I wish GT had some kind of password or account manager that could be used to charge for memberships and downloads. I know this should be posted in the GT Discussion forum but others have done that and there is still nothing available (although Gossamer Forum does have a Payment System).

Anyway, I'm posting here because I'm looking for alternatives. What I am looking for is a Perl/MySQL script that I can charge users to add records to my DBManSQL database and also charge for downloads of PDF files.

After searching for a few hours, I found that most (not all) of the scripts available use a flat file to store user details. I would have thought that MySQL would handle far more users and be a lot more flexible.

I do actually have an Account Manager Pro license and did manage to modify it to store the users details in a MySQL table but would prefer to use a standard Perl/MySQL script if anyone has any recommendations. I have looked at the following but only the first one meets my criteria (Perl/MySQL) but the user interface looks terrible. The last one is probably good but I'm not ready to tackle PHP yet.

The Members Admin CGI SQL

Password Manager v1.2

Membership Client Pro

Profile Manager Professional (PHP)

Any other suggestions?

Thank you.



Simon.

>>>After searching for a few hours, I found that most (not all) of the scripts available use a flat file to store user details.<<<

If the script uses .htaccess, then that would seem appropriate. .htaccess is a lot better at password protecting a folder, due to the fact it uses less CPU. If, however, they are not using .htaccess, then you are correct, it would seem a lot more logical to use a MySQL database to store the data. I'm afraid I can't actually help you in with finding some software that can do what you are asking, as I do not know of any :(

Cheers

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk

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Part of the challenge with online payment processing scripts in general is that there are so many different ways that people can accept payments online, and each way obviously has its own protocols and procedures. I also spent a lot of time researching this subject and never ended up finding anything to suit my needs. Eventually I wrote something from scratch which does exactly what I need it to do but isn't designed with the flexibility to suit a wide range of purposes. How do you intend to handle payments (e.g. Paypal, Authorize.net, WorldPay, etc.)?

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>>>If the script uses .htaccess, then that would seem appropriate. .htaccess is a lot better at password protecting a folder, due to the fact it uses less CPU. If, however, they are not using .htaccess, then you are correct, it would seem a lot more logical to use a MySQL database to store the data.<<< As far as I know, all the examples I mentioned use .htaccess but the difference seems to be where they store the user details (MySQL or flat file). I no very little about this topic but I guess the sensitive data is stored in an .htaccess file and the not so sensitive data is stored in a MySQL table or a flat file. Is that how it works? Thanks. Simon.

>>>How do you intend to handle payments (e.g. Paypal, Authorize.net, WorldPay, etc.)?<<<

I will probably use Authorize.net

Thanks

Simon.

If you're unable to find anything that suits your needs, it's possible that I could help you out with a modified version of the script I wrote.

Here's what you'd need to have on your end:

1) a merchant account set up with Authorize.net
2) the ability to establish an https:// secure connection
3) PHP with Curl libraries installed

If you've got all that stuff, then I'd be able to write a new version of the script so that after payment is successfully processed a user can add records to a DBManSQL database or download a pdf. If you're interested, please send me a PM so we can discuss details.

If you definitely want to do it with Perl, however, then I'm afraid I'm pretty useless. Maybe GT would be interested in tackling it as a custom job? I bet it would be pretty easy for them to port the functionality over, since they've already got the payment modules for GForum.

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I used Account Manager several years ago (the lite/free version) and it did everything I needed at the time.

Here's the URL I got it from: http://cgi.elitehost.com

I just found one more (although it's PHP)-

http://membership.cgi-central.net/scripts/amember/

It looks pretty good and it's not too expensive.

Has anyone tried it??

Thanks

Simon.

One question:

DBManSQL already has user/password management. I'm not sure why you need a separate password management script. Is it just because you want to have integrated payment processing?

I used to have a DBManSQL setup that was authenticated based on an .htaccess file (for this exact reason) but it was a little awkward. It might make more sense to just charge people before they can become registered DBManSQL users.

