Name: Bombay Softwares
Brand: Bombay Softwares
Rating: 5 (250 reviews)

## What is Chatbot?

A chatbot is a computer machinery and intelligence program that helps to create a communication between the machine and end-user through the voice commands or text medium. It is a software application used to provide information or receive an end-user's request.

## What is Conversational Chatbot?

Conversational Chatbot is an advanced version of Chatbot. There is a vast difference between “Chatbot” and “Conversational Chatbot”, Chatbots are rules driven and follow a predefined workflow, whereas Conversational chatbots are powered by NLP (Natural Language Processing) and machine learning to understand what the user is asking or looking for. 

Machine is capable of understanding, processing and responding to human language. Also, the knowledge-based integration of the back-end system to provide information to the user is different in both chatbots. 

The best examples of conversational Chatbots are Alexa, Siri, Drift, etc. If now-a-days you go to any website, e.g. shopping site, school website or financial services site, even food delivery site, you will get pop-ups or link to “chat with us”, “chat” or “virtual assistance”, those are nothing but conversational Chatbots.

## Why Conversational Chatbot?

When conversational Chatbot is introduced in any software it can then have direct transactional conversations with customers - without needing a person on the business side, as it easily understands the user’s concern or query.

Conversational Chatbots can quickly accelerate support infrastructures with the help of self-service portals for customers. This normally prompts quicker query resolutions. Now the client need not have to wait longer for agents’ assistance and that too at a reduced cost.

It can elevate a customer’s experience into something truly transformative. Your customers must no longer feel the frustration of chatbot primitive solutions that often fall short due to the scope and narrow limits.

It helps an organization in analytics and real time reporting.

Most of the organizations and institutions are changing from chatbots to Conversational Chatbots platforms since they are searching for more intelligent solutions.

So, to conclude, Conversational Chatbots are dramatically changing businesses, by achieving human-level language capabilities in speech-to-text systems, automated customer support, industrial machinery and robots, or personal digital assistants. 

As Conversational AI has moved from its experimental phase to its application phase and the technology continues to evolve, we expect opportunities in the space to grow as well. 

By 2029, the global chatbot market will grow to $46.64 billion. There is a lot of scope for expansion of conversational chatbots as all traditional chatbots would need an upgrade.

## Role of BS in Developing & Implementing Conversation Chatbots

Bombay Softwares has been doing research and development of AI conversational chatbot since the year 2018.

Our team has already implemented the chatbot into the Education, Fitness, Trading industries. In a trice, the team would enter multiple domains like Healthcare, Automotive, BFSI, Telecom & Retail.

The team believes that the introduction of conversational chatbots based on Artificial Intelligence will reduce the cost & efforts upto 70%.

We have already delivered two products based on Conversational AI which contains 3 patents.

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Chatbot

Explore the world of conversational AI chatbots and discover how these intelligent virtual assistants are transforming communication.

Conversational Chatbot: AI-Powered Communication & Support

An Introduction to Conversational Chatbot based on Artificial Intelligence

You must have heard about the word “Redux” while working with frontend developers or somewhere else, No ? Let me explain.

>Redux is a pattern and library for managing and updating application state, using events called "actions". It serves as a centralized store for state that needs to be used across your entire application, with rules ensuring that the state can only be updated in a predictable fashion.

This article delves into the integration of the Redux approach in [Android development](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/introduction-to-android-development/), particularly leveraging the power of MutableLiveData. 

## Understanding Redux in Android

Redux is a state management pattern and library that originated in the JavaScript and [web development](https://blog.hubspot.com/website/website-development) ecosystem but has found its way into various other platforms, including Android.

Redux provides a predictable and centralized way to manage the state of an application, making it easier to develop and maintain complex user interfaces.

In the context of Android, Redux is not a specific library or framework but rather a set of principles and patterns that can be implemented using existing tools and libraries. 

## Redux Principles

It was designed and developed for JavaScript but we can follow the Redux pattern in Android as well, Redux can be described in three fundamental principles.

- CheckSingle source of truth ( Store )
- CheckState is read-only ( State )
- CheckChanges are made with pure functions ( Reducers )

## Android Implementation

According to the Redux principles we will create **three components** but with slight variation. For state update callback we will use **MutableLiveData** an AndroidX lifecycle component which allows us to **observe** the change in the data.

## What are LiveData and Observers?

**Observers** are the functions which observe the changes in the LiveData and get automatically called when it receives any updates.

**LiveData** is an observable data holder class. Unlike a regular observable, LiveData is lifecycle-aware, meaning it respects the lifecycle of other app components, such as activities, fragments, or services. This awareness ensures LiveData only updates app component observers that are in an active lifecycle state.

