chop

Thanks for your patience HS. Maybe I'm having a hard answering your questions because I've never used whatever admin. programs that i-gotcha.com has set up for XYZ. So when you ask me something like: "At some point in the process of interacting with their DB, there must be some way you are able to customize what data you have access to and how it is accessed." It's not easy to answer because I have never done this. I'm really playing this one from an outside position. I suppose if XYZ wanted to bail altogether then maybe i-gotcha would just hand over a few csv files that could be used to populate tables on the new XYZ-media site. Some why doesn't XYZ get the files, put up a database and forget about i-gotcha? Probably because i-gotcha performs a few sophisticated data functions that XYZ doesn't want to lose and don't want to try do replicate theirself. So, in able to set up a simple sales site for them on the new XYZ server (XYZ-media) , I would need to access certain information on the i-gotcha.com website (member name, number etc) before I proceed with the sale. I have never (within a php scrip) queried a remote (someone else's) database to get information that I needed to query a localhost db. So I was just wandering about the procedure ans permissions that I'd have to set up with i-gotch. I apologize for the confusion, I don't know how else to say it. P.S. Since this was first posted, XYZ is no longer considering dumping i-gotcha outright because of the dependency (above) that I have already mentioned.

I'll put in two cents for Siteground.com whom I've been with as a reseller for about 7 years. I have about 15 domains there. Here is a brief history from when I started: I chose them because I was referred to them by a friend that say their support was excellent. I found this to be true. I could email tech support and get a response within 15 minutes every time. As they grew, they decided to cut costs by steering clients away from tickets on the tech support system to searches on their knowledge base. Eventually, it was almost impossible to get help from starting a ticket or calling them on the phone. They sucked. I almost jumped ship but it was so difficult to move all those domains somewhere else so I hunkered down and rode out the storm. In the last 3 years everything started to reverse itself. Now getting help is quite easy and fast again. Tech support is always my number one concern. I pay $45-$49/year per domain to host on a shared server. They have the usual control panel and all its accessories.

I would have them type in their email and password on the XYZ-media site ( the same email-password combo they use on i-gotcha - remember i-gotcha has the member database for XYZ), then I would want to query i-gotcha's database to see if this person really is a member of XYZ. I would also want to know what level user they are (say 1-3). Assuming that they are an actual member, and they are a level, say 3, I could sell them certain products for prices set for level 3 members. If they are a lower level member or not a member at all, the prices would be different. So the question still stands, can I query someone else's database? How is this done?

The only thing they provide their customers with is some reports on their data. Yes, that's a query technically but it's run off their own site. It's not the same as querying from your own php script from your own separate URL. I can't query their database from my own script on my own server.

Wow. I went into the sandbox and found everything has changed completely since I last used it. I became lost again. It reminds me of being in a hall of mirrors. I used to have two separate PP accounts for sandbox and a real merchant setup. They changed all that so now the two are both under a single email address. After finding nothing but old "how to " information, I contacted one of the "evangelists" for updated versions. This is what he set to me. You might already have this but here is anyway: You can learn how to use the Sandbox in the Sandbox guide (in the Applications tab on developer.paypal.com) at https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/documentation-tools/ug_sandbox. You can find the latest IPN info at https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/documentation-tools/ipn/integration-guide/IPNIntro Regards, Autum

Sorry for being unclear. The thing is I can't query the i-gotcha db. They are a company that hosts part of or all of a website for people who don't want to deal with making their own db system. That's the problem! It's their db and they don't have to let me have access. So what I am trying to find out is IF i-gotcha allowed me to query their db to see if John Doe (who is now logging into XYZ-media) is actually a member in XYZ. Is it possible (with the right permissions set) to query a db on one URL from a php script located on a separate URL . I hope this helps.

We have no direct access to make our own queries from the i-gotcha.com as far as I know. They are simply performing services to members like selling things (mostly business literature, articles), letting them see other members' names, emails, addresses, keeping track of things they buy and so on. I don't know exactly what the agreement is between XYZ and i-gotcha but it could be that i-gotcha might supply XYZ with a CSV file of the table data if they wanted out. XYZ does want to get out from i-gotcha eventually but not until they have something of their own to fall back on. Meanwhile XYZ wants to start XYZ-media on their own server so they can begin to store written and video media that their members will buy. Of course to sell the stuff, they need to know who is a member and who isn't. But that's on i-gotcha's database. An easy solution would be to query i-gotcha's db just to find out if the person logging into XYZ-media is a member and, if so, what level of a member (the pricing structure needs to know that). In time, XYZ-media can take over more and more of what i-gotcha does until i-gotch doesn't gotcha anymore and isn't needed. But that will take time, trying to break loose. BTW I'm not sure what you mean in your last paragraph. Can you explain it in terms of the interaction of the XYZ-media and the i-gotcha databases. (XYZ-media needs to know if this person logging in is a member - maybe a query to the email address)

