Secure Downloads

How is this done?

[Freemo]

I am looking at selling downloadable music online. Is there a shopping cart or cheap ecommerce solution so people can buy, get sent an email saying.. "go to this URL to download your music"? I was thinking of sending it out manually but most email services have a size limit. Is this a hard thing to set up?

[lorax]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld!

I believe osCommerce, ZenCart, X-Cart, and LiteCommerce all offer this functionality.

[Freemo]

Thank You

[Mall23]

One thing you have to consider if you are using Windows is that IIS metabase buffer limit. By default it is 4megs. This means that you cannot push a file larger than 4 megs through a secure page (third party components won't fix this either since the limit is in IIS). However, if you have a dedicated server, you can change the metabase entry to whatever you like.

What I do instead is check to see if the file is larger than 4 megs. If so, then I have to sacrifice the security and display a "dumb" link directly to the file. Otherwise, files smaller than 4 megs are streamed securely.

I'm working on some XML tweaks that might allow me to jerry-rig the system to allow for unlimited file sizes. Send me a PM if you'd like me to help you with it.

[ColinVox]

The carts metioned above will do the task for selling downloadable music. However it will be also a good idea to organize preview system at your site so the customers can listen sample tracks before purchasing content. Flash mp3 players <snip> or similar will do the trick.

[edited by: lorax at 12:54 pm (utc) on Aug. 22, 2005]
[edit reason] removed URL [/edit]