*We are using Kotlin to show code examples.*

**State**

A state contains data that is accessible throughout the App. Here we are creating a To Do App for our sample project, so we will be storing the list of tasks in the App State. 

To make our todo list observable we will wrap it with LiveData, similarly you can wrap any type of class with LiveData and make it observable. Moreover you can add as many as variables using LiveData.


```
data class AppState(
    val tasks: LiveData<ArrayList<ToDoTask>>,
    var isLoading: LiveData<Boolean>
)
```

**Reducer**


Reducer contains the logical part, in this class we will create functions to apply CRUD operations. Here we are using a different approach with respect to the Redux principles, we are creating separate functions for different actions instead of action-dispatch functions. 

You can not modify LiveData directly, so first we will cast it to MutableLiveData and then apply changes. For more details about MutableLiveData read official documentation [here](https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/lifecycle/MutableLiveData#postValue(T)).


```
class Reducer(private val state: AppState) {

    fun addTask(task: ToDoTask) {
        val taskList = state.tasks.value!!
        taskList.add(task)

        // If you are working on Main thread you can use #setValue(),
        // for background thread use #postValue()
        (state.tasks as MutableLiveData).postValue(taskList)
    }

    fun deleteTask(task: ToDoTask): Unit {
        val taskList = state.tasks.value!!
        taskList.remove(task)
        (state.tasks as MutableLiveData).postValue(taskList)
    }

    fun updateTask(index: Int, isChecked: Boolean): Unit {
        val taskList = state.tasks.value!!
        taskList[index].isCompleted = isChecked
        (state.tasks as MutableLiveData).postValue(taskList)
    }

}
```
**Store**

Store is a global object which contains the AppState and the Reducer. We will create our Store class with AppState and Reducer, Initialise AppState with initial state and pass the initial state to the reducer.


```
class Store {
    var state: AppState
    var reducer: Reducer

    init {
        // Initial state
        state = AppState(
            MutableLiveData(ArrayList()),
            MutableLiveData(false)
        )
        reducer = Reducer(state)
    }
}
```

Ok! But, How to Combine these Things Together?

The Store should be accessible throughout the application, so we will need to create a global instance of store. Consequently we will extend the Application class and create a companion object, which will allow us to access the store object App wide.


```
class ThisApp : Application() {

    companion object {
        val store = Store()
    }

}
```

Don’t forget to add ThisApp to AndroidManifest.xml

## CRUD Operations

To modify the App State we need to call reducer functions which we created earlier. Below is the code which shows how to call reducer functions.


```
...
// Add
ThisApp.store.reducer.addTask(ToDoTask(1,"New Task","Description",false))

// Update
itemView.taskCheck.setOnClickListener {
    ThisApp.store.reducer.updateTask(position,!task.isCompleted)
}

// Delete
itemView.deleteTaskBtn.setOnClickListener {
    ThisApp.store.reducer.deleteTask(task)
}

...
```

## Updating the UI

For our To Do App, we require to list the tasks in the recycler view, so we will create an Adapter for it. We will use our tasks array list as a data source for TaskAdapter.


```
class TaskAdapter : RecyclerView.Adapter<TaskViewHolder>() {
    override fun onCreateViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int): TaskViewHolder {
        return TaskViewHolder(View.inflate(parent.context, R.layout.task_item_layout, null))
    }

    override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: TaskViewHolder, position: Int) {
        val task = ThisApp.store.state.tasks.value!![position]
        holder.bind(task,position)
    }

    override fun getItemCount(): Int {
        return ThisApp.store.state.tasks.value!!.size
    }
}
...
```

But there is a problem, the TaskAdapter doesn’t know that the data has been changed, so we need to notify it about that. For this purpose we will add an observer for the tasks list in our activity as shown below


```
...
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    // Add observer to specific live data
    ThisApp.store.state.tasks.observe(this) {
        taskAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged()
        if (it.size == 0) emptyView.visibility = View.VISIBLE
        else emptyView.visibility = View.GONE
    }
}
...

override fun onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy()
    // Remove all observers
    ThisApp.store.state.tasks.removeObservers(this)
}

......
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    // Add observer to specific live data
    ThisApp.store.state.tasks.observe(this) {
        taskAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged()
        if (it.size == 0) emptyView.visibility = View.VISIBLE
        else emptyView.visibility = View.GONE
    }
}
...

override fun onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy()
    // Remove all observers
    ThisApp.store.state.tasks.removeObservers(this)
}

...
```

Whenever the list gets updated, it will call **taskAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged()** which will update the recycler view.
Yesss ! we made it. That's how we can apply the Redux approach in Android using LiveData.

You can clone the sample project from [github](https://github.com/Edugem-Technologies/ToDoApp-ARL).

## Conclusion

Integrating the Redux approach with MutableLiveData in Android provides a robust and scalable architecture for state management. 

