Serial Numbers
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From: "Gary" on 12 Jul 2010 15:29 "Floyd Resler" <fresler(a)adex-intl.com> wrote in message news:E6321B00-590D-4294-9B81-81CC92883007(a)adex-intl.com... On Jul 12, 2010, at 2:52 PM, Gary wrote: > I'm sure it is possible, but I am unsure how to do this. I have created a > Sale coupon that I was going to put up on a site that I manage, for > visitors > to print out and bring to the store. The coupon is currently a .png, > however > I was planning on converting to a pdf. I would like to put on the coupon > a > serial number that increases by 1 everytime the page is viewed. I dont > really care if someone refreshes the page and skews the numbers. > > Is this possible and could someone give me some help? > > Thanks > > Gary > Is there any particular reason you need it to be a PDF? If not and the GD library is installed in your PHP, I would suggest using the GD library to draw your serial number on the coupon. As for keeping track of the counter I would do it either in a database table or save the number to file. Take care, Floyd Floyd Thanks for your reponse. No real reason that the file has to be a pdf, that was my original plan before I came up with the counter idea.. I also thought it might not be as difficult to put the script on a pdf. I have used the GD library in the past, so it is installed on the server, however I dont know how to apply to this situation.. After I posted the question, the thought came to me to simply create the coupon in html and include a simple counter, like a hit counter, but since I had the png already created, I was hoping there was a way to include the script on it instead of recreating in html/php. Gary __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 5273 (20100712) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com
From: "Gary" on 12 Jul 2010 16:18 "Ashley Sheridan" <ash(a)ashleysheridan.co.uk> wrote in message news:1278962039.2202.5.camel(a)localhost... > On Mon, 2010-07-12 at 14:52 -0400, Gary wrote: > >> I'm sure it is possible, but I am unsure how to do this. I have created >> a >> Sale coupon that I was going to put up on a site that I manage, for >> visitors >> to print out and bring to the store. The coupon is currently a .png, >> however >> I was planning on converting to a pdf. I would like to put on the coupon >> a >> serial number that increases by 1 everytime the page is viewed. I dont >> really care if someone refreshes the page and skews the numbers. >> >> Is this possible and could someone give me some help? >> >> Thanks >> >> Gary >> >> >> >> __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus >> signature database 5273 (20100712) __________ >> >> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. >> >> http://www.eset.com >> >> >> >> >> > > > You need some indicator on your server to keep track of the number. To > me, the ideal solution would appear to be a MySQL database. You can set > up a table with an auto_increment field and use the id generated from > that. > > Two things to maybe note: > > > 1. Don't use MAX(id) in a query to get the next auto value, use > something like mysql_insert_id() instead. The MAX() method is > just a race condition waiting to happen. > 2. If you expect a lot of traffic, then consider setting this table > to use the InnoDB engine instead of MyIsam which is usually the > default. This allows MySQL to apply row-level locking instead of > table-level, which can improve performance when PHP has to wait > for MySQL. > > > Thanks, > Ash > http://www.ashleysheridan.co.uk > Ashley Thanks for your reply. I was not going to go to the trouble of calling the AI number from a database, although that is an interesting concept. The question really becomes "How to insert into an image" I could just write a simple hit counter and create a new php/html page, but since the image (coupon) was already created, I thought it would be easier, not to mention expand my abilities. It is a small shop and if they get 100 coupons, they will be extatic, so it will not kill us if it were too much trouble. I have gone to using InnoDB as my standard table, mainly for the foreign key ability, but I do keep reading that there are more and more advantage to using is over Myisam. Thanks again for your reply. Gary > __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 5273 (20100712) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com
From: "Daevid Vincent" on 12 Jul 2010 18:23 > -----Original Message----- > From: Gary [mailto:gpaul(a)paulgdesigns.com] > Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 11:53 AM > > I'm sure it is possible, but I am unsure how to do this. I > have created a > Sale coupon that I was going to put up on a site that I > manage, for visitors > to print out and bring to the store. The coupon is currently > a .png, however > I was planning on converting to a pdf. I would like to put > on the coupon a > serial number that increases by 1 everytime the page is > viewed. I dont > really care if someone refreshes the page and skews the numbers. > > Is this possible and could someone give me some help? Is there a reason you need to increment by 1? I mean, are you going to validate the coupon someone brings in to see if it's in the database or is used already? Since you say you don't care if the number is skewed, it sounds as if you don't care about the code either really. Point being, why not just use md5(time()) or uniqid() or something and make some truly unique code (that you may or may not wish to store in a DB). This will be obscure enough the average person won't know that it isn't tracked and most likely won't try to make their own. If I saw 123457, I'm pretty sure I could make a coupon with 123500 on it. But if I saw 6ccd780c-baba-1026-9564-0040f4311e29 then I'm not really going to try and fudge one of those. Then I'd use the barcode library to print the code (again, doesn't have to actually work if you're not going to do a lookup) just to add more "realizm" to it. There are a billion different ways to make a unique ID. Even IF you are going to track them, you really shouldn't do a sequential code as you originally wanted to do. http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.uniqid.php http://php.net/manual/en/function.com-create-guid.php http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.mssql-guid-string.php http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.md5.php http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.sha1.php http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.hash.php http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.time.php http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/miscellaneous-functions.html#functio n_uuid Heck, you could even just use ip2long() on their IP address and then when someone "redeems" the coupon code, a simple long2ip() would tell you if it's a valid "IP" format rather than some hacked up string. http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.ip2long.php http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.long2ip.php Daevid. http://daevid.com "Some people, when confronted with a problem, think 'I know, I'll use XML.'" Now they have two problems.
