Need help with security design!

Hi,
I haven't worked with security design very much. Currently I'm about to develop an application to my father which should implement some sort of security.
One of the reasons for this application besides making my father happy is educating myself.
The application is an online image album.
The security could be divided in role-based security and instance level security.
Role-based (NO PROBLEM):
A user cannot delete another user, an administrator can delete users.
Instance-level (DON'T KNOW HOW):
A user can load other users image albums if he/her is allowed/granted to view the album and its images. Note that the user could be granted to view the album, but not all of its images.
My problem is how I should design the "instance-level" security? Should I keep a ACL (Access Control List) with each instance of album and image?
This seems to be a common functionality to add view/load/read/write permissions to an instance in runtime to let a certain user to operate on an asset?
Have searched the Internet but haven't found any nice framework to help me.
Could anyone with some experience please help me out?!
Kind regards, Andreas

Hi,
I ran into the same problem. Could you resolve it?
please give me your feedback.

Similar Messages

Need help with class design

I want to design and use one or more classes for a particular project I am working on.
I need some advice hopefully from someone who has experience in this area. Basically,
for this particular problem I have two database tables. I want the first class to
represent the first database table and the second class to represent the second
database table. An object of the first class will be created first, and then if certain
criteria are met then an object of the second class will be created.
Question:
Should I use classical inheritance and let the first class inherit from the second class?
Or should I use the containment delegation model and embed an object of the second
class in the first class?
----Tables------
For example, my first table ET_UserData looks something like this:
ET_UserData
(PK)UserName
Password
FirstName
LastName
My second table ET_DetailedUserData looks like this
ET_DetailedUserData
(FK)UserName
WorkAddress
WorkPhoneNumber
CityWhereEmployed
SocialSecurityNumber
City
State
StreetAdress
PrimaryTelephoneNumber
AlternatePhoneNumber
HasRegistered
RegistrationDate
RegistrationTime
CreditCardNumber
NameOfPrimaryContact
DateOfBirth
Weight
EyeColor
Height
Member
Here is are some pseudo classes for the two classes.
Class UserData
string UserName
string FirstName
string LastName
Class DetailedUserData /* For a classical approach, sub class off of class UserData */
/* UserData ThisUser --> Containment delegation model */
string (FK)UserName
string WorkAddress
string WorkPhoneNumber
string CityWhereEmployed
string SocialSecurityNumber
string City
string State
string StreetAdress
Int PrimaryTelephoneNumber
Int AlternatePhoneNumber
Bool HasRegistered
Int RegistrationDate
Int RegistrationTime
Int CreditCardNumber
String NameOfPrimaryContact
Int DateOfBirth
Int Weight
Int EyeColor
Int Height
bool Member
}

Thank you for your help. If you can continue to help me I would appreciate it.
I and another developer did the database design. Pretty solid design. Plus we have all of the requirements
which are very good too.
Originally I wanted just one table to contain all of the data associated with a user. Instead of ET_UserData and ET_Detailed user data I wanted just one table. But I decided to break this table up into the two tables for the following reason.
1.) This is a web application where each user logs into a web form. At a minimum, in order to use the website the session associated with each user needs the UserName, Password, First and last name.
This is the data in the first table.
If they choose to do more specialized functions on this website, then they will need all of the information (Attributes) that are located in the second table. In general 40% of the time all users will need information located in the second table.
My reasoning for breaking the table into two seperate tables is that I wanted to minimize the amount of data involved in a result set, created from the sql query. The math tells me that 60% of the time most of the data in the result set will not be used.
2.) If I create one class to represent all of the data/attributes in both tables, then my reasoning is that their will be alot of overhead in the single class because 60% of the time, a majority of the attributes are not needed and used.
I would deeply appreciate your help with this. You seem to have great insight and advice. Please help me as I increase the duke dollars Sir.

