I have been working on my startup idea. I have been making excellent progress. First I converted some code for mashing up RSS feeds into an ASP.NET HTTP Handler so it acts more as a proxy service and a web service. The original code only saved combined and filtered feeds to a file. Today I created a more generic ASP.NET HTTP Handler which can convert XML data formats into JSON data formats and vice versa.
The domain name I want is available. I have to do some research on the most affordable Windows dedicated hosting. I will probably need a dedicated server to add a response header to Internet Information Services. One of the key aspects of my service is that it will offer a solution to the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing problem that you run into when trying to use an external API. I have ordered a book on Cross-Origin Resource Sharing to make sure that I fully understand this technology.
I still have to work on the user management aspect of this project. Prospective clients need to be able to sign up for the service and obtain an access key. They will need a simple control panel to see their access counts and to block IP addresses. This kind of basic database management system is my specialty but to make things more interesting I will use the built-in Personalization database offered by ASP.NET.
Part of the reason I am doing this project is to learn how to create the necessary infrastructure to offer a web service. This could prove useful for future projects. I might also be able to offer my web developer services to clients who need a lot of help with their Cross-Origin Resource Sharing problems. In the past, I have seen how even a crummy little side project can lead you to a major client. So there are lots of ways this project could benefit me even if my startup never succeeds.