The unidirectional data flow, immutability, and predictability offered by Redux contribute to a more maintainable and debuggable codebase. 

By leveraging MutableLiveData for reactive updates, developers can seamlessly connect the Redux architecture with the Android UI, creating a powerful combination for building modern and responsive applications. 

As Android development continues to evolve, embracing such architectural patterns becomes increasingly essential for crafting high-quality, scalable, and maintainable apps.


**Note:**
This approach might not suit all types of projects, in the end it depends on you to choose appropriate architecture as per your project requirements. The LiveData which we used is a part of MVVM architecture recommended by the Android officials.

References: 

[1. AndroidX](https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx/migrate)

[2. Redux](https://redux.js.org/understanding/thinking-in-redux/three-principles)

[3. Live Data](https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/livedata)

[4. Mutable Live Data](https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/lifecycle/MutableLiveData)

Tags: Android,Kotlin,Redux,Javascript,Design Pattern,Technology

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Redux

Discover efficient state management in Android using LiveData and implement Redux principles with reducers, store, and observers for scalable apps.

Redux Approach in Android, Using MutableLiveData

Redux Approach in Android Using MutableLiveData

## A Problem That Sounds Simple

When someone buys a ticket at a live venue, a theater, a concert, a sporting event, they get a printed ticket at the door. The kind with their name, seat number, event details, a QR code, and a little tear-off stub on the right side.

Printing that ticket sounds simple. It isn't.

Our client, a live events ticketing platform, uses BOCA printers at their venues. BOCA is one of the most widely trusted brands in the live events industry. Walk into almost any major theater, arena, or sports venue in the US and there's a good chance a BOCA machine is handling their ticketing. They're fast, reliable, and built specifically for high-volume ticket printing.

But here's the thing: to tell a BOCA printer what to print and where to put it, you have to write instructions in a special language called FGL (Friendly Ghost Language).

FGL works like this: imagine the ticket is a blank grid. You have to tell the printer exactly where to place every single thing, the name, the price, the seat number, the QR code, everything, by giving it a row number and a column number. There is no drag and drop. No preview. You type a number, the printer prints it, and only then do you find out if it landed in the right place.

Get one number wrong and text overlaps, falls off the edge, or disappears entirely.

## Our Biggest Problem: We Had No Printer

Our development team works remotely. We don't have a BOCA printer sitting in the office to test with.

So every time we needed to adjust the ticket layout, move the price a little to the right, make the event name bigger, fix the spacing before the QR code, our process looked like this:

1. A developer writes the updated print instructions
2. We send them to the client
3. The client walks over to their printer room, prints a test ticket, and shares a photograph on Slack
4. We look at the photo and try to figure out what needs to move
5. We update the instructions and start over

One small layout change could take 30 to 45 minutes. And it often took 10 to 20 rounds of back and forth to get everything looking right.

It was slow, frustrating, and completely dependent on someone physically being at the printer.

## What the Iterations Actually Looked Like

Here is the honest story, told through the photos the client sent us over several weeks.

### Iteration 1: The "Receipt" Problem

Our very first print looked nothing like a ticket. It looked like a receipt.
![2.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/2_df91fe405d.png)

*First iteration: receipt-style layout with no ticket structure*

No header. No price area. No proper sections. Just raw data printed from top to bottom like a shopping bill. The client sent us this photo and we realised we hadn't even started solving the right problem yet.

### Iteration 2: Everything Overlapping

Once we started writing proper FGL instructions, things got worse before they got better. Every element had its own coordinate, but we had no way to see where the coordinates actually landed, so elements were crashing into each other.
![3.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/3_31a478e3e2.png)

*Second iteration: labels and values overlapping, text colliding*

The ticket name, admission label, and price were all printing on top of each other in the top section. The stub on the right was barely readable. The client shared the photo on Slack and we updated the coordinates and sent a new version.

### Iteration 3: Still Broken, Now With Two Tickets

We tried testing with two different ticket types at once to speed things up. Both were broken in the same ways, labels running into values, sections not aligned.

![4.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/4_6bc70266c4.png)

*Two broken tickets showing overlapping layout issues*

At this point we were starting to lose track of which coordinate change fixed which problem, because there was no record of what we had tried. Every iteration was a fresh guess.

### Iteration 4: Structure Appears, But Multiple Problems Remain

After many rounds, the main body started taking shape, but looking at the printed ticket, we had several problems at once:

- The price was printing rotated 90 degrees on the right side of the ticket instead of at the top
- The ADMISSION label was overlapping with the ticket name in the header
- The EVENT, DATE, VENUE, ORDER, NAME labels were too close together with no breathing room between them
- The QR code area was missing, it had not printed at all
- The stub section labels were small and cramped

![5.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/5_ab42993609.png)
*Progress on layout but price is printing vertically/sideways*

Every one of these issues needed a separate coordinate fix. And since we could only see the result after printing, each fix was a separate round with the client.

