here's the story, hope one of you genius' can help me!
i've got a file that people want to download. (a totally above-board and nicey-nice program file). so i decided that rather than just giving them the file , that they would have to, in return, give me their email address. sounds fair right? ok don't answer - read on!
(this isn't the part i'm having trouble with - just some more
background...)
ok, so i've got a little script that takes a users first and last name and email and makes a little md5 code out of it and then emails it to them in the form of a link. meanwhile, the session has also created the same md5 code so that when the user clicks on the link they can tell that it's the same user blah blah - yes i know it's not that fool proof and secure but i really just want to make halfway sure it's not a dummy email address.
anyway, so then they come to the page after clicking on the link and the script adds their name and email to my database (along with privacy info about how i'd rather have my arms torn out than share their info with anyone etc..)
fine, so---right after i add them to the database i basically want to serve them the file. my question is - what's the best way to do this? i've been reading about f_get and find it totally confusing (what do you mean you need to know the name of the local version of the file? i'm giving it to you@&$) and i've been reading ad nauseum about forced downloads...but since this is either a .zip or an .exe install file that doesn't seem to apply.
i could just have a link but i want to discourage direct linking - therefore i'd like some php script that could just serve it up so people wouldn't really know where it was coming from.
do i use ftp via php? or do i use file read? it's very confusing...
any help at all will get you my undying gratitude!
mouton