Need help with security

Hi. I'm new to this list, and pretty new to web services. I'm
currently trying to apply security to an existing application, and
i've been studing the tutorials at sun web
(http://java.sun.com/webservices/docs/1.4/tutorial/doc/). In the
simple sample, in the build.xml file, there's a 'gen-server' target
which i believe creates ties of the service, right? Well, i do the
same step in my application (just before packaging into a raw war
file), and move all the generated files, together with my server
compiled classes, to the WEB-INF dir. Therefore i have all that class
files in /WEB-INF/classes/hello (i'm doing this with a helloword
example). Included in those files, theres a file called
"HelloIF_Tie.class", which i assume is the tie for my service, created
by the 'gen-server' target.
After this i create a raw war file using the jar tool, and take the
generated file to a dir named "dist". Then i try to create a cooked
war file using the wsdeploy tool. However when i try to run the
application, the server seems to ignore any security options i have
configured. Looking into the deployable war file i found that it had
generated quite a few more class files
(HelloIF__HelloService__Tie.class between them), and that in the
jaxrpc-ri-runtime.xml file there was the following line:
tie='hello.HelloIF__HelloService__Tie'
This seemed a bit strange to me, since i believed that my tie file was
HelloIF_Tie.class. Therefore, i tried something: changing that line
for
tie='hello.HelloIF_Tie'
And packaging all into a war file again with the jar tool, everything
runs fine. However its kind of boring doing this every time i change
the server code. So my question is...
is it possible to tell the wsdeploy tool not to generate any tie
files, and use the ones existing in the raw war file???
is there any other solution to my problem???
Im sorry if these questions are stupid, but im still quite novice with
jwsdp and i dont know if im doing things right. Thank you very much.

CQAndroid, help is here! I am familiar with this feature and use it with my own laptop and iPhone and well. It's a great feature! It forwards all of your text messages to your phone and Macbook, if you like. There's a few steps to try. First go to your iPhone Messages settings (Settings > Messages > iMessage) and turn off iMessages and turn it on again. Then go to the iMessages Settings on your Mac and do the same. Also make sure to activate your telephone number in the iMessages settings on your Mac. Try this and keep us posted please. Thanks!
KristieQ_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport
If my response answered your question please click the "Correct Answer" button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

Need help with Security when running AS3 inside browser

Hi,
I am fairly new to flash, but a fairly experienced
programmer.
I have created a game that runs perfectly and communicates to
a WinSock server over port 4000 to publish its final score to.
Using simple XMLSocket and Send.
When I run the game in the standalone flash player everything
works perfectly as it should
However when I embed in a HTML page or similar it goes wrong.
The game works fine, but the final posting to the WinSock socket
server fails. I have retrieved the error message.
ioErrorHandler: [SecurityErrorEvent type="securityError"
bubbles=false cancelable=false eventPhase=2 text="Error #2048"]
My server is a local server to me running IIS 6. Everything
runs fine by the standalone flash player so I know ports are clear
and firewalls are not the problem.
Searching around google and forums I have found out that in
9,0,124,0 (the flash I am running) that they made some security
enhancements, namely you need to post a crossdomain file.
My file is sat in the wwwroot of my webserver where my flash
swf is hosted and looks like
<cross-domain-policy>
<allow-access-from domain="*" secure="false"/>
</cross-domain-policy>
I have also tried adding the following to the 1st section of
the swf file
Security.loadPolicyFile("
http://mydomainname.com/crossdomain.xml");
I have tried all conbinations, but I cannot get the flash to
communicate to the socket server when it inside a web browser.
If i run it in the standalone player, everything works
perfectly.
Can someone help me please. I have been googling and ripping
my hair out for ages. This is the final stage of my project and I
am failing at the final step.
Just to add.
My server and testing computer are on the same domain, the
web server is a win2003 server and my testing and coding server is
a XP machine running IE7. They are linked by a ADSL router sharing
the same external IP address but via DHCP addressing. Everything
works fine for port forwarding of the winsocket port.
Just to emphasis, I believe this setup is correct, as it all
works fine when I run in the flash player.
Many thanks

I fixed it eventually.
In flash 9.0.124.0 they now force you to have a socket XML
server running on port 843 a server somewhere if you wish to use
XMLSocket inside a browser.
Nothing to do with domain or crossdomain.xml files.
You need to also call
Security.loadPolicyFile("xmlsocket://x.x.x.x:843") before you
open the socket.
to load in the XML that defines what is allowed.
Search google for AS3 and socket server port 843 and you will
find examples and even a simple Java based server to use.