### Iteration 5: Finally on the Real Venue Ticket Stock

Up until now we had been testing on plain white paper stock. When we switched to the actual venue ticket stock, with the printed background colour and branding, new problems appeared. The left edge of the ticket was getting cut off.

![6.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/6_90df479d02.png)

*First print on real venue ticket stock: left margin cut off*

The venue's ticket paper had a branded left strip (venue name, phone number, website) printed on it. Our layout coordinates assumed a clean white edge, and we had to account for this strip by shifting everything to the right. Another round of adjustments.

### Iteration 6: Getting Closer

Same venue stock, next iteration. The layout was finally starting to look like a real ticket. The event block, order details, and seat section were all in the right zones.

![7.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/7_9884f3d544.png)

*Cleaner layout on venue stock: EVENT/DATE/VENUE/ORDER/NAME/SECTION properly aligned*

The stub on the right was also coming together, Section, Row, and Seat labels in the correct positions. But the label alignment was still slightly off and some fields were touching their borders.

### Iteration 7: The Stub Finally Aligns

The client tore the stub off and shared both pieces. For the first time, the main ticket and the stub were both readable and correctly laid out, the divider line was in the right place, the stub content matched the main body, and nothing was cut off or overflowing.

![8.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/8_3bc39900ef.png)
*Ticket with stub torn off: both main body and stub look clean*

This was the first time both halves looked correct, the layout was finally working end to end.

### Iteration 8: QR Code Not Printing

The main body layout was looking cleaner, EVENT, DATE, VENUE, ORDER, NAME, SECTION, ROW, SEAT all in the right places. But two problems stood out:

- The QR code was not printing at all, a large empty white area sat where it should have been
- The stub was missing the SECTION field, only ROW and SEAT were showing on the tear-off side
![9.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/9_cf2d6fc306.png)
*Layout clean but QR code missing, stub incomplete*

The QR code issue turned out to be a command format mismatch, the FGL instruction was not being recognised by this printer's firmware version. Another update, another print request.

### Iteration 9: QR Code Printing as Raw Text

The QR code was still not rendering correctly. Instead of printing an actual scannable QR code, the printer was outputting the raw URL as a long string of characters, printing across the entire ticket and overflowing off the edge.
![10.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/10_2c1dd0e92e.png)
*QR code URL printing as raw text instead of rendering as a QR code*

This meant the FGL QR command format we were using was not supported by this printer's firmware. We had to switch to a different QR command syntax that the printer recognised and retest.

### Still Not There Yet

After all those iterations, the layout had improved significantly, but it still wasn't matching what the client expected. The text was overlapping with the ticket's printed margin, the fonts were not the right weight, and the overall look was still far from the target.
![11.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/11_aef515b86e.png)
*Latest iteration: still overlapping with margin, fonts and layout not matching expected*

This is what the client actually wanted the ticket to look like:

![12.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/12_2f30c7863b.png)
*Expected ticket design shared by client: bold header, large QR code, clean stub with section, row and seat*

A bold ADULT heading with the price on the right. A large scannable QR code. Clean EVENT / DATE / VENUE block. SECTION / ROW / SEAT clearly readable at the bottom. The stub matching perfectly on the right side.

The gap between where we were and where we needed to be was still significant, and every step still required a deployment, a print, a photo on Slack, and a round of guessing. This is exactly what pushed us to build the debugger tool.

## The Real Problem

Every single coordinate change, no matter how small, required a full deployment. We would update the FGL command, deploy the code, message the client, wait for them to print, wait for the photo on Slack, and then start the whole cycle again for the next fix.

One pixel adjustment. Full deployment. Wait.

Move a label 5 dots to the right. Full deployment. Wait.

Fix the QR command. Full deployment. Wait.

There was no way to just try something and see it. Every guess had a cost attached to it, developer time, deployment time, and the client's time at the printer. We needed a way to iterate without deploying.

## The Tool We Built

We built a browser-based BOCA ticket designer, a live visual playground that runs in any web browser, shows a real-size preview of the ticket, and lets you drag every element into position.
![13.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/13_5aab47e9a3.png)
*BOCA Ticket Debugger: live ticket preview, FGL command panel, and debug log*

Instead of writing instructions and waiting to see what prints, you can now see the ticket on screen as you design it. The left panel shows the live ticket preview with draggable elements. The middle panel shows the FGL commands being generated in real time. The right panel is a debug log that records every action, print attempt, and error.

### You See a Real-Size Ticket Preview

The tool shows a scaled-down replica of the actual BOCA ticket, the same proportions, the same layout zones, the same tear-off stub on the right. What you see on screen is what will come out of the printer.

