Secure eBook hosting.

[eluser]TheFuzzy0ne[/eluser]
Hi everyone.

My client wants to sell several books in PDF format, but he also requires them to be secure. I've been looking for a company that could host these eBooks and handle payments in a secure environment - but sadly, no such service seems to exist (either that, or I'm not Googling the right search terms).

The current web server doesn't allow shell access and is shared with others, so I need to try and find a solution that will work with that.

If anybody else been in this position before, I'd really appreciate some pearls of wisdom on the subject. I was contemplating hosting the eBooks on the clients site, but only if necessary, as that would probably entail much more work than it's worth. If anyone can suggest a simple method for achieving this, and keeping the eBooks contents secure, so that it can only be viewd by people who have paid for it, I'd really appreciate it.

[eluser]Michael Wales[/eluser]
Place them outside of webroot, when a person purchases an eBook you place a footer at the bottom of each page reading "This book licensed to Joe Six-Pack" stream that altered PDF to the browser for download. Other than that, there's not much else you can do.

[eluser]Eric Maziade[/eluser]
Hi FuzzyOne,

Take a look at Secure-eBook.

The newest update includes hosting your Web Page based on a blog engine, hosting the eBooks (either in PDF format through a personalized download link) or in a more aggressively secure form). The service also handles integrating with a bunch of popular payment services.

If you're a programmer, you can use only the parts you like (payment processing, secured download link, eBook hosting), the SDK will come in handy.

[eluser]TheFuzzy0ne[/eluser]
[quote author="Michael Wales" date="1247265051"]Place them outside of webroot, when a person purchases an eBook you place a footer at the bottom of each page reading "This book licensed to Joe Six-Pack" stream that altered PDF to the browser for download. Other than that, there's not much else you can do.[/quote]

Thanks Michael. I was absolutely stunned at the lack of eBook hosting sites. Fortunately, thanks to Eric, it looks like I just might be able to bypass hosting those eBooks on the clients site after all.

[quote author="Eric Maziade" date="1247281114"]Hi FuzzyOne,

Take a look at Secure-eBook.

The newest update includes hosting your Web Page based on a blog engine, hosting the eBooks (either in PDF format through a personalized download link) or in a more aggressively secure form). The service also handles integrating with a bunch of popular payment services.

If you're a programmer, you can use only the parts you like (payment processing, secured download link, eBook hosting), the SDK will come in handy.[/quote]

Welcome to the CodeIgniter forums, Eric.

Thanks for posting. I'm currently looking into the Web site you suggested. I assume it's your own Web site? It certainly looks excellent, and if it works even half as good as it looks, I strongly suspect I will be a very happy bunny.

The only thing I'm a bit disgruntled about (which I don't think is your fault), is that your Web site didn't appear in the top few results in the Google search when I searched for secure ebook hosting. However, I did finally manage to find the site thanks to you.

EDIT: I just Googled for that term, and your site appeared in the top results, so I've no idea what I must have Googled for yesterday. Evidently, I thought I'd Googled for that term, when I clearly hadn't. Thanks again!

[eluser]Eric Maziade[/eluser]
Yup, I'm one of the creators of the service.

The hosting part is only a few months old and we still have to revamp the content and pitch lines to position ourselves as "hosting" within Google.

However (as I see you found out), searching for "secure" and "eBook", we are rather easy to find.

You must have overlooked as you were looking more for a hosting solution than a security solution.

I hope you like the service if you give it a try... seeing as you're already tech savvy, should should have no issues with it.

If you need a hand, don't hesitate to drop us a line at support - or even in this thread, if you like.

I'd love to see me some Secure-eBook + CodeIgniter action

[eluser]TheFuzzy0ne[/eluser]
Thanks, Eric. I will no doubt be signing up shortly. However, I sent an Email to secure-ebooks 2 days ago, and I am yet to receive a reply. The ticket number is 2009071110001056, if that helps you at all.

Many thanks.

EDIT: I gather that I may need to create a CodeIgniter library to interface with your Web site. If I do, would you be interested in the code when I'm done?

[eluser]Eric Maziade[/eluser]
Hi FuzzyOne,

The support line only answers during business hours - you should be getting a reply today.

I'll look into it nonetheless

If you build a CodeIgniter library and want to share, we sure would be interested to see it - we'd love to add it to our list of SDKs

[eluser]TheFuzzy0ne[/eluser]
Great stuff. Thanks, Eric!