PERL CGI Freelance - Need some help here

Author

Need some help here

Vector Newman

2004-12-27, 3:57 pm

I am making a website which I want very much to be bare bones. The only part
I am unfamiliar with is this:

The site will allow people to post classified ads with up to 6 photos. I
want to charge for this. Want I want is for the client to be able to click
on a "buy ad" link which allows them to make a payment online. After payment
is confirmed, I want them taken to the page where they can now upload their
photos and give a narrative of their ad/form etc; I want the ability to
limit the size of their photos to no larger than 300k. Knowing that not all
people know how to decrease the size of their photos is there a way that
this can be done automatically? If someone submits a photo 600k for
instance, their is a way to recognize this and bring the file size down? Or
will the only option be that they get a error message saying their file is
too large?

I am also asking if anyone here could perhaps give me an estimate on this.
The site is basically done with regards to images, layout etc; I just need
the above done. I really don't want to have to be at my computer 24/7 for
transactions/photo submits and am looking for suggestions on this best way
to proceed. I'd appreciate advice on this very much.

email at sk4x10x(at)hotmaildotcom with any questions. TIA.

Vorxion

2004-12-27, 8:56 pm

In article <41d062b6_4@127.0.0.1>, Vector Newman wrote:
>I am making a website which I want very much to be bare bones. The only part
>I am unfamiliar with is this:
>
>The site will allow people to post classified ads with up to 6 photos. I
>want to charge for this. Want I want is for the client to be able to click
>on a "buy ad" link which allows them to make a payment online. After payment
>is confirmed, I want them taken to the page where they can now upload their
>photos and give a narrative of their ad/form etc; I want the ability to
>limit the size of their photos to no larger than 300k. Knowing that not all
>people know how to decrease the size of their photos is there a way that
>this can be done automatically? If someone submits a photo 600k for
>instance, their is a way to recognize this and bring the file size down? Or
>will the only option be that they get a error message saying their file is
>too large?

Is the photo part the only part you don't understand? You said, "The
only part," and then you pose about three pseudo questions and one real
question.

As for the photo stuff--if the layout is the most important factor, you can
use the height and width attributes to the img tag for that. The entire
filesize would be maintained though. For actual file manipulation
suggestions, I'd have to know which OS, and you neglected to supply that
information.

>I am also asking if anyone here could perhaps give me an estimate on this.
>The site is basically done with regards to images, layout etc; I just need
>the above done. I really don't want to have to be at my computer 24/7 for
>transactions/photo submits and am looking for suggestions on this best way
>to proceed. I'd appreciate advice on this very much.

If you're going with PayPal, they have an integration guide. Look at their
IPN specification. Merchant accounts--you're on your own. :)

--
Vorxion - Founder of the knocking-shop of the mind.

"You have it, you sell it, you've still got it--what's the difference?"
--Diana Trent, "Waiting for God", on why a modelling agency is really a
knocking-shop. Applied by me to the field of consulting. :)

The Sci-Fi fan's solution to debt: Reverse the polarity on your charge card.

Art Sackett

2004-12-27, 8:56 pm

Vector Newman <realmenuselinuxlikeme.org> wrote:

> I want the ability to
> limit the size of their photos to no larger than 300k. Knowing that not all
> people know how to decrease the size of their photos is there a way that
> this can be done automatically? If someone submits a photo 600k for
> instance, their is a way to recognize this and bring the file size down?

Generally, yes.

Regarding online payment, in addition to PayPal (which I detest) you
can quite easily establish a credit card merchant account and employ an
online transaction gateway (e.g. AuthorizeNet). One suggestion I have
that will save you countless hours is to take the payment AFTER the
user has created his ad. If you do it the other way around, you're
going to end up issuing credits every time a user gets into the site to
discover that he hasn't thought his way all the way through the process
-- and couldn't, because the process wasn't yet known to him.

This doesn't mean actually showing the ad prior to confirmation of a
successful credit card transaction. It makes sense to allow the user a
reasonable period of time, say, a few days, to actually complete the
process. Storage is cheap, but customer dissatisfaction is expensive.

> I am also asking if anyone here could perhaps give me an estimate on this.

There's a little more to a workable project description/specification
than you've given, and without it an estimate would be worse than
worthless. That said, I'd be happy to work with you -- the email address
I'm using here is good for another several days, and if it expires you
can easily find my just by plugging my name into any search engine.

You're probably going to spend well into the four figures range to
accomplish this. If that's out of reach, you might look around the web
for a prepackaged solution that will meet at least most of your needs
in the short term, get your feet wet, and use the profits from your
initial deployment to fund your future custom development effort. If
you find something that's pretty close to meeting a reduced
specification for initial deployment, if it's open source or the author
is amenable, you might be able to get a tweak here and a twiddle there
relatively economically.

> I really don't want to have to be at my computer 24/7 for
> transactions/photo submits and am looking for suggestions on this best way
> to proceed.

It would be terribly silly to conduct e-commerce such that it requires
a human presence at all times on the upstream side. :-)

--
Art Sackett,
Patron Saint of Drunken Fornication

Vorxion

2004-12-29, 8:57 am

In article <cqq8kq02500@news1.newsguy.com>, Art Sackett wrote:
>
>Regarding online payment, in addition to PayPal (which I detest) you

Why do you detest PayPal? Specifics, please.

