samba: running swat from xinetd

(swat - the web-based tool for managing samba servers and accounts)...well, on some (possibly most these days) linux distros it's run out of xinetd, which makes it pretty manageable: After you install your 'samba-swat' package, edit /etc/xinetd.d/swat to enable & configure it.

the critical lines being:
only_from = IP addresses/ranges you want access from
disable = no # the default being 'yes'

Now, less commonly-know it seems is the xinetd directive (ie. would work for all the apps you can wrap with it):

server_args = as-read-from-the-man-page

The server_args in this case being '-P' which limits swat to really only showing the password-change page by hiding the server config and monitoring elements. I don't want normal users to be able to see any of those items.

atypical web applications

on reflection, there's probably no such thing as a 'typical web app' - they all bring their challenges. I often seem to get the slightly off-centre ones. Not that I'm complaining really but people get told either that something is 'impossible' or is going to cost them 8 grand (which is another way of telling the client to go away).

It often seems that there's a lot of software waiting to be written in the small-business, web/print design space - apps that will encapsulate someones workflow in building or maintaining a complex website, converting images en mass or pulling data into some useful order or interface. Some of these would just be scripts & some real, hosted web applications.

How do you bring these opportunities together? the prospective client and their requirements (and some cash too I hope) and someone who can do the work - to the point where it's complete and actually does what the client wants? It's pretty hard, as I've been finding out. I'm wearing out the opportunities I can see in my network of contacts right now...

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Actually, I really just want to write about data persistence in the context of work I've performed for clients recently - and crucially - the tech (ie. programming languages, web hosting) I've had little choice but to employ... because this aspect has been really central to even small projects.

I keep coming back to the same thought: Java Servlets(& JSP, JSF kinds of teck built on top of the spec) was the only half-way elegant, well thought out web app framework - and they were more or less complete by 2000. Given the rise of scripting in the intervening decade & the decline of Java outside of enterprise systems we are are actually worse off now than then...