I spent a week straight figuring all this out and got it to work successfully. I made several posts on this site with information that could help but, because it was more than a year ago, I could not locate them. In reading your initial post, the following caught my eye: Says "IPN Successfully sent" (while in the simulation mode) I recall spending the most (and most frustrating) time working on the fact that it was supposed to have been sent but nothing was happening in my "myIPN" script. I did speak with tech support and he gave me the answer right away. I tried it and it worked. Once again, I can't find the post with how it was solved but it could be the answer you seek. Here is what I do remember about it: The solutions was in the sandbox settings in or about the same area where you set the simulator. You'd never know because the setting seems innocuous, like it wouldn't have anything to do with it. But that was it! I clicked it just to see what it was for but nothing seemed to happen and I forgot about it. I didn't figure it out for days. This might not be much help but if I can get back into my sandbox account I'll snoop around and see if it jogs my memory.

This is a real problem that I and my client are struggling with in thinking about the future growth of his company. Please let me know if this, a non-programming issue, isn't appropriate for this forum. I'll keep is as short as possible. XYZ company is involved in the facilitating business alliances and they publish their own quarterly magazine on the subject. Their current website is split between two different hosts. The part they take care of themselves is strictly informational and for non-members. The other part, which requires database support, is for its members and is hosted by the i-gotcha.com (made up) company who's business it is to do exactly that. Apparently, when XYZ first started the site, they didn't want to deal with the db aspect of designing a website and farmed it out. Now they want to expand operations by selling their valuable articles, editorials etc., that they have compiled over the years, on their own "XYZ-media" website. A pricing structure will be designed for members, non-members and according to the type of distribution rights they want. The problem, of course, is that they don't really control their own membership information and so how does a member log into XYZ-media to make a purchase? A temporary solution that one of the managers came up with is that members could log into i-gotcha.com and receive an authorization code (which would include their member "level" which has an effect on what they would pay to purchase something) and then log into XYZ-media with that code. Sounds a little clunky to me. Some talk of a web-service was mentioned but the $1000/mo price tag quote from i-gotcha put a halt to that. I'm not an expert in this type of thing but my thought is that XYZ needs to break loose from i-gotcha as soon as possible. Otherwise, if they want to continue to expand in their services it's never going to be pretty. However, I might be missing something. Is it possible to say, query a database on one URL from another URL just to get 3-4 pieces of data that might be necessary. Even if that's possible, seems like i-gotcha would be taking a security risk ? My thoughts are either a web service ($$) or ditch i-Gotcha asap. Again, I know this is a non-programming question and maybe not appropriate here but it's still an interesting db problem that's probably not all that rare. Thanks for your valuable input.

I appreciate that H.S. I'm in no rush but would like to hear your friend's answer.

Yes, that's a pretty good summary of what I've found on various inquiries. Because this project involves continuous expansion, I'm probably going to go with the saving the files outside the db and referencing them by file name stored in the db. How safe would the files be in the folder above the "public_html"? It's not like these are CIA or NSC files but some are valuable commodities within the business world and a theft wouldn't reflect well on me though nobody will be suffer a great deal if something like that happened.

Thanks for your opinion HS. There seems to be quite a debate about it with some good arguments on each side. I was just wandering if anyone here has perhaps tried putting images or pdfs in a db table and how it worked for them. I'm not sure what the file sizes will be or many of them ultimately there will be, but that might be a determining factor. thanks

There doesn't seem to be unanimous agreement with this so I'm throwing it out to you, gang. I'm designing a site where people can download pdf and ePub files. Should the files themselves be kept in a database or in a folder? I don't like the idea of putting a folder in the public html but perhaps it could go in the directory above that, where I keep the mysql_connect.php. Would that be safe? These files need to be fairly safe from the hackers as they are being sold. Well...?