### You Drag Elements Into Place

Every part of the ticket is movable. Click and drag the ticket name, the price, the event block, the QR code, the seat information, anything. As you drag, the position updates in real time. No guessing. No waiting.

### The Print Instructions Update Automatically

In the background, the tool is constantly generating the exact FGL print instructions based on where you've placed everything. The moment you finish designing, the instructions are ready, correct, precise, and ready to send to the printer.

### You Can Undo Anything

Made a change you don't like? Hit Ctrl+Z. The tool keeps the last ten moves in history so you can experiment freely without fear of breaking the layout.

### You Can Print Directly From the Browser

When connected to the printer (via a small program called QZ Tray), you can send the ticket directly from the browser to the BOCA printer. No exporting, no copy-pasting instructions into another system.

## The Tool in Action: Client Prints It Themselves

Once we built the debugger, we shared it directly with the client. They opened it in the browser, used the default layout, and printed immediately, no deployment needed from our side.
![14.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/14_df1a24af5f.png)
*Client's first print using the debugger tool: layout correct but QR code still missing*

The first print was already much closer. The layout, fonts, and structure were all correct. The QR code was still not showing, a known issue with the FGL command format for that specific printer firmware.

The client then adjusted a few positions themselves using the drag interface, corrected the QR command format, and printed again.
![15.png](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/15_7a5ba59821.png)
*Final print: ADULT header, price, QR code, full event block, clean stub, exactly as expected*

This was it. ADULT and $209.99 in the header. ADMISSION and PRICE labels. Full EVENT / DATE / VENUE block. A large scannable QR code. SECTION ORCHESTRA / ROW A / SEAT 13 at the bottom. The stub matches perfectly on the right.

No deployment from us. No back and forth on Slack. The client adjusted and printed it themselves.

## Before and After

| Aspect | Before | After |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seeing what the ticket looks like | Wait for a printed photo | Instant preview in browser |
| Adjusting a position | Edit code, redeploy, reprint | Drag and drop |
| QR code size tuning | Print multiple variants | Drag the corner handle |
| Fixing long event name overflow | Redeploy and ask client to reprint | Visible and fixable immediately |
| Text overlapping issues | Discovered only after printing | Impossible, you see it live |
| Client involvement needed | For every single change | Only for final sign-off |
| Time per layout iteration | 30 to 45 minutes | Under a minute |
| Time to complete a full layout | 2 to 3 days | Under an hour |

## The Bigger Lesson

We didn't build this because it was an interesting technical challenge. We built it because a painful, time-consuming process was getting in the way of doing good work for our clients.

The photos in this post are real. That was our actual workflow, Slack photos of tickets lying on a table, shared back and forth across time zones, trying to figure out if a number needed to go up by 5 or down by 10.

The best tools aren't always the most sophisticated ones. Sometimes the most valuable thing you can build is something that simply makes the invisible visible, so you can stop guessing and start knowing.

If your team is stuck in a loop of small changes, long feedback cycles, and "can you just print one more test?" That loop is worth breaking. The time you invest in fixing the process pays back every single day after.

The tool is open source, you can explore or adapt it here: [github.com/Edugem-Technologies/boca-layout-designer](https://github.com/Edugem-Technologies/boca-layout-designer)

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BOCA ticket Designer

How we replaced slow BOCA/FGL ticket-printing guesswork with a live browser-based ticket designer, cutting layout iteration time from days to minutes.

How We Built a Live BOCA Ticket Designer (No Printer)

The JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem heavily relies on open-source dependencies, making your supply chain a prime target for threat actors. With millions of packages available in the npm registry, there is a constant risk of supply chain attacks.

## Here are some guidelines to help you prevent and reduce the impact of such attacks:

### Disable Post-Install Scripts

Malicious packages often execute arbitrary command-line code during installation. Use ```npm install --ignore-scripts``` to prevent third-party scripts from running automatically.

Alternatively, switch to a package manager like pnpm, which restricts background script execution by default.

Some packages, such as sharp, might require post-install scripts. With the `--ignore-scripts` option, these scripts will silently fail.

To install them, you can run `npm rebuild <package-name>` or switch to pnpm, which features an `onlyBuiltDependencies` option to allow trusted packages to run scripts.

### Enforce Lockfiles & Use npm ci

Always commit your lockfile (package-lock.json, yarn.lock, or pnpm-lock.yaml).
In your CI/CD pipelines and production deployments, exclusively use `npm ci` instead of `npm install`.

This strictly installs the exact versions mapped in the lockfile, bypassing standard version resolution and preventing unexpected malicious updates from sneaking into your build.

### Implement a Package Cooldown Period

Avoid upgrading to brand-new package versions on day one. Wait a few days to let the community vet the release, as compromised packages are usually discovered and taken down by the npm registry within 24 to 72 hours.

