ShopSite Forums

Hi

We're about to launch a Content Area for subscribed users only.
Paid subscriptions are valid for an year and give the subscriber
unlimited access to resources in this Area. I was wondering if I can
use ShopSite for this task. I need for the system to also talk to a DB
which turns access on/off for a subscriber. Timely emails informing
impending subscription expiration would be a bonus.

Content Area as well ShopSite 6.1.1 are hosted on Linux RedHat boxes running Apache2.0.
I can NFS disks if necessary (they are not right now).
I am not sure how to get ShopSite DB to automatically talk to the User database (mySQL).

Can ShopSite do this out of the box? Or do I need a Custom Scripts?
Any thoughts or comments will be appreciated. Thanks.

Milind Basole
Programmer, ITCS
basole@uiuc.edu

Using the web server's password protection mechanism (.htaccess/.htpasswd)
you could require logon to get to your content area. You would need to
create a script to read the valid accounts from your DB and create the
appropriate .htpasswd file for each account. This would be done outside of
ShopSite.

-David H.


"Milind Basole" <basole@uiuc.edu> wrote in message
news:1103_1048197901@news.shopsite.com...

Hi

We're about to launch a Content Area for subscribed users only.
Paid subscriptions are valid for an year and give the subscriber
unlimited access to resources in this Area. I was wondering if I can
use ShopSite for this task. I need for the system to also talk to a DB
which turns access on/off for a subscriber. Timely emails informing
impending subscription expiration would be a bonus.

Content Area as well ShopSite 6.1.1 are hosted on Linux RedHat boxes
running Apache2.0.
I can NFS disks if necessary (they are not right now).
I am not sure how to get ShopSite DB to automatically talk to the User
database (mySQL).

Can ShopSite do this out of the box? Or do I need a Custom Scripts?
Any thoughts or comments will be appreciated. Thanks.

Milind Basole
Programmer, ITCS
basole@uiuc.edu

Having a lot of experience dealing with online subscriptions I'd say that
you should be prepared to have to deal with some fair amount of complexity
in doing this. Let me explain why I say this.

Preventing access to content before someone has purchased a subscription is
easy. Something as simple as David's suggestion below will work fine.

The tricky parts happen when you get a real subscriber. In general the
requirements for protecting your content are like this:

1. Allow immediate access to content once payment has been obtained. This
means you need a real-time process that integrates with ShopSite. The Order
API is really the only way to do this.

2. Prevent hacking of the authentication/authorization mechanism. So, for
example, using a URL that is passed to a CGI handler is a bad idea because
a URL can be typed in by hand containing any data desired. If unpaid access
to the content is possible then you're losing money.

3. Shut off access to content exactly when the subscription expires. This
is more difficult than it sounds. What if the subscriber is logged in and
they leave a web browser up and running for days or even weeks at a time?
Without a robust expiration mechanism they could have access to content
well beyond the original subscription.

4. Do not allow a mechanism whereby subscribers can grant access to
non-subscribers. For example a subscriber might be able to email a URL that
contains data identifying the user as already logged in and authenticated.
If this were possible then one person can buy the subscription and then
grant access to a few thousand of their closest friends.

You can extend ShopSite to support subscription handling as long as you are
aware of these things and have access to someone with the skills necessary
to create a solid custom solution. It is quite non-trivial though.

David H wrote:

Using the web server's password protection mechanism (.htaccess/.htpasswd)
you could require logon to get to your content area. You would need to
create a script to read the valid accounts from your DB and create the
appropriate .htpasswd file for each account. This would be done outside of
ShopSite.

-David H.


"Milind Basole" <basole@uiuc.edu> wrote in message
news:1103_1048197901@news.shopsite.com...

Hi

We're about to launch a Content Area for subscribed users only.
Paid subscriptions are valid for an year and give the subscriber
unlimited access to resources in this Area. I was wondering if I can
use ShopSite for this task. I need for the system to also talk to a DB
which turns access on/off for a subscriber. Timely emails informing
impending subscription expiration would be a bonus.

Content Area as well ShopSite 6.1.1 are hosted on Linux RedHat boxes

running Apache2.0.

I can NFS disks if necessary (they are not right now).
I am not sure how to get ShopSite DB to automatically talk to the User

database (mySQL).

Can ShopSite do this out of the box? Or do I need a Custom Scripts?
Any thoughts or comments will be appreciated. Thanks.

Milind Basole
Programmer, ITCS
basole@uiuc.edu

--

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Managing Director
Snowy Owl Internet Consulting, LLC
http://www.snowy-owl.com/
Mobile: 603-759-3885
Fax: 603-673-6676