1. Advertising
    y u no do it?

    Advertising (learn more)

    Advertise virtually anything here, with CPM banner ads, CPM email ads and CPC contextual links. You can target relevant areas of the site and show ads based on geographical location of the user if you wish.

    Starts at just $1 per CPM or $0.10 per CPC.

Serial Number Generator

Discussion in 'PHP' started by Stupidav, Apr 16, 2009.

  1. #1
    I recently created a VB Application that the user will have to register after the trial period with a serial number.

    Once the user enters in the appropriate information on my web page I am want the web page to generate a "Serial Number" from some type of equasion or equasions, that I can verify with my VB app. I initially was thinking something like A+B*C/D=E and a second group doing something simular so that the final result is something along the lines of 00000-00000.

    I have do a little PHP scripting before, but I am not sure exactly where to begin on a script like this.

    Any help is greatly appreciated.
     
    Stupidav, Apr 16, 2009 IP
  2. Random Guy

    Random Guy Peon

    Messages:
    670
    Likes Received:
    13
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #2
    You could always go the easy route and just use some wrapping software to handle it, like Armadillo. I think they give you all the coding you'd need to generate numbers.

    It'd probably be easier than coding your own generators :)
     
    Random Guy, Apr 16, 2009 IP
  3. jestep

    jestep Prominent Member

    Messages:
    3,659
    Likes Received:
    215
    Best Answers:
    19
    Trophy Points:
    330
    #3
    You could do it pretty easily with a huge random string stored in a database. Even MD5 could make a usable SN. You do want to make sure that you don't get collisions by checking the numbers against the existing DB, but I think it would be very easy to create.
     
    jestep, Apr 16, 2009 IP
  4. jimbursch

    jimbursch Peon

    Messages:
    33
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #4
    I agree with jestep -- do an md5 or SHA hash of a known unique value, like the record id. Maybe tack on a constant to the record id to further obfuscate.
     
    jimbursch, Apr 16, 2009 IP
  5. Stupidav

    Stupidav Guest

    Messages:
    16
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #5
    Random Guy............Unfortunatly Armadillo only supports Windows, and so far I have developed it not only for 2000, XP and Vista, but also for Windows Mobile, PPC2003, and Android (G-Phone). with future plans for Mac, Iphone, and Java compatable phones.

    Jestep ........ I though about the DB solution, but my concern is (I am Dreaming here) when 20,000,000 copies are sold I really don't want to have to maintain a DB, and if it is lost for some reason.....

    Although this brings up a good point...... Perhaps I could base it on the purchasers e-mail address. What could I do with thier e-mail address to make it almost impossible for the average user to determine what to do to get around it, and how would I accomplish it with PHP.

    On return from PayPal the users e-mail address is passed to my thankyou page. So from that I could automatically do something with it, right, other than display it
     
    Stupidav, Apr 16, 2009 IP