Knowledge Base Web Application - Demo Mode Needed

Question

I was contracted to create an online knowledge base that searches and cross-references many thousands of spare parts for the niche industry. My client provides this application to their customers by subscription.

It uses MySQL and PHP, and it works great. I want to deploy it in demo mode to sell my skills. I want the user to see the functions, but I have to protect the data for my client.

My first idea was to confuse the results. This is for cross purposes indicating how well he is looking. I am considering limiting the number of searches that you can perform, but this is inconvenient, since everyone can visit every day and get more answers than we would prefer.

Other posts I've found are to let people interact with the application, but without the hassle of protecting a large knowledge base.

Can you suggest an approach? (Notice, I placed the obfuscation object, but not sure if it applies because the obfuscation java code does not seem to be related.)

UPDATE 1: About obfuscation ... I searched (or imagined, or fantasized) about obfuscation on the fly. I think it's kind of on its own. One answer so far involves a one-time fight, and probably I need to get closer to this if I do.

UPDATE 2: Thanks for the two warnings about fair use. It's all booming! I am as ethical as I am all day, and almost as ignorant as I am.

UPDATE 3: I have two answers, both of excellent quality. Chris L. made me “think outside the box” and provided what seemed like the best solution.

FINALLY: ... and there to show anyway!

Answer 1

Screenshots (or something similar) is your best bet. They are fast, easy to look through, and no one should really think about what they do when they look at them.

Make sure you have permission from your client.

Answer 2

Legally speaking, be very careful : taking a copy of such a system (especially its data) and using it for your own purposes, you can get into a large amount of hot water, depending on the contracts that you have signed, and (according to US law), regardless Whether the system was considered self-employed.

However, my personal preference for such a system would be data obfuscation. Change the names and numbers associated with the various parts for which he is looking to create a system that demonstrates equivalent functionality, but for another, completely fictional industry. (Turn things into widgets, gadgets, gadgets, etc.)

If the potential customer is sufficiently interested, see if you can arrange a demo account with a limited validity period with your original customer to demonstrate the system in full functionality.

Answer 3

Assuming you yourself are the application itself, the problem is that the data. "I'm not a lawyer," but I would not use client data, no matter how I messed it up. Create a dataset from scratch.

Many years ago I was with a company, and we took a customer data set, cleaned it, changed names to protect the innocent, etc. etc. etc., and used it for screenshots. You would have thought that his own mother could not recognize her. Wrong. Some time later, a client whose data we were told, "This is our data." No one received the lawsuit, and there weren’t even any serious feelings, but the fact is that whatever you do with it is still not YOUR data.

"I'm as ethical as I am all day, and almost as ignorant as I am." Your good intentions cannot count on anything if you ruin it.

Good luck.

Answer 4

If I were in your power, I would simply create some sample data to fill out the database and all other possible materials.

Then I would choose one or more of the following options to present the product to the client:

• Screen shots
• Screen broadcasts
• Real demonstration

Screen clips are usually more effective than screenshots (wow effect on the client), but they are a little more difficult to create. However, software such as Screenflow (Mac) makes creating them quick and easy.

I would personally avoid data obfuscation. Previously, it turned out that it is sometimes very difficult to explain to the client that the data was confused only for demonstration purposes (even if it was clearly indicated). The reaction I received from the client is still very perplexing.