other scenarios led to a need to consider using encryption to ensure that the traffic could seen by someone eveasdropping on the conversations. This led to a major rework of the security aspects of the application. The design brief specifies requirements that ensure that no conversation can be intercepted, that from the client perspective the server is confirmed to be the one it is expecting to see (i.e. it is impossible for an attacker to intercept the messages with his own server) and that the only authenticated clients can connect to the server (i.e. it is impossible for an attacker to pretend to be a valid participant of a meeting and therefore see all the traffic associated with it).

The latest release supports large numbers of users, careful security controls to autheticate both server to client and client to server, and the (optional) encryption of messages between client and server and back again.

A demonstration is available here. This version uses the optional internal authentication of users (external authentication is also possible) and the option to allow guest users to try out the application. Just login without specifying a password and you will enter as a guest.

The software is licenced under an Open Source Licence and can be downloaded for free from Alan Chandler's personal web site. Hartley Consultants provide services to install and configure the software for use in specific business related applications. If you have such an application use the Contact Us page to send us a message and we will get in touch.

AKC Money - A Personal Finance Applications

AKC Money was originally developed to replace a simple money application (called “Micro Money”) that Alan was using on his dying Palm Pilot. It was originally developed in Java. A port to PHP/Javascript was started in 2009, but it wasn't until March 2010 that a major thrust to complete it was made.

The production version is protected via authentication to an https location, but a demo version of the software is available at http://money.chandlerfamily.org.uk

The software is licenced under an Open Source Licence and can be downloaded for free from Alan Chandler's personal web site. Hartley Consultants provide services to install and configure the software for use in specific business related applications. If you have such an application use the Contact Us page to send us a message and we will get in touch.