Need Help With Spreadsheet Design

Hi,
I write about diabetes on various Internet Forums and am currently involved in testing various blood glucose meters to determine the accuracy of the different makes/models. I am trying to design a spreadsheet in Appleworks to help me evaluate the meters but have very little experience with spreadsheets so am finding it tough going.
In comparing the various blood glucose values delivered by the meters I am trying to come up with a way to automatically compare 2 readings and then display how much a particular reading is above or below another percentage wise. The difficulty is that a particular meter might sometimes display a value higher than another one time, and lower than another the next time so I'm not sure how to design the speadsheet to automatically calculate the percentages.
For instance in sample one Meter A reads 115mg/dl and Meter B reads 87 mg/dl so by dividing the 115 into 87 I can determine that Meter A is reading 24% higher than Meter B. But then in sample two Meter A reads 89 mg/dl while Meter B reads 121 mg/dl so in this case Meter B is reading 26% higher than Meter A.
Is there a way to structure the spreadsheet so that it can compare the two readings and then based upon which one is higher divide the result into the lower one can come up with a percentage?
Thanks!
Winston

Hi Winston,
Leaving aside any discussion of the actual test design, here's a rundown of how to make the spreadsheet do (most of) what you want it to do.
What I want the spreadsheet to do is to accept the data from meter 1 and meter 2 in side by side columns of cells. I next want the spreadsheet to compare the 2 bG values obtained from the same blood sample with these meters to one another and then divide the smaller value by the larger value to determine the amount in percent that one meter is higher or lower than the other.
This division (r/R) compares the smaller value (r) to the larger (R) and reports the result as a fraction.
eg. 75/100 = 0.75 The smaller reading is 75% of the larger reading, or the smaller reading is 25% lower than the higher reading.
But that does not mean the higher reading is 25% higher than the lower. That percentage is given by comparing the larger reading to the smaller (R/r). For the same pair of readings:
100/75 = 1.33.. The larger reading is 33% higher than the smaller.
As the percentages will be listed in columns labeled "Meter x higher", the R/r division is the appropriate one.
This is comparison is complicated by the fact that meter 1 will sometimes return the higher of the two readings, and at other times meter 2 will be higher. Thus it's not a simple matter of asking the spreadsheet to divide the result of meter 1 by the result of meter 2 each and every time or vice versa.
Next on the agenda I want the spreadsheet to put the result obtained by the above calculation in one or the other of two additional columns of cells. In other words the spreadsheet will compare the value of meter 1 to meter 2, divide the smaller value by the larger value to determine percentage, and finally place the result obtained in one of two additional columns of cells. One of these additional columns of cells would be labeled Meter 1 Higher and the other would be labeled Meter 2 higher.
All of the formulas given previously will make a comparison.
Niel's and Barry's report the percentage by which the higher reading is higher than the lower.
Brie's and Terry's report the percentage by which the lower reading is lower than the higher.
All put the results into the same cell (column) without regard to which reading is highest. (Barry's set includes labels to identify the higher meter.)
Here's mine again, with revisions to place the results into separate columns:
Labels in Row 2: C2: Meter A, D2: Meter B, E2: A Higher, F2: B Higher
Tests results in Row 3, Meter A in C3, Meter B in D3
Comparison results in E3 and F3
E3: =IF(C3<D3,"",C3/D3-1) Set the Number Format of this cell to percent.
F3: =IF(D3<C3,"",D3/C3-1) "
Note: the IF() statement suppresses the result in the column reporting "is higher" results for the meter with the ;ower reading. Written as above, the formulas will report in both columns where both meters show identical readings.
Note2: As written, the formulas will return a #DIV/0! error if no results have been entered on that line. The version below suppresses any results until readings have been entered in column D.
E3: =IF(D3,IF(C3<D3,"",C3/D3-1),"") Set the Number Format of this cell to percent.
F3: =IF(D3,IF(D3<C3,"",D3/C3-1),"") "
Roughly 1,000 tests will be performed over a several month timespan and all the meter readings referred to above will each be compared by the spreadsheet.
The default size of an AppleWorks spreadsheet is 40 columns by 500 rows. Go Format > Document... to increase the number of rows to 1050 to allow room for 'roughly 1000 tests.'
For 1000 tests, fill the formulas above down through rows 3..1002 (aasumed in examples below).
Next I want the spreadsheet to examine all the cells in which meter 1 returned the higher result and perform the following calculations:
lowest percentage over meter 2 obtained
highest percentage " "
The second is easy: =MAX(E3..E1002)
Place the formula where you want this result reported.
The first runs into a problem: empty cells, or those with non numeric data are evaluated numerically as "0" by the MIN() function. There is a workaround.
Use an empty column to the right of the active part of the spreadsheet. (I've arbitrarily chosen column M)
M3: =IF(E3>0,E3,1000)
Fill down M3..M1002
This copies all greater than zero values into column M, and inserts a value of 1000 wherever the value in column E is 0.
The minimum value in this column (which is also the non-zero minimum of column E) is given by:
=MIN(M3..M1002)
Place the formula where you want this result reported.
number of identical readings obtained
I'm assuming you mean 'identical differences' in terms of percent higher.
There are a couple of difficulties here:
1. AppleWorks does not include a MODE() function which would extract the number appearing with the greatest frequency.
2. What constitutes "identical" depends on the (mathematical) precision of the results. AppleWorks can display results to 11 significant places (eg. 12.345678901), and actually does the calculations to a few more places than that. Given that precision, many results that are not significantly different willl not be identified as "identical."
Probably doable, but more detail needed before jumping in.
average percentage " "
average deviation
Not sure what you're asking with these. Can you elaborate?
Regards
Barry