I was using CONTENT as my constant without a $ but didn't remove the single quotes within the fopen(). For some reason I thought they had to be there. Okay with it now... thanks

I simply want to use the predefined constant CONTENT in place of the "textFiles/" below. define ('CONTENT','../textFiles_content/'); $handle = fopen('textFiles/'.$category.'.html', "r") or die("Couldn't open this file."); I can't get the syntax to work.

Thank you. Yes, you are correct. It is what I thought had to be but careful examination didn't reveal it to me as the path names of those files to be deleted seemed to match what was in the variable. However, there is always the unseen that needs to be checked if all else fails so I tried trimming each variable in the array before using it as the path name of the file to be deleted. That worked. I wasn't sure how a space worked its way into the pathname in the file reading code: while (true == ($entry = $d->read())) { if ($entry !== "." && $entry !== ".."){ $entry = "photos/".$entry; //etc however this line (I just picked up on it), seems pretty suspect to me: echo '<td> delete this image:<input name="imageNames[]" value = " '.$entry.' " type="checkbox"/><br />

Well, here's the code: function delete_file($which_one) { if (unlink($which_one)) { echo "$which_one deleted."; } else { echo "$which_one: delete failed."; } } Here's the error: Warning: unlink( photos/butterflyMilkweedweb.jpg ) [function.unlink]: No such file or directory in /ApacheServer/ApacheDocRoot/sites_in_progress/crc/view_photos.php on line 16 photos/butterflyMilkweedweb.jpg : delete failed. I checked and found that there IS a directory "photos" on the same level as the file view_photos.php. In that directory is butterflyMilkweedweb.jpg. So, the path "photos/butterflyMilkweedweb.jpg" should be correct. This also does not work: "/photos/butterflyMilkweedweb.jpg" ... something I'm not seeing here.

Thank you, Antonio. I will give it a try when I can. I'm thinking that all I need is the first script that is given?

Yes, it's odd. But I'll have to go with the unfriendly looking text in the "From:" for now and just hope to catch their attention in the "Subject:" slot before they trash the email. Thank you for your responses. I'll survive.

The final resolve. Sent from tech support: ------------------ All emails sent from this account using the mail() function will be issued from the cPanel mailbox negland@serv01.siteground117.com In order to be able to send the emails from another mailbox, like noreply@portfolioNE.com, or info@portfolioNE.com, you need to code the script to connect to the mailbox you prefer via SMTP and then send the emails. For the purpose you might need the assistance of a professional developer. In case you don't have a developer to work with, you might want to check the popular freelance websites. ------------ Any help is appreciated. Meanwhile, I'll research such a script and post it if successful. thanks

I talked to tech support at my hosting site. Their spam filter gobbled it up because, according to them, I am actually sending two "FROM" header fields when I send: "mail($row['e'], $subject, $body, 'FROM: Gill@maaa.net');" Apparently the FROM field shouldn't be included because the host fills in its own FROM automatically. Problem is, I don't want THEIR from, I want my own. So, it does work without the last argument in there but I've reopened the ticket to see if there is a way to substitute my own FROM. I'll post my findings later.

I tried 3 different emails for $row['e']. It only worked with one of them which happened to be the only one that is associated with the hosting account on which the script resides. The other two email addresses have nothing to do with that hosting service. Is this the problem? I can only send mail to my own addresses associated with my account? Seems like it! I wanted to be able to send out a short email blast to inform "members" in my database whom have not paid dues, that their account is overdue. Perhaps I need to run such a script from my own localhost computer?

I don't get an error. I simply don't receive the email. Same script on my local server works okay. The response that I do get from the script indicates that it reaches the line: "mail($row['e'], $subject, $body, 'FROM: Gill@maaa.net');" Does something need to be set in the .ini file on the remote server?

The following mail function works fine from my own localhost server but I get no mail when I upload it to my host. Thoughts?? mail($row['e'], $subject, $body, 'FROM: Gill@maaa.net'); echo "<p>mailed to: ".$row['fn']." ".$row['ln']."</p>";

"I was wondering about the file: - $uid = (isset($_POST['custom'])) ? (int) $_POST['custom'] : 0;" $uid is "custom" variable that you send to PayPal which stands for the user id (that is, the id that YOU have assigned to the person that is ... buying something from you, whatever). Ultimately, you will send the value of $uid to PayPal from within a PayPal button (as shown on page 152). PayPal will send it back to you in its IPN information so you can then use it to update your database. BUT, before using a button, you can stick the value of $uid in the slot that says "custom" in the IPN simulator.