I could really use some help, please.

[Sarah Sisko]

It's been a while since I've posted, but I could really use some help now. Here's the problem: I am creating/designing my first website for 4 months now, and have learned a WHOLE LOT about scripts and applications and so much so that my brain is basically burned out, and I'm at the point where I need some: okay, this is how you do it, advice.

See, I need to know how to make a page secure and how to encode a page to work with a PayPal application IPN I think it's called. I have Yahoo! Webhosting and I'm using Sitebuilder. I've created the ssl subdirectory and put the file in the directory, but something's wrong because it's not working.

Can anyone tell me exactly what I need to do to make a page with images secure and how to correctly configure a page to use PayPal's Instant Payment Notification??

I will be eternally grateful for any help or advice...and the prophets will surely smile upon you for your good deed today! Many thanks.

 

[Kaziarl]

What do you mean by secure images? So that people can't download them? Well, there's two things you can do for that. There are two peices of Java Script code, one of them disables right clicking so they can't save image, and the other scrambles the HTML code so when the click View>Page Source, all they see is gibberish and can't get the direct url link. Do a yahoo search for either of them, they're just cut and past code.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

PayPal also has documentation on how to set up IPN. That would probably be more helpful than anything we could tell you about it.

Just a quick glance reveals a dynamic server is required though--not just static web pages, but a server capable of processing PHP, Perl, ASP, etc. Do you have that? Do you know?

 

[Sarah Sisko]

Thanks for the replies: first to Robert Maxwell...yes PayPal has sample coding to use, and with Yahoo Webhosting I can create PHP, ASP, Perl, etc., through FTP, but how do I do it? Do I just copy paste the PHP code from PayPal into the PHP box? This is where I'm confused. How do I get it to work properly? I appreciate the help.

 

[Sarah Sisko]

Thanks for responding Kaziarl...No, I don't want to prevent people from downloading images, but instead want to copy the images in a secure folder so that folks don't get the message warning box about some items being secure and not secure, and the images appear on a page that is in a secure location, you know a https://page. I appreciate the help.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Thanks for the replies: first to Robert Maxwell...yes PayPal has sample coding to use, and with Yahoo Webhosting I can create PHP, ASP, Perl, etc., through FTP, but how do I do it? Do I just copy paste the PHP code from PayPal into the PHP box? This is where I'm confused. How do I get it to work properly? I appreciate the help.

The question is not whether you can upload PHP files--of course you can do that. But can you *run* them? Most free webhosts do not allow this. There's an easy way to find out if your host lets you run PHP. Create a file called test.php and put this code in it:

<?
phpinfo();
?>

Upload it to your server and browse to it. If all you see is the code, your server is not set up to run PHP. If you get a nicely-formatted page telling you all about your PHP installation, then you're good to go. Use the PHP example PayPal provides and follow their instructions.

 

[Sarah Sisko]

Thanks Robert, will do!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

If it turns out you can't run PHP, shoot me a PM. I have my own server and I'm sure we can work something out.

 

[plague]

The answer on how to SSL secure a web directory is going to depend on your web host. In generaly, you will need to have a web hosting plan that includes it's own unique IP address, then you need to purchase a CA signed SSL certificate so that no "untrusted CA" warnings pop up instead, then you need to install the certificate on the web server.

There are a few rare web hosts that will just have a wildcard SSL certificate protected directory that will alias to your site where you could just drop those files into instead. However, usually you'll have to do the above.

It's my understanding that in general you don't need your own SSL to use paypal. You simply link to their third party payment processing system. Why are they showing images from your site on their SSL ecure payment page? Is that a feature that they let you enable?

 

[Sarah Sisko]

Thanks everyone for the help...and apologies for the delay...been a hectic week. I too noticed that PayPal doesn't require ssl for IPN, but I think it does for PDT, which I'm trying to do both. I tried reading the manual that Robert Maxwell linked to, but I still didn't find the info I needed. I think "plague" might be on to something, and it may be that I won't be able to get around the security warning popup, without my very own ssl cert. I really think I'm just going to call Yahoo support staff for help...but will holla back...if needed. You guys have been a great help!!

 

[Sarah Sisko]

If it turns out you can't run PHP, shoot me a PM. I have my own server and I'm sure we can work something out.

Thanks, Robert for the offer. I can run PHP and the other scripts because I have a premium Yahoo plan...not the free one...and it comes with shared ssl. I think I'll just ask Yahoo to help me set it up....hopefully I'll catch them in a good mood!

PS...I really need to change my sig....that is like soooooo old!

 

[Sarah Sisko]

Why are they showing images from your site on their SSL secure payment page? Is that a feature that they let you enable?

Yes, they make it possible to create a seamless payment process and allow the seller to custom create the payment page to look like a page from the seller's website, giving the buyer the illusion they never left the seller's website. But in order to custom design the PayPal payment page, images must be in a secure file/folder or else the warning popup. That's my problem, and why I asked for help. But I think you're right in that I most likely need my own ssl cert.