From: Andreas Schwarz <usenet@...>
Date: 2004-01-28T19:04:54+09:00
Subject: Re: little client & server apps in Ruby for downloading authorized files

Ruby Baby wrote:
> SERVER:
> Has some protected files, not in a webroot, that I want to let the client
> download only if they pass me a verified key in the server's "OK" database.
> 
> CLIENT:
> Knows which files it wants (by file id# not full path).  Knows its key to
> get them.  Passes some kind of message to the remote server saying, "Here
> is my key.  Here is the file I want."  Server replies by passing the file,
> and a little metadata about the file.
> 
> 
> Sound familiar?
> Should I do it from scratch or is this just some well-known library I
> don't know about?   (I searched around, of course, but couldn't find one.)

Why not simply use a http server? If you already have one running, write
a CGI script, otherwise use Webrick. Then the client can use Net::HTTP
to fetch a URL like http://yourhost/server.cgi?id=324234&key=sdfhjasdf.