From: "Gary" on 12 Jul 2010 18:44 ""Daevid Vincent"" <daevid(a)daevid.com> wrote in message news:A380A1570D4C4351B38E1CCE2AABEE69(a)mascorp.com... >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Gary [mailto:gpaul(a)paulgdesigns.com] >> Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 11:53 AM >> >> I'm sure it is possible, but I am unsure how to do this. I >> have created a >> Sale coupon that I was going to put up on a site that I >> manage, for visitors >> to print out and bring to the store. The coupon is currently >> a .png, however >> I was planning on converting to a pdf. I would like to put >> on the coupon a >> serial number that increases by 1 everytime the page is >> viewed. I dont >> really care if someone refreshes the page and skews the numbers. >> >> Is this possible and could someone give me some help? > > Is there a reason you need to increment by 1? I mean, are you going to > validate the coupon someone brings in to see if it's in the database or is > used already? Since you say you don't care if the number is skewed, it > sounds as if you don't care about the code either really. > > Point being, why not just use md5(time()) or uniqid() or something and > make > some truly unique code (that you may or may not wish to store in a DB). > This will be obscure enough the average person won't know that it isn't > tracked and most likely won't try to make their own. If I saw 123457, I'm > pretty sure I could make a coupon with 123500 on it. But if I saw > 6ccd780c-baba-1026-9564-0040f4311e29 then I'm not really going to try and > fudge one of those. Then I'd use the barcode library to print the code > (again, doesn't have to actually work if you're not going to do a lookup) > just to add more "realizm" to it. There are a billion different ways to > make a unique ID. Even IF you are going to track them, you really > shouldn't > do a sequential code as you originally wanted to do. > > http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.uniqid.php > http://php.net/manual/en/function.com-create-guid.php > http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.mssql-guid-string.php > http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.md5.php > http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.sha1.php > http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.hash.php > http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.time.php > http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/miscellaneous-functions.html#functio > n_uuid > > Heck, you could even just use ip2long() on their IP address and then when > someone "redeems" the coupon code, a simple long2ip() would tell you if > it's a valid "IP" format rather than some hacked up string. > http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.ip2long.php > http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.long2ip.php > > Daevid. > http://daevid.com > > "Some people, when confronted with a problem, think 'I know, I'll use > XML.'" > Now they have two problems. Daevid Thanks for your reply. The numbers are not for show, we are not trying to make it seem like we have thousands of coupons. We are going to use the numbers to guage how many times people see the coupon and to see how many it takes before we have someone show up to use it, but dont really care if someone gets a kick out of hitting the refresh button 10 or 20 times to watch the number go up. I was going to start the number at 72010001 (July 2010, 001) and if someone figured out what it was, we dont really care. As I mentioned, it is a small shop (one man show) that the site gets and average of 350 visits per month (which he is very happy with over what he had). Although I do like the idea of using there ip address... Thanks for your reply and all the links. Gary __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 5273 (20100712) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com
From: Paul M Foster on 12 Jul 2010 22:49 On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 02:52:39PM -0400, Gary wrote: > I'm sure it is possible, but I am unsure how to do this. I have created a > Sale coupon that I was going to put up on a site that I manage, for visitors > to print out and bring to the store. The coupon is currently a .png, however > I was planning on converting to a pdf. I would like to put on the coupon a > serial number that increases by 1 everytime the page is viewed. I dont > really care if someone refreshes the page and skews the numbers. > > Is this possible and could someone give me some help? Doing this in a PDF is pretty easy. Check out the FPDF library. It's pretty lightweight. I print invoices to PDF all the time, so I have to insert numbers into PDFs created by FPDF. Check the documentation. Paul -- Paul M. Foster
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