SSL certificate issues resolved

So after a bit of back-and-forth with Jumpline support (which was as supportive as hoped if not quite as responsive as hoped), I now have SSL certificates on my website (click here to see). This is cool, but the solution was not as obvious as hoped.
Apparently, the VDS manager (the software that manages my virtual domain) has some, well, quirks about how it expects things to behave. In particular, it requires that the certificate be actually named "server.crt" rather than whatever I defined in the httpd.conf file. Thanks to Andrew and Geoff at Jumpline, who went in and actually modified my server config to make this work, things seem to be working correctly now. It took 2 days of their futzing around to actually make it work, but it does seem to be working.
The other main problem is that I can't use multiple certificates as I'd hoped to do. I could do a wildcard certificate but that costs in the $400/yr price range - something I can't swing financially. So I wasted $12.99, which is sad but at least not an expensive object lesson. Still disappointing.
Now, though, I can begin to work again on OttoJotts for Facebook. I'll have to see how well it goes. I'm putting in a breakpoint, though - if I don't make progress for more than a day that I actually work on things, I'm going to punt and work on the web version instead.
Let's see what the next several days holds in store for OttoJotts...

SSL certificates and my web host provider

The past few days have been proven quite difficult - unexpectedly and disappointingly so. Here's the general gist of what's been happening.

I decided that rather than write a full front-end web interface for OttoJotts that I would be sneaky and do it for Facebook, creating a back-end for beta testing. This would give me a leg up on the FB version of the game and would still let me write most of the code needed for things without doing web development directly (I would be able to leverage some of my other efforts to help). I kept getting a failure from FB, though, and found out that it was likely based on secure browsing and a lack of SSL support from my game.
So I went online, found a cheap solution from NetworkSolutions ($12.99/yr for an SSL certificate - that's a good deal) and bought one for my FB subdomain. Installing it has been quite the exercise in frustration, though. For some reason, adding OpenSSL to the Apache service is simple. I just had to click on something, fill out a form, and bam! Installed. The certificates, though, are a different beast.
First, none of the documentation I've found match my configuration. I've been searching for, literally, days trying to find out what arcane incantation I'm missing to make this thing work. There are two separate configuration files - httpd.conf and ssl.conf. In different directories. Which one do I edit? What changes do I need to make to them? The information online seems scattered and confused - and doesn't match the configuration I have.
I've submitted a ticket with my hosting company to enlist their help, but some of the documentation now has me concerned that I won't be able to add a separate SSL certificate for my main site (the WWW one) and one for my subdomain (the one I'm using for the FB game) because of how OpenSSL is configured. Overall what I would have expected to be something that should be bog simple (because of the need for secure connections in an increasingly-connected world) has turned out to be the epitome of legacy manual entry. The only thing that would make it worse if I had to submit it on Hollerith (punch) cards! As it is, it's fortunate that I know vi as well as I do and can navigate my way around a Linux system.
I will update as things progress but for now I can just say that someone (not me) needs to figure out how to make this a lot simpler than it currently is.

More updates

I don't want to sound like a broken record, so thankfully this post avoids that. I've been working on cleaning up the back-end PHP code for OttoJotts so I can create a basic web interface that will exercise the two-player game. One of the concerns at this stage is that I'm going to spend too much time on the iOS front end and less on the actual game play. By working on the back-end I'm focusing my attention on the actual play. This also has the benefit of being the basis for a web interface for other things.
I've almost completed moving all of the actual working code into functions that can be called from either the iOS-supporting PHP code or from an HTML page directly. Given my (relatively) intermediate skills in web development, I'm hoping I can get something written up without killing myself to provide access. Some things, like creating an account and such, I'll pass on as that will require some effort. Rather, I'll just do that manually for now and then later work on getting something coded up that's pretty and usable.
Overall I'm pretty happy with how things have been going. I know that there's an added security benefit to what I'm doing, which is definitely a good thing. PHP has had a reputation for being somewhat "security lax" but there are things that you can do to harden it. Part of this work is doing that hardening.
So, things are progressing even if not visibly. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get this hammered out in the next few days and then I can work on the web interface. Then I'll be able to test the two player game code and, if everything's working well, be good to go. This does make me wonder, though, whether I should just do a web interface iOS app for the two player game and get the single player game out there. So do an OttoJotts solitaire version now-ish, get the web version working and then write a web UI wrapper app for the two-player game since I'm finding the two versions are radically different. Need to think this one over a little bit...
Until next time...