If you have sufficient resources, you can set up a proxy registry with quarantine rules.
Newer versions of npm (>v11.10.0) also offer a min-release-age setting that accepts a number representing days.

For example, if you want a 7-day cooldown period, add this exact line to your .npmrc file:

`min-release-age=7`

With this configured, running `npm install` will cause npm to completely ignore any package versions published to the registry less than 7 days ago. It will automatically resolve to the most recent safe version that has survived the quarantine period.

### Audit Dependencies Regularly

Run `npm audit` (or pnpm audit / yarn audit) frequently and locally in your CI pipelines to detect known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs).

You can configure your CI to fail the build if high or critical vulnerabilities are detected by using `npm audit --audit-level=high`.
Go a step further by integrating automated scanning tools like Snyk or Dependabot directly into your repository to automatically flag vulnerable libraries.

### Beware Typosquatting and Slopsquatting

Attackers publish malicious packages with names visually similar to popular ones (e.g., react-don instead of react-dom).

Be highly skeptical of AI-suggested dependencies; AI models sometimes hallucinate non-existent packages, which attackers proactively monitor and register with malicious code, a practice known as slopsquatting.

### Use Pre-Install Analysis Tools

Consider using tools like [npq](https://github.com/lirantal/npq) before installing a new package.

These tools analyze the package for trust scores, known malicious patterns, and suspicious behavior before allowing it into your project.

### Verify package Provenance

It is a verifiable record of a package's origin. It provides cryptographic proof that the package was built from a specific source repository via a trusted build platform (e.g., GitHub Actions), rather than on a developer's machine or some other unverified machine.

This makes sure the code used to make the build is not tampered with.

You can see the Provenance section in the npmjs package page.

![Node.js Against Packages](https://bs-cms-media-prod.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/In_Article_Images_0bf89fd467.png)

## Improving Your Project security with .npmrc

The .npmrc (NPM Running Configuration) file allows you to set default behaviors for how npm installs and manages packages.
By configuring this file at the project level, you ensure that every developer and CI/CD pipeline interacting with your repository automatically follows the exact same security rules.

### Where to add the File

Create a file named exactly .npmrc in the root directory of your project (same directory as package.json).

You should commit this file to your repository so the rules apply to everyone working on the project.

## Recommended Security Configurations for .npmrc

Add the following lines to your .npmrc file to enforce best practices:

### 1. Disable Post-Install Scripts Globally

`ignore-scripts=true`

**Why:** It prevents third-party packages from automatically executing arbitrary bash or Node scripts on your machine when you run npm install.

### 2. Run Audits Automatically

`audit=true`

**Why:** Ensures that npm audit runs automatically during npm install, immediately flagging known CVEs to the developer adding the package.

### 3. Enforce the Engine Rule

`engine-strict=true`

**Why:** npm will refuse to install any package that is incompatible with the current Node.js version, as defined in the engines field of the package.json file.

### 4. Include min release age

`min-release-age=7`

**Why:** Setting min-release-age creates a quarantine period. It tells npm to ignore any package version that hasn't been public for a specific number of days.

## Recent npm supply chain Examples:

### 1. The "Mini Shai-Hulud" Worm & TanStack Hijack

Mini Shai-Hulud is a self-propagating supply chain malware worm. It targets open-source package registries (primarily npm and PyPI).

Attackers compromised the GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline of TanStack (a highly popular suite of open-source libraries). Within minutes, the automated worm published 84 malicious artifacts across 42 @tanstack/* packages, rapidly spreading to other packages.

**Impact:** The worm caused a massive spike in infected software artifacts across open-source package registries, Security teams initially flagged over 300+ npm packages.
Developers use semantic versioning ranges (e.g., ^3.0.0), this leads to infected patches being pulled down automatically. This amplified the blast radius into thousands of downstream corporate applications and continuous integration (CI) workflows.
GitHub took emergency measures and destroyed 61,274 npm granular access tokens that had been stolen or scraped by the worm to stop lateral movements.
By executing directly inside trusted GitHub runner processes, the corrupted files carried genuine SLSA Build Level 3 provenance attestations. They appeared completely safe, authentic, and tamper-free to downstream enterprise firewalls

**Sources:** [akamai.com](https://www.akamai.com/blog/security-research/mini-shai-hulud-worm-returns-goes-public) [snyk.io](https://snyk.io/blog/tanstack-npm-packages-compromised/)

### 2. Corporate internal package dependency confusion

A threat actor operating under Yandex-associated aliases published 33 malicious packages spread across nine distinct organizational namespaces.

A cluster of 176 malicious npm packages was deployed using the explicit 99.99.99 versioning strategy. This caused corporate build servers to pull the malicious public packages over private internal ones.