Need help with scenario design

I need to design a scenario,
Data is coming from two tables in mainframe.....that data i need to combine and process it and insert to ECC.
How to design?.
What will be the steps using BPM?.
Can u please give me broad view on designing this scenario.

Thanks Prabhu..for the input.
Thanks Bhavesh. You got the point...that is what i am going to do.
I have a select with join....then i update the records selected from database.
But now, i want to resign the scenario..
What i want to do is...write a sync send. Then use the join sql to get data, send to BPM.
Then inside BPM, use select with for update only and update sql.
For getting records on fly and send to BPM, how can i do?. Can u please elaborate this?.
What all i need to do to run the join sql against table and get data to BPM?.
(Advanced mode in JDBC Adapter setting to serializable queries is not working). So i need to do this step to overcome.

Need help with a design

Hi All,
I have a peculiar requirement and would appreciate your suggestions/inputs in designing this.
The client needs a custom UI from where they can select the different letters/documents they want to generate. But they want to preview the document and make any changes to it before they print it.
For example, the user select letter1, letter2 and letter4 to be generated. He clicks on the 'preview' button and the 3 documents (MS Word) are created. But he wants to change some data in one of the letters (for example 'Need by Date') and then when he is satisfied, he clicks on the 'Generate' button. The generate button should merge all the 3 documents (with the changes made by user) as 1 pdf and email it to a particular email account.
I can handle the dynamic template and merge/delivery part, but how can I take care of the case where a user makes changes to the generated report? We are on EBS R12.0.6
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Ashish

you need some kind of reverse engineering, client change generated report and the change should reflect to template
use xsl templateEdited by: arjamit on Nov 4, 2009 1:47 AM

Might Be OT - Need Help With DW Design

I am in the midst of transferring Access reports to Oracle. A lot of these reports display percentage data. What is a best practice for storing percentage data in a data warehouse? Should I add on the percentage calculations at the fact table level? I am trying to make the data warehouse design as simple as possible for the report writers.

Hi Adrienne,
IMHO, warehouses should never store a percentage. They should store the components that make up that percentage. For example, the warehouse should not store "% of total sales" column, but should instead store sales $ amount and from there analytics can be performed to calculate a percentage. A data mart is more of a place where you would materialize calculations, like %, for easier reporting.
That being said, straight-up warehouse design questions are better suited over Warehouse Builder
Good luck and hope that helps!
-Joe
Edited by: Joe Bertram on Dec 17, 2009 1:06 PM
Edited by: Joe Bertram on Dec 17, 2009 1:06 PM

Need help with DB design

Hello,
We are planning to use berkeley db to store mesurament data but I'm new to this.
The data consists of device id (which made measurement), timestamp (when) and mesured value. Basic queries are "get all data from timestamp1 to timestamp2 for device with 'id' " and "get all data from timestamp1 to timestamp2 for devices with id1, id2, id3 ".
I thought about "timestamp" as key and ("id", "value") as value and check id. But in case of hundreds or sousends of devices it could derate performance.
Are there another way ?
TIA for any suggestion :)

From high-level, you could also try out these options -
- you may want to look into creating a interval tree index and employ BDB's B+ tree for storing/retrieving the index.
- you may also look into using the SQL interface of BDB, use R*-index to store intervals. This would let you use SQL for range queries for timestamps. For this, you would be required to compile sqlite with Rtree enabled.
For performance, I guess you have to try first to get something to benchmark against.
Hope it helps.
Rupesh

Need Help with Oracle Designer Install!

