Run .exe from server?

I have a little program that sells in small numbers by direct mail for AU$47. The program is not Australia-specific, so it might have a world market via the web.

The program ships with a CONTROL.DAT file, which contains licensing information. I generate this file manually by running an in-house .exe program.

If I do offer the program on the web, I propose to use PayPal as a facilitator. Upon receipt of payment by PayPal, the purchaser is sent to a web page I nominate.

On this page, the following should happen:
1. the server runs the .exe file that generates CONTROL.DAT, using information gathered on the form that sends the prospect to PayPal; and
2. the program and control file are zipped and emailed to the purchaser.

Is this feasible? What would I need to do to make it happen?

This is a first posting, thank you in advance for your help.

IS your platform windows?? can you include more details?? Anyway.. you can run it from a cgi script. Yours will be similar o the scenario decades back when people used to run C executables from cgi programs. Direct the webpage to a cgi script and call the exe from the cgi... But this is highly not recommended... If you can, port everything to a j2ee environment .. which will be efficientt, scalable and faster...

You could alter the exe file slightly, and run it in the CGI-BIN of the webserver.

You'd then have to add a lot of HTML code to the exe though.

Easier way is probably to make the registration page in PHP, and have it call the .exe using the system() function.

Thank you very much.
Yes, the program (controlgen.exe) is a Windows program.
I shall try to run it from a CGI script, like "decades back".
Amazing how people have forgotten more than I'll ever learn.

However, my web host runs the server with Unix.
Surely, that will make a difference?

yes, it will make a difference.
You'll have to recompile it for linux/unix.

But you'll have to do that anyway if you plan to modify it to be a cgi-bin executable.

Thank you, all, for your interest in this topic.

It seems that the best course might be to write the whole routine in PHP. However, wouldn’t that make the licensing code visible to the whole world? Also, I think the task might be over my head because I have never done PHP. Would someone be interested in helping for a fee?

No, it won't make the code visible to the world. Only to people with access to your server directories. And if your server is well configured, that should be only you and your system administrator. From the web, ypu can only view the output of the script, not the script itself, the parser makes sure of that.

As for converting it, I might be interested. I'll send you a PM.

Dear “itsacon”
Thank you for your interest.
You are familiar with PayPal? For one of my other programs, purchasers pay at PayPal and then get redirected to a download site. The actual licensing happens when the purchaser emails to me an ID number and I return a licence number.
For the little program in question, this process is far too cumbersome. Therefore, I have an automated process in mind, which involves the following steps:
1. after reading the sales copy, the reader hopefully goes to the order page;
2. there the prospect enters three pieces of information – (i) a program name; (ii) a user name; and (iii) an email address;
3. having entered the information, the prospect clicks a ‘Buy Now’ button and is taken to PayPal;
4. when PayPal has received a payment, the purchaser is redirected to my ‘Thank You’ web page;
5. the ‘Thank You’ page must result in an email to the purchaser with instructions what to do with the attached .ZIP file.
The PHP (or other) code of the ‘Thank You’ page must achieve the following:
1. it must collect the three pieces of information entered on the order page;
2. it must process this information into a text file called ‘CONTROL.DAT’, which contains the program name and a scrambled version of the user name (the scrambling routine comprises 91 lines of SELECT CASE statements);
3. it must generate a .ZIP file comprising the PROGRAM.EXE file plus CONTROL.DAT plus possible other files to be determined (like readme.txt, program.hlp, etc);
4. it must send the generated .ZIP file to the given email address.
Hopefully, this is a reasonable description of the task? Please let me know what you think? Including your thoughts about the fee?