**Impact:** The moment a developer or an automated CI/CD build runner executed a standard npm install, the malicious public package was downloaded and executed automatically via built-in postinstall lifecycle scripts.

To fool security teams reviewing the dependencies, the threat actors spoofed internal corporate URLs directly within the package.json file metadata.
Unlike the widespread worm, this acted as a reconnaissance tool. It collected Hostnames, local network configurations, and active directory context, environment variables, Deep cloud infrastructure secrets, including AWS IAM credentials

**Sources:** [microsoft.com](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2026/05/29/33-malicious-npm-packages-abuse-dependency-confusion-profile-developer-environments/) [sonatype.com](https://www.sonatype.com/blog/inside-a-176-package-npm-campaign-built-to-beat-your-internal-dependencies)

### 3. Axios Supply chain attack.

Attackers compromised an npm maintainer account of the widely used Axios library. They published malicious versions that secretly added a dependency (plain-crypto-js). This dependency installed a remote access trojan (RAT) capable of data theft and remote control.

**Impact:** Security researchers emphasized that the main goal of the RAT was credential harvesting (stealing API tokens, SSH keys, cloud access parameters, and .env files).
Cyber researchers estimate that roughly 600,000 systems ran a fresh npm install or updated their build pipelines during the specific 3-hour window (March 31, 2026, from 00:21 to 03:30 UTC) when versions 1.14.1 and 0.30.4 were live.

**Sources:** [paloaltonetworks.com](https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/axios-supply-chain-attack/) [tenable.com](https://www.tenable.com/blog/supply-chain-attack-on-axios-npm-package-scope-impact-and-remediations)

## Further Reading

1. [OWASP Cheat Sheet Series: Node.js Security Cheat Sheet & NPM Security Cheat Sheet.](https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Nodejs_Security_Cheat_Sheet.html)

2. [GitHub / Liran Tal: Collection of npm Package Manager Security Best Practices.](https://github.com/lirantal/npm-security-best-practices)

3. [Npq - safely install npm packages by auditing them pre-install stage.](https://github.com/lirantal/npq)

4. [Authgear: Node.js Auth Security Best Practices.](https://www.authgear.com/post/nodejs-security-best-practices)


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Node.js Against Vulnerable Packages

Guard your Node.js supply chain: disable post-install scripts, enforce lockfiles, run npm audit, spot typosquatting, and harden .npmrc against attacks.

Securing Node.js Against Vulnerable Packages

## I stopped taking notes from YouTube tutorials. Here is what I do instead.

I’ll be honest: I have a love-hate relationship with video tutorials.

I love that I can learn literally anything—from Neural Networks to fixing my dishwasher—for free. But I hate the actual process of learning from them.

You probably know the drill. You find a great 1-hour crash course. You’re excited. You hit play.

Two minutes in, you hear a key concept. You pause. You scribble it down in Notion or Obsidian. You hit play. Three minutes later, you missed a step. You rewind. You listen again. You pause again.

By the time you finish that "1-hour" video, two hours have passed, and you’re exhausted. And the worst part? Half the time, I never even look at those messy notes again.

It felt inefficient.

So, I built a tool to fix it for myself. It’s called TubeGPT.

## Ideally, I shouldn't have to watch the whole thing

The main goal was simple: I wanted to be able to "chat" with the video.

Most of the time, I don't need to watch the entire 40-minute intro. I just need to know: "What are the specific steps to set up the environment?" or "What did he say about handling errors in the API section?"

TubeGPT lets me do exactly that. I paste the link, and it feels like I've instantly downloaded the knowledge from the video into a chatbot. I can ask specific questions and get answers immediately without scrubbing through the timeline.

## The feature I actually use the most: "One-Click Cheatsheets"

Chatting is great, but sometimes I just need a study guide.

I built a feature that takes the entire video transcript and formats it into a clean, structured cheatsheet. It pulls out:

- The code snippets (this is a lifesaver)
- Key formulas or concepts
- Actionable bullet points

Now, instead of pausing and writing, I just watch the video to understand the concepts. When it’s done, I click one button, and I have a better revision guide than I could’ve written myself. It turns a lecture into a 1-page PDF instantly.

## Comparing "Apples to Apples"

Another thing that annoyed me was trying to pick the right tutorial. If there are two videos titled "Deep Learning for Beginners," which one is actually worth my time?

I added a "Versus Mode" where you can paste two links. It analyzes both and tells you exactly how they differ—e.g., "Video A is better for theory, but Video B actually shows you the code implementation." It saves me from investing 20 minutes in the wrong video.

## Give it a spin

This started as a personal side project to scratch my own itch, but I realized it might help other students and devs too.

If you’re tired of the "Pause-Rewind-Write" cycle, give it a try. It’s totally free to use for now while I’m testing it out.