When I attempt to install Oracle designer, it asks me to choose an Oracle Home. I choose "OraHome81" from the drop down menu, but it gives me the following error:
"The location specified: C:\Oracle\Ora81 is already used as an Oracle Home for 'Oracle 815 Production'
It can not be used as an Oracle Home for 'nt' "
PLEASE HELP!!!
my email address is [email protected]

As you would have seen if reading the documentation, this is probably a DB home, in which you cannot/should not install Designer. Type another name in there....
....when you are done reading your install guide.

Need help with security error

com.ms.security.SecurityExceptionEx[staff4 init]; cannot access file treble.gif
treble.gif is a small picture that appears in the applet.
I put it in the same folder as everything else and
it works fine in applet viewer
what could the problem be?

perfect again
thanks so much KP
I swear that the only two methods the java tutorial suggests are
myImage = getImage(URL); //in a method in an Applet subclass only
or
myImage = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(filenameOrURL);
no mention of getDocumentBase()....hrmm
anyway, if you wanna see my baby check her out
ashonline.com/anotherband/misc/staff4

Help with Secure Erase

I need help with Secure Erase 7-pass in the utility disk. It keeps getting stuck at 25% and a pop up comes out saying not enough memory in the start up disk. Can someone tell me whats going on? After the pop up come on the erase will not proceed.

Hello,
moving files from your computer
You can delete files, folders, and other items on your disk that you no longer need.
You may want to store a backup copy or an archive of important items if you are trying to clear space on your hard disk for other things.
Drag the items to the Trash (at the end of the Dock).
Any files or folders you drag to the Trash remain there until you empty the Trash. If you change your mind about something, you can still retrieve it from the Trash if you haven't emptied it yet. Click the Trash icon to open the Trash window, then drag items back to your home folder.
Choose Finder > Empty Trash.
Even after you empty the Trash, deleted files may still be recovered by using special data-recovery software. To delete files so that they cannot be recovered, choose Finder > Secure Empty Trash. Files deleted in this way are completely overwritten by meaningless data. This may take some time, depending on the size of the file. To prevent the recovery of files you deleted previously, open Disk Utility (in Applications/Utilities), choose Help > Disk Utility Help, and search for help on erasing free disk space.
If an item is locked, you cannot put it in the Trash. Select the item and choose File > Get Info, then deselect the Locked checkbox in the General pane. If you do not own the item, you may need to provide an administrator's name and password to put the item in the Trash.
Press the Option key when you choose Empty Trash to prevent the warning message from appearing. You can also turn off the warning in the Advanced pane of Finder Preferences.
Also... using the Erase Free Disk Space button:
Erasing free disk space
When you delete files by emptying the Trash, Mac OS X deletes the information used to access the files but doesn't actually delete the files. Although the disk space used by deleted files is marked as free space, deleted files remain intact until new data is written over them. Because of this, deleted files can be recovered.
You can use Disk Utility to erase the "free" space used by deleted files by having zeros written over the space once, seven times, or 35 times. If you have a lot of free space on your disk, overwriting the free space several times can take a long time.
Erasing free disk space does not erase the other files on your disk.
In Disk Utility, select the disk or volume in the list with the free space you want to erase.
Click Erase, then click the Erase Free Space button.
Select an option, then click Erase.
After the process begins, you can interrupt it without harming your data.
You might see a message saying that you are running out of disk space, but you can ignore that warning. When this operation is complete, you will have the same amount of free space as you did when it started.
You can also erase free space when you empty the Trash in the Finder. Choose Finder > Secure Empty Trash.
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

HT5699 The country I am living in is not on the Apple Contact Support list and I need help with my security questions.

I am currently living in Tunisia but it's not on the Apple Contact Support list. I need help with my security questions which I cannot remember the answers. There is no link to send a reset email. What do I do?

