Articles about software development operations

How to enable authenticated MongoDB access for Flask-MongoEngine applications

After having a first look at MongoDB more than 5 years back, I told myself that I will use MongoDB to realise the next functionality of Techcoil.

With exposure to Python 3, Flask and MongoEngine in 2017, I had acquired the skills to build a microsite to recommend gift ideas. This microsite uses MongoDB to store the gift recommendation data.

With Flask and MongoEngine, development of this microsite did not take too much leisure time. With MongoDB not enforcing authentication, there were not much hindrance in setting up the development environment for this microsite.

However, this free-for-all mode of accessing MongoDB is not recommended for production environments. Without authentication, it is easier for ill-intentioned people to mess up the backend database.

To ensure that I have a go-to post for implementing authenticated access to MongoDB backed projects in the future, I document the steps needed for Flask-MongoEngine applications to access MongoDB instances with access control turned on.

How I setup Jenkins on my Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspbian Stretch Lite

Jenkins is a renowned open source automation server that can help offload programmers from performing repetitive tasks like:

• running unit tests to make sure new code does not break existing codes.
• compiling and packaging the binaries from codes and dependencies.
• deploying new binaries to testing servers.
• checking whether production server is up and running.
• and etc.

If you have a Raspberry Pi 3 and you want to automate some of the tasks for your side projects, you may want to consider setting up Jenkins on your Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspbian Stretch Lite as the operating system.

This post documents how I setup Jenkins on my Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspbian Stretch Lite.

Setting up WordPress on Raspberry Pi Zero W with Raspbian Stretch Lite, Nginx, MariaDB and PHP as the LEMP stack

A Raspberry Pi Zero W is a small and capable computer that included a Wi-Fi chip for projects that requires an Internet connection.

Apart from running client programs on the Raspberry Pi Zero W, it is equally capable of being a web server. Since I had a spare Raspberry Pi Zero W lying around the house and there are good reasons to blog as a programmer, I decided to use it as a WordPress server to collect content for a new blog project.

This post documents how I setup WordPress on a Raspberry Pi Zero W with Raspbian Stretch Lite, nginx, MariaDB and PHP as the LEMP stack.

How to host multiple websites from home

A website is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content, that people can access anytime from anywhere of the Internet.

A website facilities the exchange of information between multiple parties. For instance, when you read the content of this page, I would have, hopefully, share the information of how to host multiple websites from home.

Setting up WordPress on Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspbian Stretch Lite, Nginx, MariaDB and PHP 7 as the LEMP stack

Raspbian Stretch was released on 17th August 2017 and this will mean that we will be able to get a variant of Debian 9 on our Raspberry Pi. With Raspbian Stretch, we will be able to run WordPress or any PHP framework with PHP 7.0 which Zend had indicated a performance boost of up to two folds as compared to PHP 5.6.

Just like the benefits that blogging brings to a programmer, the performance boost that PHP 7 brings about is a good reason for me to port my blog over to PHP 7.

Before porting my blog over to PHP 7, it will make sense for me to perform a little proof of concept on my Raspberry Pi 3 first. With Raspbian Stretch Lite, I can see for myself that my blog runs well with PHP 7.0 before spawning a new Digital Ocean instance for Techcoil.

This post documents how I setup an instance of WordPress on Raspberry Pi 3 with Raspbian Stretch Lite, nginx, MariaDB and PHP 7 as the LEMP stack.