> The recent discussion of "hidden" HTML coding reminded me of this item,
> lurking in my files from the newsgroup noted. I haven't checked it out,
> but it seems to offer some solutions for this type of application.
>
> I'd be curious if anyone has worked yet with W3MAGIC(tm).
:
> Date: Mon, 28 Aug 1995 23:53:55 -0700
> Newgroups: comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix
> From: alweiner@clark.net (Alan Weiner)
> Subject: Announce: New s/w makes it easy to develop dynamic pages and WWW MIS
>
> Developing eye-catching pages, creative storefronts and comprehensive MIS
> systems
> on the WWW just
> became simple!
:
> Form development and processing is another area facilitated by W3MAGIC(tm).
> Deve lopers can use the
> language to define various types of data, including integer, floating point,
:
I like "Deve lopers". I think I know some Deve lopers...
> ... Check it out at:
> http://www.clark.net/pub/alweiner/cgi-bin/homepage.cgi?w3magic
I checked this URL, and it seems like it's a CGI script that does a bit
of pre-processing to comments inserted in the HTML source. There isn't
any HTML encryption going on; they just don't show you the commands used
to get the q00l FX (before pre-processing):
| How can W3MAGIC encrypt code? Doesn't the user's browser let you see
| all the code?
|
| Well, yes and no. Let's say you wanted to set-up a password-protected
| page where you use W3MAGIC tags and logic to validate the user. Here's
| the sequence of events:
|
| 1. The browser connects with your HTML document -- which also contains
| the validation criterion
|
| 2. W3MAGIC evaluates your selection criterion and decides whether or
| not the user can see the rest of the page (or gets sent somewhere else)
|
| 3. W3MAGIC tags are not displayed on the screen as they are 'executed'
| -- even through the user's browser
|
| 4. A valid user would be presented with the HTML page. An invalid user
| would be sent to a different page.
|
| All your user selection logic [but not the HTML...] is protected from
| the browser's VIEW SOURCE button. [...]
If someone ever managed to really encrypt HTML, it could be restored with
a pretty-printer... if browsers can understand it, so can humans.
Gerald
-- Gerald Oskoboiny <gerald@cs.ualberta.ca> http://ugweb.cs.ualberta.ca/~gerald/