Click here and ask the iTunes Store staff for assistance.
(114040)

HT5312 i need help with the security questions is there some way to get you to remind me what they were from e-mail or other wise

I need help with the security Questions is there some way to get you to remember them by e-mail of other wise

Read the HT5312 page that you posted from, it has instructions for how to reset them i.e. if you have a rescue email address set up on your account then steps 1 to 5 half-way down that page should give you a reset link.
If you don't have a rescue email address then you will need to contact iTunes Support / Apple in your country to get the questions reset.
Contacting Apple about account security : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5699
When they've been reset (and if you don't already have a rescue email address) you can then use the steps half-way down the HT5312 page that you posted from to add a rescue email address for potential future use

Need help with a currently "in-use" form we want to switch to Adobes hosting service

Hi, I am in desperate need of help with some issues concerning several forms which we currently use a paid third party (not Adobe) to host and "re-distribute through email"...Somehow I got charged $14.95 for YOUR service, (signed up for a trial, but never used it)..and now I am paying for a year of use of the similar service which Adobe is in control of. I might want to port my form distribution through Adobe in the hopes of reducing the errors, problems and hassles my customers are experiencing when some of them push our "submit button". (and I guess I am familiar with these somewhat from reading what IS available in here, and I also know that, Adobe is working to alleviate some of these " submit" issues, so let's don't start by going backwards, here) I need solutions now for my issues or I can leave it as is, If Adobe's solution will be no better for my end users...
We used FormsCentral to code these forms and it works for the most part (if the end-user can co-operate, and thats iffy, sometimes), but I need help with how to make it go through your servers (and not the third party folks we use now), Not being cruel or racist here, but your over the phone "support techs" are about horrible & I cannot understand them or work with any of them, so I would definitely need someone who speaks English and can understand the nuances of programming these forms, to please contact me back. (Sorry, but both those attributes will be required to be able to help me, so, no "newbie-interns" or first week trainees are gonna cut it).... If you have anyone who fits the bill on those items and would be willing to help us, please contact me back at your earliest convenience. If we have to communicate here, I will do that & I can submit whatever we need to & to whoever we need to.
I need to get this right and working for the majority of my users and on any platform and OS.
You may certainly call me to talk about this, and I have given my number numerous times to your (expletive deleted) time wasting - recording message thingy. So, If it's not available look it up under [email protected]
(and you will probably get right to me, unlike my and I'm sure most other folks', "Adobe phone-in experiences")
Thank You,
Michael Corman
VinylCouture
Phenix City, Alabama 36869