[Check out TubeGPT here](https://tubegpt-amber.vercel.app/)

Let me know if it actually saves you time—or if there’s a feature you wish it had. I’m still building it, so I’d love the feedback.



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TubeGPT 

Stop pausing and rewinding tutorials. TubeGPT turns YouTube videos into instant cheatsheets, summaries, and chat-ready answers to help you learn faster.

Replace Tutorial Note-Taking With TubeGPT

Setting up a server involves more than simply launching an instance. A reliable and scalable server environment requires a well-structured approach to infrastructure, security, and configuration. 

The following outlines best practices and key components involved in setting up an AWS EC2 server from the ground up:

## 1. AWS IAM Users and Groups

- IAM users can be created directly from the AWS console and assigned specific policies.

- Organizing access through groups with attached policies simplifies permissions management and improves security.
 
- Adhering to the principle of least privilege ensures that users have only the permissions necessary for their tasks, reducing security risks.

## 2. EC2 Instances & Elastic IPs 

- EC2 instances such as t2.small can be used for testing purposes, and connections are established using SSH.

- Understanding different EC2 instance types helps in selecting the appropriate resources based on workload requirements.
 
- Elastic IPs can be allocated and attached to instances to provide a static IP address, ensuring consistent connectivity even after instance restarts.

## 3. Creating New Users & SSH Access 

Creating a dedicated user instead of using default accounts helps in maintaining structured access control:



```
# Create a new user
sudo adduser deployuser  

# Add user to sudo group
sudo usermod -aG sudo deployuser  

# Switch to new user
su - deployuser

```

Secure SSH access can be set up by generating SSH keys and copying the public key to the server:


```
# Generate SSH key (local machine)
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"

# Copy public key to server
ssh-copy-id deployuser@your_server_ip

```

This setup helps in maintaining secure, auditable access.

##  4. GitHub Access with Multiple SSH Keys 

Managing multiple repositories such as frontend and backend projects is more efficient with separate SSH keys for each.

```
# Generate new SSH key for backend
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "backend-repo"

# Generate new SSH key for frontend
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "frontend-repo"
```


The ~/.ssh/config file can be updated to define aliases for different repositories, making it easier to work with them:

```
Host github-backend
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_backend

Host github-frontend
    HostName github.com
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa_frontend
```

This allows for cloning each repository with its respective alias:

```
git clone git@github-backend:username/backend.git
git clone git@github-frontend:username/frontend.git
```

## 5. Nginx Setup & Domain Mapping 

Nginx can be installed and configured to manage multiple subdomains:

```
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx
```

Separate server blocks can be created for each subdomain to route traffic appropriately:

```
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name api.example.com;
    location / {
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5000;
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        }
}
```

Server blocks can be enabled by creating symbolic links:

```
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/api.example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
```

This configuration helps in maintaining clean separation between different services such as frontend and backend.

## 6. SSL Certificates with Certbot 

Encrypted communication can be enabled by installing Certbot and integrating it with Nginx:

```
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d api.example.com -d app.example.com
```

SSL certificates ensure secure connections, which are essential for protecting sensitive data and improving user trust.


## 7. Process Management with Supervisor 

Applications like Flask, Django, or Node.js can be managed using Supervisor, which provides process monitoring and automatic restarts:

```
sudo apt install supervisor
sudo nano /etc/supervisor/conf.d/app.conf
```

Example configuration:
```
[program:myapp]
command=gunicorn app:app --bind 127.0.0.1:5000
directory=/home/deployuser/myapp
autostart=true
autorestart=true
stderr_logfile=/var/log/myapp.err.log
stdout_logfile=/var/log/myapp.out.log
```

Supervisor can be refreshed and restarted with the following commands:

```
sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update
sudo supervisorctl restart myapp
```

This setup ensures that applications are continuously monitored, automatically restarted upon failure, and logged for debugging.

## 8. Key Takeaways 

Setting up an EC2 server involves multiple layers that contribute to the overall reliability and scalability of applications. Important aspects include:

- Structuring secure access through IAM users and groups

- Managing multiple repositories with separate SSH keys

- Mapping subdomains using Nginx for clean routing

- Enabling secure communication with SSL certificates

- Automating application management using Supervisor

Following these practices helps in laying a robust foundation for scalable, stable, and secure server environments. 

These configurations are applicable across development and production setups, reinforcing the importance of understanding the infrastructure behind reliable applications.




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Setting Up an AWS EC2 Server from Scratch.png

Learn how to set up an AWS EC2 server with best practices for security, scalability, domain mapping, SSH access, SSL, and process management.

Setting Up an AWS EC2 Server from Scratch

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Replace Tutorial Note-Taking With TubeGPT

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Setting Up an AWS EC2 Server from Scratch

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