2012 Updates and Such

So I totally suck at updating this thing in any reasonable sense. It was a very busy period since February of last year through the end of the year. My son, Andrew, was born in April and a lot cascaded from that event, as you'd expect. Summer vacation was then upon us and a lot of things cropped up meaning that nothing happened with OttoJotts. Then the new school year was upon us and then Halloween and then Turkey Day and then Christmas (holy crap where did December go?!) and then New Year's. Wow.
So now it's 2012. The end of the world will be upon us in 352 days so I better get cracking on this game. What's on tap for right now is finishing up the two-player games which are started (mostly it's just friend management right now) and getting out Alpha 4 with those and then getting the rest of the functionality into Alpha 5 so I can get Beta 1 polished and out the door. The goal for Alpha 4 is to be out to testers by the end of February, Alpha 5 by Memorial Day, and the final game by Independence Day. What? You don't measure your year by holidays?
So that's the plan. It looks good on paper and may actually be do-able. We'll have to see. I just feel that there's an awful lot left to do and this really, sadly, isn't my full-time job. It's not even really a part-time job what with playing dad with the kiddos and stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to devote some more time to getting this project done. I've only got like 5 other ideas I want to get working on before the world ends in, *checking* yup, 352 days.

Been WAAAAAY Too Long

Well, it's been a LONG time since I've posted, but we've had a LOT going on here. To give a quick run-down:

• The 9-5 got interesting at the end of the year as my contract may have ended abruptly. Thankfully it didn't, but it was still quite a bit of shock that it might have happened.
• The spousal unit got REALLY sick. Sick to the point where she's still on short-term disability from HER job trying to recover. And when she does recover, she likely won't have said job. *sigh* She's been overly prone to illness lately because...
• The spousal unit is PREGNANT! Yeah, trust me - it was a surprise. A wonderful one, no doubt, but a surprise nonetheless. SO much to do and so little time. Due date is May 2nd and his name is going to be Andrew Ximun William. Yeah, we're sort of into two middle names. His big sister is just thrilled that she's going to be a big sister. :)

Other than that, the work I've decided to tackle for Alpha 4 is the meat of the project - two player, server-based games. That's requiring a lot of doing both PHP and Objective-C, but things are progressing. I've gotten a lot accomplished over the past few days, getting friends lists into the database and retrievable. I just finished creating accounts/logging into an existing account code. Took longer than I'd hoped but it came together nicely at the end. I'm storing hashed passwords (obviously) in the DB, but when I looked at the size of the hash I calculated half the size it really was, so I couldn't log in (because the two hashes didn't match - I wonder why?). I finally got that sorted out and things have progressed wonderfully since then.
Today has been a day about friends and creating games. I've got code in there to randomly find an opponent who's similarly rated (I'm using a modified Elo system for rankings). The idea is that you'll play someone who won't completely blow you away - unless you choose a friend who so far-outclasses you that it's ridiculous. Good thing is that Elo takes that into account and more than 400 point ratings differences tend to result in no change (as the result is practically guaranteed).
Searching for an opponent by their email is almost there as well. I just need to hook up the iOS code to do the query, but the PHP is solid on the back-end. One thing that I haven't done yet and I really need to make sure happens before release is to bullet-proof the PHP back-end. PHP is generally derided for being not-as-security-rich as some other technologies. If you've got pretty confined entry/exit points, though, I think it can be pretty solid. Regardless, in the interest of getting Alpha 4 done and out to testers I've neglected that, but it will need to happen for Alpha 5/Beta 1.
Also thrown into the mix is a new website design. I think I'm getting a lot closer to actually finishing this bloody project and I thought the old design (while state of the art in 2001) has not aged well and was in sore need of replacement. I've gone with a Wordpress front end, but I need to tweak the hell out of it to make it more aligned with my ideas. There are some things that I'm not grokking from the posting/pages side of things with WP, but I'll beat up on it once I'm done with Alpha 3.
So, that's it from here for now. LOTS happening, but hopefully this will be done by May and I can take my paternity leave in the knowledge that I've got my game in the App Store paying for at least some of the diapers we'll need to get.