Big Product System Update

So over the past two years or so, I've been developing small to large packs that have been released into your hands that had all sorts of little goodies inside of it, and that's great and all except for one little thing.

My actual system for getting the pack download after you got it from me. It was very "massive" in terms of what it encompassed, and sometimes it seemed a bit complex in a way. Since this is about things going "away", here's how my old system actually "worked":

1. The individual would buy the pack through a PayPal link, which would then validate all of the information and email me, as well as the server's message handler.

2. The server would then file out the needed information into a massive effing script of if/else if.. blah blah blah to find out what actually was bought, and then to throw it all to my SQL script.

3. The SQL script generated the key, and sent out the email to the user.

4. The user would then "register" their key into the system, and it would "log" the key as "used" in the system, trash it and generate a "reusable" key that the person could then use over and over again.

5?. As of recently, the system was also capable of changing the key for the micro pack system if someone already had a pack, and yeah.. It was silly.

Exactly.. Stupid silly in a way, but it worked... most of the time, and I had to spring into action on quite a few occasions to rapidly help any problems that arose. It was a painful thing, but fun at the same time because at least I was able to sell my packs. Well, I kind of got tired of that "pain" in my side, so I decided it was time for an upgrade... a big one.

Enter version 3.0.

I finally decided it was time to get rid of all of that if/else stupidity in the purchase script file, so I did something even cooler. I created a giant PHP array of instances of "purchasable" items, and now it creates a string associated of things that you bought, and puts that into a key.

Meanwhile, the users create an account on the purchasing panel system (shown above) and are then able to log into the main page where they can redeem said code, and it'll just "unlock" the items, less hassle, less pain, and so much easier for me to add things now.


I also did some cool array stuff that looks a bit like this:

$ITEMS = array(
      'HasMAP' =>
         array('prodName' => "Multiplayer Assembly Package",
               'prodVers' => "2.2",
               'lastUpdate' => "4/14/2014",
               'FileNames' => array("MAP for MSVS 2008", "MAP for MSVS 2010/2012", "PGD Survival Source Code"),
               'FilePaths' => array("MAP_vs2008", "MAP_vs2010", "PGD Survival SC")),
      'HasDWP' =>
         array('prodName' => "Dynamic Weather Pack",
               'prodVers' => "1.0",
               'lastUpdate' => "6/6/2013",
               'FileNames' => array("Dynamic Weather Pack"),
               'FilePaths' => array("DWP")),
      'HasAFPSKModelling' =>
         array('prodName' => "Advanced FPS Kit: Modelling Tutorial",
               'prodVers' => "1.0",
               'lastUpdate' => "2/04/2014",
               'FileNames' => array("AFPSK Modelling"),
               'FilePaths' => array("AFPSK_ModellingTutorial")),

.
.
.

So, now I can actually inform everyone of when the latest pack updates were pushed, and provide some information to my users as well. This system also is equipped with automated alerts if a download is reported to be faulty, or if my pay system decides to fail again, I can shut it all down with a mouse click until the problem is resolved.

All in all, this makes things so much easier to manage, especially seeing as I'm going to release the Ultimate Guide Vol I on Monday, November 24th for $15. Oops, spoiled that surprise. :)

Also, as an added notice, I went ahead and converted all of the old accounts to the new system, so everyone who has ever bought something from me before, check your email. There's a key in there to re-access all of your old stuff on the new system. If I missed anyone or something you owned, please email me and let me fix that for you ASAP.

So that's that, and I hope you all enjoy the cool new system!