>can quite easily establish a credit card merchant account and employ an

Ordinary businesspeople I talk to daily say they don't just dole out
merchant accounts like they used to. You need a brick and mortar place of
business, a decent and long history, and a host of other criterion to be
met before they'll even consider it.

--
Vorxion - Founder of the knocking-shop of the mind.

"You have it, you sell it, you've still got it--what's the difference?"
--Diana Trent, "Waiting for God", on why a modelling agency is really a
knocking-shop. Applied by me to the field of consulting. :)

The Sci-Fi fan's solution to debt: Reverse the polarity on your charge card.

bengee

2004-12-29, 3:57 pm

Vorxion wrote:
> In article <cqq8kq02500@news1.newsguy.com>, Art Sackett wrote:
>
>
> Why do you detest PayPal? Specifics, please.

Their extortianate rates for starters....

Vorxion

2004-12-29, 8:57 pm

In article <41d2a6f5$0$54815$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net>, bengee wrote:
>Vorxion wrote:
>
>Their extortianate rates for starters....

I've used them since before they raised them. I don't have a problem with
their rates. $0.30 per transaction, plus 2.9%? Big deal for the price of
getting your money quickly.

--
Vorxion - Founder of the knocking-shop of the mind.

"You have it, you sell it, you've still got it--what's the difference?"
--Diana Trent, "Waiting for God", on why a modelling agency is really a
knocking-shop. Applied by me to the field of consulting. :)

The Sci-Fi fan's solution to debt: Reverse the polarity on your charge card.

Brian Wakem

2004-12-29, 8:57 pm

Vorxion wrote:

> In article <cqq8kq02500@news1.newsguy.com>, Art Sackett wrote:
>
> Why do you detest PayPal? Specifics, please.
>
>
> Ordinary businesspeople I talk to daily say they don't just dole out
> merchant accounts like they used to. You need a brick and mortar place of
> business, a decent and long history, and a host of other criterion to be
> met before they'll even consider it.

I have opened 2 merchant accounts for separate companies and have found it
very easy both times (one very recent). Very few checks seem to be done.

--
Brian Wakem

Scott Bryce

2004-12-30, 3:58 pm

Vorxion wrote:

> Ordinary businesspeople I talk to daily say they don't just dole out
> merchant accounts like they used to. You need a brick and mortar place of
> business, a decent and long history, and a host of other criterion to be
> met before they'll even consider it.

I have none of those things and I got a merchant account very easily
less than a year ago. What I had was a good credit history and a very
low-risk (very unlikely to have charge backs) product/service to sell.

bengee

2004-12-31, 3:56 pm

Vorxion wrote:
> I've used them since before they raised them. I don't have a problem with
> their rates. $0.30 per transaction, plus 2.9%? Big deal for the price of
> getting your money quickly.

"Quickly"?? Yes the money goes into your paypal account straight away...
but it takes 7+ days to get put into your bank account :-(

Vorxion

2005-01-01, 8:56 am

In article <41d57b4d$0$47688$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net>, bengee wrote:
>Vorxion wrote:
>
>"Quickly"?? Yes the money goes into your paypal account straight away...
>but it takes 7+ days to get put into your bank account :-(

Not for me. I get money in, I instantly issue a transfer request. It's
usually there in 3 days, I've never had it take more than 4. No joke. I
think my last five were all in within 3 days. Maybe my bank is just more
responsive to ACH than yours? You -are- using ACH transfers, not ordering
a cheque, right? That's the only way I can see it taking that long--if you
ordered a cheque rather than doing the transfer.

I honestly have no problems with them whatsoever. Never have, still don't.

--
Vorxion - Founder of the knocking-shop of the mind.

"You have it, you sell it, you've still got it--what's the difference?"
--Diana Trent, "Waiting for God", on why a modelling agency is really a
knocking-shop. Applied by me to the field of consulting. :)

The Sci-Fi fan's solution to debt: Reverse the polarity on your charge card.

bengee

2005-01-01, 3:57 pm

Vorxion wrote:
> Not for me. I get money in, I instantly issue a transfer request. It's
> usually there in 3 days, I've never had it take more than 4. No joke. I
> think my last five were all in within 3 days. Maybe my bank is just more
> responsive to ACH than yours? You -are- using ACH transfers, not ordering
> a cheque, right? That's the only way I can see it taking that long--if you
> ordered a cheque rather than doing the transfer.
>
> I honestly have no problems with them whatsoever. Never have, still don't.

Might be different in the US then (i'm in the UK), and yes i do bank
transfer - not cheque :-)

Vorxion

2005-01-01, 8:56 pm

In article <41d6c010$0$60694$ed2e19e4@ptn-nntp-reader04.plus.net>, bengee wrote:
>Vorxion wrote:
>
>Might be different in the US then (i'm in the UK), and yes i do bank
>transfer - not cheque :-)

Yeah, I'm guessing the UK transfer has a bit to do with it.

--
Vorxion - Founder of the knocking-shop of the mind.

"You have it, you sell it, you've still got it--what's the difference?"
--Diana Trent, "Waiting for God", on why a modelling agency is really a
knocking-shop. Applied by me to the field of consulting. :)

The Sci-Fi fan's solution to debt: Reverse the polarity on your charge card.

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