E-Commerce Woes

[audiopro]

We have developed our Internet site into a web shop but we are having great problems with the payment side of things.
The Bank have 'offered' their web shop facility at a fixed monthly price but as we have written the whole site ourselves, we want to complete the whole job.
The entire shop site iw written in PERL and in order to carry out a security feature we require certain PERL Modules which are not and, will not be available on their server. Our ISP are reluctant to install and modules which:-

[i]May compromise our security[/i]

The obvious answer is move ISP's but I have moved ISP's before and it is not for the faint hearted.
If there is a problem with general security, how do other web sites stay secure? There are numerous sites taking payments via UK banks. Are we just unlucky to have had our ISP taken over by one of the big boys who have turned a once excellent service into a poor relation.
We need to call a shared library but our C programmer tells us the problm now is getting the library to load with only limited permissions.

Can anyone offer any advice - thanks.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[trollacious]

Perl is much less popular now than it was in the 1990s for web programming, with PHP (which is much like Perl) taking its place. Since PHP is very common now, you might consider converting the site to either ASP or PHP to make it easier to find the hosting you want and need.

Lee

 

[ecobb]

Adding on trollacious's comments, you'll probably also find that there are already some PHP, ASP, CFM, JSP, etc... programs out there to handle the ecommerce processing, saving you from having to rewrite the entire thing or possibly even integrating into what you've already got. Find out what your ISP does support, you might can keep your perl site and just another language for the processing.


Hope This Helps!

ECAR
ECAR Technologies, LLC

http://www.ecartech.com

"My work is a game, a very serious game." - M.C. Escher

 

[audiopro]

Thanks for that but I must admit to being a little confused.
I can't understand why calling a C library from PERL is impossible yet calling a C library from ASP is possible. It is after all the same C library provided by one of the world's leading banks.
How was this task carried out in the Pre - ASP/PHP days?
The problem is not really with the PERL side of things as that runs smoothly, the problem is not being able to call a 'simple' external library.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[audiopro]

I didn't mention that the bank provide 2 example libraries, one in C and one in Java. Our ISP appears to support neither.
How can any language call a library without the necessary environment.

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[trollacious]

If the C "library" is actually a collection of COM objects, I don't think Perl would be able to interface with that well. Perl is more function-oriented than object-oriented, though I've heard some of the later versions are able to create Perl objects (different from using COM objects, though).

Realistically, you can spend a lot of time searching for something to get you by, wringing your hands over what is and what isn't, or you can put that time into converting your code to use what IS available. Perl is becoming much less popular for web programming, so anything you patch together now most likely won't be as well supported in the future as something you rewrite.

Lee

 

[Foamcow]

would this be HSBC by any chance?

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[BabyJeffy]

Find a hosting company that will work with you to host a solution that you are both comfortable with. Buy a new domain, register with a new host and set up a copy of the site. Once it's all working... transfer the domain over! It's just a domain transfer -- not rewriting Windows!

Talk with your bank representative and get some recommendations from them... or from their case study clients.

This is usually finalised before development even begins for any project I have worked on. Maybe a lesson in there?

Jeff

 

[audiopro]

Thanks for all the info guys.
I have been using PERL for many years and this is the first attempt at accessing external libs so I am glad of any help you can give. We are fortunate that we have a C programmer on board who can do all the machine level stuff. I don't know where we would have been without him.
What specification of ISP would we look for?
I have been learning computer languages for a number of years and am not averse to learning new skills if only the decision of which language to go for was easy. Learning many languages means you never get a full grasp of it's workings so what do you guys recommend I go for?

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[audiopro]

Foamcow - Yes, you win tonights fabulous Lounge Suite!

Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[audiopro]

BabyJeffy
We are all learning and this is a foray into unknown territory.
I wrongly assumed that banks and ISP's are there to provide a service to their clients but having dealt with both the bank's and our ISP's help lines over the last few weeks I am beginning to wonder.
The ISP has recently been taken over and their service is awful! The bank's help line is no better and I lost any confidence I had, in them when they told me to install a C library in order to run the JAVA program they had supplied. None of the supplied example files actually work so where do we turn? Are we the first independant developers to attempt to inteface with this particular bank?
My next step is to contact the bank by letter to try to resolve this issue, I just hope it is dealt with by someone who shares the same culture and work ethic as I do, otherwise we have the creek the boat and the tide is due shortly.


Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[Foamcow]

To use the HSBC C libs you just need a host that will let you execute the file.

I have used this with 2 hosts (for testing only).
One would not allow me to run call the programs directly but a nice chap in their support dept wrote a little wrapper function and it seemed to work. I did not actually get chance to carry out the transaction but from my later experience I am 99% confidence it would work.

The later experience is a site I am working on at the moment.
The host allows me to execute the programs (after I asked them to allow it). It's nothing special, a cheap hosting service based in the US. Their servers are a bit slow, but generally they have been OK.

I'll see if I've got a copy of the workaround handy and get it to you somehow.



Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[Foamcow]

I recall now

It was a modification to a PHP script which in turn is a mod for OsCommerce that was modded to work with ZenCart.....

phew...

whats more.. the module didn't work and I've had to rework parts of it to get it to work with the new host!

So it's probably not going to be much use to you, but you are welcome to have the PHP script that calls the C program if you like.

I need to lie down now.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[audiopro]

Update:-
We have a PERL script which will call a C prog.
We have a C prog which will call the bank's security generator.
This works on a root local server but not on a shared host.
Will keep you posted.


Keith

http://www.studiosoft.co.uk

 

[Foamcow]

It's likely that the shared host will not allow you to execute a program as it is seen as a security risk.
Speak to the host, they may be willing to overide it.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[spewn]

stay with PERL. don't listen to these guys (lol). also, shared hosting shouldn't be a consideration for you; you want dedicated hosting w/static ip for ecommerce site...your own security cert, etc.

secondly, i throw

http://www.skipjack.com

(payment gateway) in the ring...i wrote my whole site in PERL with HTML output (obviously). Skipjack provides an API that allows you to seamlessly integrate (w/ a little coding!) the processing with the shopping cart...mine works great (although not up yet!)...

the first time my hosting co. told me they couldn't install a module i based my site around, i let them go. i now use cpchosting.com...i personally know the team there and the customer service is top priority, plus the server admin is second to none.

what makes a hosting switch difficult for you?

- g

 

[spewn]

oh yeah, and i wanted what you wanted; to design the whole thing start to finish, even though there were multiple companies willing to give me the 'cookie cutter' template for cc processing.

i didn't want people going to another site to complete the transaction or have the page look any different. i now control 100% of the sale, up to and including the receipt/confimation phase, all within my site.

- g

 

[Foamcow]

There is an advantage to going to another page to complete a transaction when dealing with large, multinational banks.
When customers see that they are paying via HSBC, a well known and trusted bank, they are likely to feel alot more at ease than if dealing with "ABC company".

A client of mine had to use the HSBC gateway as their business was funded by HSBC and they insisted on it from a security perspective.

Incidentally you will need your own SSL certificate to implement the HSBC gateway. The CPI needs to return to a secure server to work properly.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time