Problems pointing to a remote download folder.

[mike999]

Hi,

I hope this is the right forum to ask - apologies if not.

I am in the process of commissioning a new working download-only Zen Cart [latest release] running on my hosting company’s Linux server.

Sample products were loaded and attributes successfully added to permit association with a test download file. “Downloads Manager” confirmed the file name was valid.


However, because of the vast space required for the data files, I wish to host the ‘/download’ folder on a local Windows PC running an XAMPP server.

I have replaced the following entries in both 'includes/configure.php' and 'admin/includes/configure.php'

define('DIR_FS_DOWNLOAD', DIR_FS_CATALOG . 'download/');

is now…..

define('DIR_FS_DOWNLOAD', 'http:// {working_url_to_downloadfiles} /');
(e.g http:// downloads.local_windows_server.tld )

Permissions for both files were changed to permit modification and reset to read_only.


Obviously the URL was tested to prove true, and files are present, but “Downloads Manager” now reports the file name is missing.

I wonder if anyone can help please? Am I attempting something which is not achievable?

Many thanks for reading this!

[kobra]

Yes not workable

xampp installs are localhost and not a actual domain name, they are not meant to be a web server and have no DNS server pointing to them
You are most likely on a dynamic IP and this is also at issue

[mike999]

Thanks for the reply.


Sorry, I should have added that the local server is running via DynDNS, which makes it accessible from the outside - hence the successful URL test.

[Vger]

Downloads work via sessions, and sessions are not going to get passed off successfully from one server to another server - at least not without a lot of recoding and customisation.

This plan is just not going to work.

Also, if the individual files are of such a large size you're going to hit memory limits on the number of bytes which PHP can count/read, and so you'd also need a 64-bit server setup, and if that isn't enough then you'd need to pass the download off to Apache to manage.

This sort of setup typically requires an investment of tens of thousands of dollars/pounds, highly qualified server administrators and perhaps the installation and customisation of something like Zend Download Manager (which Zend will be only too happy to provide you with a dedicated team to manage - provided you are rich enough to afford it).

You would be far better off, in every way, with your own high-spec 64-bit dedicated erver, on which you'd have the space to hold all of your files and the bandwidth and CPUs to handle the processing.

Vger

[mike999]

Thanks for the very informative reply.

Now I understand - sessions are great but need re-coding with great care and I feel this project may not justify the time I will need to spend on re-coding and testing.

I shall experiment with my current WAMP system to prove the viability of the operation, for at least the local server will handle the 50+ Gb of storage.

The pdf files are scanned books in zip format and vary in size between 5Mb and 100Mb, but they are broken down into smaller fragments. Offering multiple download links to the User is one of the features of Zen Cart which I find very appealing.

The current PHP memory script allocation is set at 256Mb but this can be changed.

In practice, because of the specialised nature of the downloads I don't expect too many concurrent visitors to the site and would be very surprised if two buyers would be on the site and downloading at the same time.

Thanks again for bringing clarity to my thoughts!

[Vger]

The reason I jumped in here is that we've been down this road with a former client of ours, also selling scanned books as downloads. The downloads ranged in size from 50 Mbs to 2 Gbs. We were using a very high spec dedicated server with 2 installs of Apache running on it, passing off the download to the second instance of Apache as soon as the download began - freeing up the 1st instance of Apache just for normal routine website processing.

On our clients behalf we employed some exceptionally talented programmers and server administrators (at great expense) to work on it, but could never get it to work satisfactorily.

Even with downloads below 100 Mbs you'll also come up against problems with the customers browser crashing, and the download being lost and having to start all over again from the beginning. The way around this is to get the customer to download and install a "Download Manager", which can restart downloads at the point they broke off (not having to start over again from the beginning).

Vger