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Every respondent who takes the MPADQ must enter a valid license key before they can begin the questionnaire. Keys are 10-character alphanumeric codes that are generated in bulk by the admin and distributed to book purchasers. Each key is single-use: once a respondent completes the quiz, the key is marked inactive and the results become permanently viewable. This page covers how to generate keys, where they are stored, and how to download them for distribution. From the dashboard home at /admin/dashboard/, click Generate Keys. This takes you to /admin/dashboard/keygen/.

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Generating Keys

1

Open the Generate Keys page

Navigate to /admin/dashboard/keygen/. You will see a number input field labelled Number of Keys to generate and a Generate button.
2

Enter a quantity

Type a number between 1 and 1000 into the input field. This is the number of unique license keys that will be created in this batch.
3

Click Generate

Click the Generate button. The form POSTs the quantity to keyGenerator.php.
4

Keys are generated and stored

keyGenerator.php runs a loop $count times. For each iteration it calls keygen() to produce a plain-text key, hashes it with MD5, checks the License table for a collision, and inserts the hashed key with active = 1. The plain-text key is accumulated for display.
5

View and download the batch

After all keys are inserted, the plain-text keys are stored in $_SESSION['keyOutput'] and $_SESSION['keyFile'], then you are redirected to /admin/dashboard/keygen/keys/ where the batch is displayed and available for download.
Generate keys in batches that match your print runs. For example, if a print run produces 500 books, generate exactly 500 keys at once so each batch maps cleanly to a physical edition and its archive CSV is clearly dated. This makes it straightforward to audit which keys correspond to which print run.

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Key Generation Algorithm

Keys are produced by the keygen() function defined in keyGenerator.php: 
function keygen() {
    $key    = '';
    $length = 10;

    $inputs = array_merge(range("a", "z"), range(0, 9), range("A", "Z"));

    for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
        $key .= $inputs{ mt_rand(0, 61) };
    }

    return $key;
}
  • Length: 10 characters.
  • Character set: lowercase letters a–z (26), digits 0–9 (10), uppercase letters A–Z (26) — 62 characters total.
  • Randomness: each character position is chosen independently with mt_rand(0, 61).
  • Uniqueness check: after generation, the MD5 hash of the key is checked against the License table. If a collision is found the loop regenerates until a unique hash is obtained.
  • Storage: only the MD5 hash of the key is written to the database. The plain-text key is shown to the admin once and stored in the session for download; it is never persisted in plain text.

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License Table Schema

Keys are stored in the License table of the Quiz database:
ColumnTypeDescription
idINT, AUTO_INCREMENT, PRIMARY KEYUnique row identifier assigned by MySQL.
licenseKeyVARCHAR(255)MD5 hash of the plain-text license key.
activeTINYINT(1) / BOOL1 = key is unused and valid; 0 = key has been used and the quiz is complete.

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Key Lifecycle

A key begins its life as active (active = 1) the moment it is inserted. When a respondent successfully completes the questionnaire and submits their answers, the application sets active = 0 for that key. From that point on:
  • The key cannot be used to start a new quiz session.
  • The respondent can return to view their results using the same key.

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Viewing and Downloading a Key Batch

After generation you land on /admin/dashboard/keygen/keys/. This page:
  • Displays the plain-text keys in a read-only <textarea> — one key per line.
  • Provides a DOWNLOAD button that submits a GET request to downloadKeys.php.
downloadKeys.php performs the following:
  1. Retrieves the key list from $_SESSION['keyFile'].
  2. Builds a filename in the format keys_MM-DD-YYYY.csv using today’s date.
  3. Writes the keys to keygen/keys/keyArchive/keys_MM-DD-YYYY.csv on the server.
  4. Sends the file to the browser as an application/octet-stream download attachment.
$keyList   = $_SESSION['keyFile'];
$keyOutput = print_r($keyList, true);

$today    = date("m-d-Y");
$fileName = "./keyArchive/keys_" . $today . ".csv";

$output = fopen($fileName, "w") or die("Unable to open file!");
file_put_contents($fileName, $keyOutput, FILE_APPEND);
fclose($output);

header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' . basename($fileName) . '"');
readfile($fileName);
The download is triggered from session data that is set during the current generation run. If you navigate away from the keys page before downloading, the session data may be lost. Always download immediately after generating, or retrieve the archived CSV from the keyArchive/ directory on the server.

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Key Archive

Every time a batch is downloaded, a dated CSV file is saved to: 
admin/dashboard/keygen/keys/keyArchive/keys_MM-DD-YYYY.csv
Example archive files from past runs: 
keyArchive/keys_04-11-2016.csv
keyArchive/keys_04-24-2016.csv
keyArchive/keys_05-01-2016.csv
keyArchive/keys_05-02-2016.csv
keyArchive/keys_05-03-2016.csv
keyArchive/keys_05-06-2016.csv
Each CSV contains the plain-text keys from that batch, one per line. These files serve as the permanent record of which keys were issued on a given date and can be used to re-send keys if a distribution email is lost.

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