Well, thanks for writing back...just so you know...I started using Adobe products in 1987, ...yeah...back then...like Illustrator 1 & 9" B&W Macs ...John Warnock's Helvetica's....stuff like that...8.5 x 11 LaserWriters...all that good stuff...I still have some of it working on a mac...much of it was stuff I bought. some stuff I did not...I'm not a big fan of this "cloud" thing Adobe has foisted upon the creatives of the world...which I'm sure you can tell...but the functionality and usefulness of your software can not be disputed, so feel free to do whatever we will continue to pay for, ...I am very impressed with CC PS on the 64 bit PC and perhaps I will end up paying you the stipend that you demand for the other services.
So I guess that brings us to our problem.. a few years back and at the height of the recession and near bankruptcy myself, I was damn lucky and hit on something and began a small arts and crafts supply service to sell my products online to a very "niche market" ...I had a unique product and still sell that product (plus others) online...My website is www.vinylcouture.com...Strange? Yes...but there is a market it seems, for everything now, and this is the market I service...Catagorically, these are 99%+ women that use these "adhesive, sticky backed vinyl products" to make different "craft items" that are just way too various and numerous to go into... generally older women, women who are computer illiterate for the most part...and all this is irrelevant to my problem, but I want you to have every bit of background on this and especially the demographic we are dealing with, so we can get right to the meat of the problem.
OK...So about two years ago, I decided to offer a "plain sheet" product of a plain colored "stick back" vinyl... it is available in multiple quantities of packs ( like 5 pieces, 10 pieces, 15 pieces, in a packi & so on)...and if you are still on my site.. go to any "GO RIGHT TO OUR ORDER PAGE" button, scroll down a little...and then to the "PLAIN VINYL" section...you will see the Weebly website order process.) You can back out from here, I think,..but, anyway this product is available in 63 colors + or - a few. So then the problem is, how do they select their individual colors within that (whatever) pack?... .
So my initial idea was to enable a "selection form" for these "colors" that would be transmitted to me via email as 'part" of the "order process".. We tried getting our customers to submit a " a list" ( something my competitiors still do, lol, poor bastards)......but that..is just unbelievable..I can't even begin to tell you what a freakin' nightmare that was...these people cannot even count to 10, much less any higher... figuring out what colors to list and send me... well, lets just say, it wasn't working......I had to figure out a better way...Something had to be done.
So after thinking this all out, and yeah...due to my total ignorance, i figured that we could make a form with Live Cycle Designer (Now Forms Central)...(back then something that was bundled with Adobe Acrobat Pro), I believe, and thats what this thing was authored in... and it would be all good...LOL!
Well not so simple...as you well know, Adobe Acrobat would NOT LET YOU EMAIL anything from itself.....it just wouldn't work (and I know why, and all that hooey), but not being one to take NO for answer,.I started looking for a way to make my little gizmo work.. So I found this company that said they can "hijack" (re-direct actually) the request to email, bypass the wah-wah, and re-transmit it to the proper parties.....for less than $100 a year, I think...its called http://pdf-fillableforms.com/.
A nice gentleman named Joseph Silva helped us program the thing to go to his servers and back out. Please dont hassle them...I need them...for now..it basically does work...try it...you should get back a copy of the form that you filled out...good luck however, if you're on MAC OSX or similar...
I have included a copy of both of our forms (and feel free to fill it out and play with it)...just put test somewhere on it...(and you must include YOUR email or it will balk)..they are supposed to be mostly identical, except one seems to be twice as large....generating a 1.7 meg file upon submission, while the other one only generates a 600K file or so...thats another issue for another day or maybe you can advise on that also...
OK so far so good......In our shop, once Grandma buys a 10 pack (or whatever), Only then she gets to the link on her receipt page ro the relevant "selection form" ,(this prevents "Filling and Sending" with "no order" and "no payment", another early problem we had)... which they can click on and it will usually download and open up on their device if all goes well...Then our little form is supposed to be fillable and is supposed to ADD UP all the quantities, so grandma knows how many she is buying and so forth right on the fly, and even while she changes her mind..., and IT'S LARGE so grandma can see it, and then it TOTALS it all up for them, ( cause remember, they can NOT add).., except there is a programming bug (mouse-click should be a mouse-up probably or something..) which makes you click in the blank spaces to get to a correct TOTAL...about 70-80% of our customers can enable all these features and usually the process completes without problems for them especially on PC's running Windows OS and Acrobat Reader X or XI...at least for most... Unfortunately it is still not the "seamless process" I would like or had envisioned for the other folks out there that do have trouble using our form.... Many folks report to us the following issues that we know of. First of all it takes too much time to load up...We know its HUGE...is there anyway that you can see, to streamline this thing? I would love for it to be more compact...this really helps on the phones and pads as I'm sure you well know.
Some just tell us,"it WON'T work"....I believe this is because they are totally out of it and dont even have Adobe Reader on their machine, & don't know how to get it ( yes, we provide the links).....or it's some ancient version....no one can stop this one...
It almost always generates some kind ( at least one time) of "error message" which we do warn them about..., telling one, basically that "Acrobat doesnt even like this happening at all, and it could be detrimental to ones computer files", blah-blah...(this freaks grandma out really bad)...& usually they end up not even trying to send it... and then I get calls that even you wouldn't believe...& If they DO nut up and push the Red "Submit Form" button, it will usually send the thing to us (and also back to them at the "required email address" they furnished on the form, thats what the folks at the "fillable forms place" do) so, if it's performing it's functions, why it is having to complain?. What are we doing wrong?....and how can I fix it?...Will re-compiling it or saving it as a newer version of "FormsCentral" correct any of these problems ?
Ok, so that should keep you busy for a minute and we can start out with those problems...but the next thing is, how can I take advantage of YOUR re-direct & hosting services?, And will it get rid of the error messages, and the slowness, and the iOS incompatibilities ? (amazingly, the last iOS Reader version worked almost OK.. but the newest version doesnt seem to work with my form on my iphone4) If it will enable any version of the iOS to send my form correctly and more transparently, then it might be worth the money...$14.95 a MONTH you say. hmmmmm...Better be good.
Another problem is, that I really don't need 5000 forms a month submitted. I think its like 70-100 or less....Got any plans for that? Maybe I'm just not BIG ENOUGH to use Adobe's services, however in this case, I really don't care whose I do use as long as the product works most correctly for my customers as well as us. Like I said, If I'm doing the best I can, I won't change anything, and still use the other third party, If Adobe has a better solution, then i'm all for that as well. In the meantime, Thanks for any help you can provide on this...
Michael Corman
VinylCouture.com
(706) 326-7911

Need help with security design!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for