An interactive datbase / form

[Zedar]

i am looking to set up an interative form that tells the customer if this item is out of stock and how much there is of that particular item plus i would like to know if there was any way to make a page that automatically sent a email off with credit card details and that send s me a copy so i can make the transaction i would great like some help on this thanks

[jeskel]

About the form: if you're already hosting your site somewhere you have to know what is your server (probably either 'Apache' or 'IIS'). Depending on the server you'll use PHP (-->Apache) or ASP (-->IIS). If you don't have a host now then start by choosing the language you want to use. Then I suggest you to go in the appropriate section of this board and ask for help. You can see that a similar question has been asked in the ASP forum: http://www.codingforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31491

Good luck :)

[oracleguy]

You shouldn't be emailing people's credit card numbers through the internet unprotected. You should look into making the transaction happen automaticaly online or encrypt the data before it is sent to you.

[Zedar]

what type of sript would you recommend

[Nightfire]

It (the card info) should be stored crypted in a database, where you have the key to decrpyt it. Should also be done using SSL, to make it harder for people to get the info transferred between the client and server. Never use email for information like that, it will one day fail on you and all those creditcard details would be available to whoever intercepts the email

[jeskel]

I think that PHP is good language to start with. Lots of scripts are available and there are already built-in functions useful for what you are trying to achieve.

P.S: Store your infos in a db. don't use emails!!!

[Zedar]

I thought php was what you were going to recommend but the problem is learning it but if i want to do it then i guess that is what i will have to learn thank for your help i will let you know of any updates

[cg9com]

run by hotscripts.com also, you can find some useful stuff there and - at least - some applications to learn from.

[Shift4Sms]

Originally posted by Zedar
what type of sript would you recommend Definitely don't e-mail full credit card details; as already stated, e-mail is not secure. You can store the information encrypted and access the information through a secure admin page but for the encryption to be secure, you need to use an asymmetric encryption algorithm, like PGP.

Most encryption techniques use symmetric algorithms (DES, 3DES, BlowFish, etc.), meaning that the encryption key is the same as the decryption key and if someone can access your data on the web sever, most likely he also has access to the scripts that contain the key so the work done to encrypt the data is virtually a waste of time.

With asymmetric algorithms (RSA, PGP), a public key is used to encrypt the data and a private key is used to decrypt the data. You store the public key on the server and you keep the private key and only enter it through a secure page when you need the view the encrypted data.

A better solution all around would be to use an online payment gateway. Send the card information to the gateway for an authorization. Once approved, store the auth code and discard all but the last 4 digits of the card information. This way, encryption of the stored payment information is unnecessary because you are not storing enough information to be useful to hackers.