using ssl 1

[sysadmin42]

Not sure which forum to put this in, but here goes.

I'm a newbie to using SSL, but an intermediate programmer in PHP and I have a few questions about it:

1. Does my PHP code have to change for using SSL?
2. is SSL just a layer of communication between the client's browser and the server?
3. what else would I have to do once I set it up?

If anyone knows of any articles on this subject, that'd be great. I'm having a hard time searching for this specific information on the web.

thanks!

 

[RhythmAce]

To my knowledge there is no need to change any of you code. Everything is all handled by ssl itself. However, these pages use https protocol rather than http. Traffic is handled by port 443 instead of port 80. So basically all the changes will be on the server end. You can create your own certs for testing but visitors to you site will be notified of this. If you are looking for a place to purchase a certificate, there are a few out there but I understand that

http://www.godaddy.com

now provides this service and at a better price that most others.

 

[sysadmin42]

cool. That's what it all sounded like, but just wasn't sure.

Thanks.

 

[danomac]

You do not have to change your PHP scripts unless you want them to check to make sure they are actually being served over SSL (if not, your script can give an error message for example, and not show sensitive information.)

If you do want to check, in PHP all you need to do is check the server port in the $_SERVER array and decide whether it's encrypted or not.