Explanation of Key Flowchart

Software Engineering and Design - Explanation of Key Flowchart:

• Read Config & Env. Variables

  • At startup, the application loads any config file and retrieves environment variables that might store secrets, database credentials, or user settings.

• Initialize Logging & Modular Architecture

  • The new version splits Zencrypt into multiple modules or files (for example, ui.py, cli.py, crypto_ops.py) for better maintainability.

  • Logging is centrally configured to capture events from all modules.

• Check Interface Mode

  • Users (or a config setting) decide whether to run Zencrypt as a GUI application, as a web service with Flask/Django, or remain in CLI mode.

• Launch GUI or Web Service

  • GUI: Creates main window with Python’s Tkinter or PyQt. Buttons and menus call the same underlying crypto modules.

  • Web: Spawns a Flask or Django server, exposing REST endpoints for encryption, key management, etc.

• User Interactions

  • GUI mode: Buttons open dialogs for file encryption, text hashing, etc.

  • Web mode: Clients send requests to endpoints; server returns JSON or file responses.

• CLI Mode

  • The user is presented with your traditional command-line menu (just updated for the new modular design, logging, config usage, etc.).

• Exit/Shutdown

  • All modes converge into a final teardown sequence—closing files, saving logs, clearing secrets from memory, and gracefully exiting.