Then again, I may be missing the point entirely... ;-)

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Yes. I want to charge people to insert records into my database and also to download files. The more I think about this, the best way would seem to be as follows - 1/ Install an independant password/account manager (with a plugin feature) to handle the payment and management of ALL user accounts. 2/ Write a plugin for the password/account manager to automatically add/modify/delete/etc. users from the DBManSQL users table. 3/ Disable (or not use) the DBManSQL user management feature and make sure ALL user management is done by the independant password/account manager. I think this would work fine? Any comments? Thank you. Simon

Be sure that you write the inter-mediate script to update your "htpasswd" file records in a timely manner...I've subscribed to some websites that used a datbase and .htpasswd combo for account management, and I was able to access subscription only directories and files way past the end of my subscription period.

It may be better to wrap security codes around your files and scripts in the "members' directory that automatically query the members' table in the database rather than messing around with .htaccess/.htpasswd.
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me

This sounds like it might be unnecessarily complex to me. Do you need to handle recurring billing - like a subscription service - or is it a one-time charge for sign-up?

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I will have two types of user groups. The first group will need a one time setup fee plus a recurring annual fee. The second group just needs a one time fee.

I didn't think my solution was unnecessarily complex, why do you think so?

I only need to write a few plugins rather than modifying the main scripts.

Thanks

Simon.

Well, first off I should admit that I had an extremely similar - almost identical - setup on a site not long ago and it basically worked fine, even if it wasn't the most elegant solution. So your idea will work and if you're happy with it then by all means you shouldn't let me dissuade you from using it. My personal experience was just that I ended up prefering a more elegant, less hacked-together approach.

On the subject of complexity:

As Stealth pointed out you're dependent on a middleman script to keep the .htpasswd file synchronized with your DBManSQL user database. Maybe you could have that functionality as part of the plugin for the user management system, but more likely it would have to be a separate script run by a cron job. It might make more sense to get rid of DBMan SQL's native authentication altogether and write a plugin so that it just directly authenticates off of the .htpasswd file. The only problem with that approach is that all users would have to have the same set of permissions. I don't know if that's a problem for you or not.

In general, I'd say you're better off finding a user management system that already uses a MySQL table for user management, so that you could set it up to use DBManSQL's user table directly. If you can find a way to combine the required fields and have both scripts use the same user table, you'll likely end up with a much smoother, more flexible, less buggy system. DBManSQL's existing users/permissions system should be sufficient to handle whatever file protection you need without having to use .htaccess on a directory-level. Just IMHO...

Good luck with it, whatever you decide to do.

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Hennagaijin,

I think you are probably right about keeping it simple. As far as the one time setup fee plus annual fee goes, I think I can incorporate this into the current DBManSQL user management system with a payment plugin and some extra tables. It may not have all the features of a full on account manager sript but I'm sure it will be less trouble in the long run. All the users will have free access to the complete site so I don't need to use .htaccess either.

The only thing I have to decide is how to incorporate the one off fee for downloading pdf files. This is going to be a bit more complicated as the pdf files are generated on the fly and will need a password to unlock them.

Thanks for all your help.

Simon.

How are you generating the pdf files? Can you integrate into the file name some kind of semi-random hash of the user and the time that payment is successfully processed? If so, you could generate a link that would only work for that one time, and then perhaps write a triggered process that deletes expired files. Just a thought... making this up as I go along.

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I just downloaded and installed Gossamer Community and it looks like I should be incorporating my payment and account management features with that srcipt rather than making any changes to the DBManSQL script. I also downloaded Gforum (which I intend to incorporate in my site as well) so I think Gossamer Community is where I should be starting even though it's only a beta release.

How does that sound?

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Simon.



PS: I haven't thought much about the payment system for the .pdf file download but I will probably be using txt2pdf to generate the encrypted files.

I haven't used Community myself, but I think this is pretty much what it's designed for. Good luck with it, and let us know how it all turns out.

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