Anyone know a way to auto deliver pdf's after a paypal payment that doesnt require Scott's programming prowess? I know you can do an auto reply after payment, but that doesn't protect the location of the download. Any other options? BTW I am using VSD for the sight design.

One method is to have a password protected zip file and after the transaction redirect to a page with the download on. If you are not using a form you can email the pass info on receipt of payment.

I sell software and I have never worried about a secure location just have a folder, strange name a couple of layers deep. Drop a copy of the index file in there as well. I redirect from papal to a thank you page with the download link. Keep the page names unusual.

I would bury it in a directory below the root of your site then have then script redirect back from Paypal write the link to your page.

I had this same need a while back - before I became a Coffee Cup fan. It still works fine, but costs a little bit. It's a php script that lets you sell any digital products and sends a secure link to the buyer.
I don't know if it is what you want, but it's worked well for me.

The one I used is from Vibralogix. I'm sure there are other ways to do it too - including the ones mentioned already. The method mentioned by Eric and Prism do have the advantage of simplicity and no cost.

I was making one for a user a while back. I'll see if I can find it.

Thank you for the replies. My main concern was keeping folks from forwarding the address to their buddies, but of course they could also just forward them the PDF. Not sure which way I will go, but at least I know the options once I get this manual written.

You can stop users from sharing content once they have it in their hands. The script I made deletes the file after a set time.

Interesting topic, so I'll take the liberty of butting in...

Eric, I'm probably missing something here, but how can you "stop users from sharing content once they have it in their hands" ? As Mark says, once they have the pdf, they can distribute 'copies of that copy' any which way they want, - no?

It seems to me that this is the point where you have little in the way of options other than to (1) have some faith in the basic honesty of most people (hmmm ), and (2) accept the potential for a limited amount of unauthorized distribution...

On the other hand, this really is a potentially very big problem. I have had to deal with it in the area of online music sales, where I tend to find that music very quickly on "free music sharing sites" all over the web. I'm sure the same may be happening with documents, images, etc.. A significant portion of the population are of the definite and sincere opinion that everything on the internet is - or should be - free, and that they therefore have full rights to (re-) distribute and 'share' as they wish. It is very difficult and costly to pursue theft of intellectual property and copyrighted material that take place over the internet, i.e. unless your an Apple or a Sony or Amazon, etc., who have billions to lose, and therefor millions to spend on prevention and/or prosecution...

Or what do you think...?

I think he means sharing the "link" to the content Per Other than that, no there's no way to stop it, even if you password the PDF they can just share the passwords etc. But you can set it up to delete the PDF from the server so that they can't spread the link all over for people to download it from your server.

That's how my script works in part with support from a cron job.