Ask Felgall

After looking at the scripts I sell over the past few days it is now time to look at one that I just give away. The Link Counter script serves two purposes.

1. It conceals the actual page that a given link actually links to by having the link call the script which then calls the actual destination page.
2. it counts the number of people who follow the link by adding one to a count in a database for the specified destination before loading that destination page

Using this script for affiliate links (for example) will allow you to both hide your affiliate code preventing people from changing it before they go to the final page as well as counting the number of people who follow each of your links.

Link Counter

More of a toolkit than a complete solution, this script provides the basic functionality to add the requirement that people have an account and login before being able to access web pages. The basic login, logout, lost password, change password, and join pages are all supplied and can be easily customised to match your site. Also supplied is a block of code to add to the top of all the pages that you want to have password protected. The script includes a wide range of security features to help prevent people gaining unauthorised access to your pages. The main thing that this script provides is that it saves you having to work out how to secure your join and login forms to prevent people breaking in.

Based on suggestions from a couple of the people who have purchased this script along with the experience I have gained by using this myself to build a couple of membership sites, I am currently developing a more advanced version of this script that will provide more of the functionality required to build a complete membership site.

Password Protected Area

Another script that is a bit difference. The scdript provides a very basic guestbook without much in the way of fancy features but overlaid on top of it is a guestmap facility where a map of the world is displayed allowing your visitors to make their mark on the map along with adding their comment which will appear both when someone hovers over their mark on the map and in the guestbook. To prevent the map becoming too crowded the markers on the map gradually fade as more markers are added.

GuestMap

A Paypal IPN script is one that hooks into the back end of the Paypal payment process allowing you to run code when Paypal confirms that you have received a payment for a given product.

Where my script differs from all the other IPN script I have seen is that my script does not need a database in order for it to work. Instead of the script updating a database so that the buyer can gain access to a download page to download their purchase, my script instead just emails their purchase directly to them. This means that the script can handle eCheck payments easily where the payment takes several days to clear as the product will be emailed when the payment clears.

The addition of the extensions module adds the ability for the script to interact with a database. The module logs all of the purchases in a table in the database as well as moving the product definitions from the config file into the database. It also allows you to add the facility for provide free product upgrades for a specified period the way I provide twelve months of upgrades free with the purchase of my scripts.

The latest version also allows you to send an email asking for confirmation of the purchase before sending the product in order to help reduce the possibility of people buying your product and then getting Paypal to refund them their money.

Paypal IPN

The PHP version of my site search script is two scripts in one because both a flat file and mySQL database versions are included along with a module to allow you to transfer easily from one to the other. The actual search facility searches the meta description and keyword tags from your pages which can be automatically added to the flat file or database by the admin spidering function. You can also manually add your own entries.

The script also supports manually adding entries into specific categories or subjects (which work slightly differently from one another). You can also add thumbnail images to the search result entries making it a workable solution for searching image galleries.

The latest version includes a search results page that is fully customisable to match the rest of your site since it uses a page template where you enter special tags that identify how the results are to be added into the page.

Site Search Script

I have written not one but two form2mail scripts. The simpler of the two allows you to collect as many different fields as you require and sticks them in the email as separate lines specifying the field name and the value entered. It also caters for the sender adding a message under the list of field values. I give that version away free to anyone who wants it.

The more advanced version can handle plain text and HTML emails (both in the same email if required) with embedded images and attachments. It also provides a spot where you can include your own code to get the script to do whatever you like. The main functions can also be called separately to build and send emails without requiring a form. I charge a small amount for this version of the script but twelve months of updates are included in the price and I have been known to provide support when people have problems with the script even after the twelve months has passed (although I can’t guarantee I will do so in every case).

The latest version of the advanced script includes the ability to customise error pages to match your site as well as many security features to help prevent its being used to send spam.

Form2Mail

Since I started selling PHP scripts from my site I have had three copies of one or other of my scripts stolen. I know this because right from when I first started selling the scripts I have had code in place to at least track when a copy of one of the scripts I have for sale has been downloaded.

The first occasion when I had a script stolen was before I implemented the IPN script that automatically emails the purchased script to the buyer after Paypal clears their payment. Back then I had a link from the page that you get to after making the purchase that allowed the buyer to download the script. In this particular instance the thief simply looked up the destination page in the source code of the page that linked to Paypal and went there directly without actually going via Paypal. Paypal has since introduced a way to encrypt the form to prevent this from being able to be done. What this thief didn’t know was that the page with the download link was set up to email me whenever a copy of the script was downloaded and since the download was actually done by emailing the script to the buyer, the thief had to give me their email address in order to steal the script. Due to the time that they picked to steal my form2mail advanced script I was able to watch them install the script on their site and soon after they finished installing the script I used their new contact form to contact them to advise them that I knew they had stolen the script and would take further action if it was not removed immediately. Since their site was actually part of a school web site competition it would have been very easy for me to advise the competition organiser if they hadn’t complied and removed the script. I am still not sure why they stole my advanced script since the free version would have been quite adequate for what they needed.

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