Sniffing Browsers for the Right Plug-In Or ActiveX Control; E-Commerce Basics

Dear Dr. Website: I'm a site developer, and I ran into Shockwave Flash some time ago.

Now I decided to use Flash in my home pages. But it's very, very, very important that everyone can see the pages I do. So I tried to do a flash- detection script (from all those examples on the Internet). The problem is in Explorer 3.0. I don't know how to detect if a user's Explorer 3.0 has the plug-in already or not.

Here's how I would like it to work: All those who have the plug-in will go to one page, and all those who don't have the plug-in (even those who don't have the ActiveX control) will go to another page, because I have a non-Shocked page as well.

You can check for the plug-in using the code below, which first checks for the type of browser, checks for the presence of a plug-in or ActiveX control, and then directs the browser appropriately.

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--
     if ((navigator.appName == "Microsoft Internet Explorer" &&
        navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Mac") == -1 &&
        navigator.appVersion.indexOf("3.1") == -1) ||

 (navigator.plugins && navigator.plugins["Shockwave Flash 2.0"])){
        window.location='shocked.html';
     }
     else {
        window.location='nonshocked.html';
     }
//-->
</SCRIPT>

You can easily add other browsers for the code to check in the same manner. You can find this code and others like it on the Macromedia support site. Another excellent source for this type of code is the WebReference JavaScript Tip of the Week archive. There's even an article devoted to the topic of Detecting Plug-Ins.

Instant Commerce?

Dear Dr. Website: I would like to offer goods for sale online. What do I need to do to securely process credit cards? I need to know how to secure credit card number entry and how to process the transaction. Are there providers that offer these services? Do you already have a Merchant Account for processing credit card transactions? If so, it will be considerably easier for you to do it online.

If not, there are many sites on the Web which will enable you to get a Merchant Account for a small fee. Among these are Electronic Transfer and Rockmall.

Other online services will give you the ability to add a credit card verification service for you once you establish your Merchant Account. Redi-Check is one such service that enables any online merchant to feature real-time purchases on their site.

There are also commercial software packages that are designed to get your site set up and online, such as iCat's Electronic Commerce Suite 3.0. This product provides the basis for setting up your online venture. You can use it in conjunction with secure online processing vendors such as First Virtual, CyberCash, and Open Market.

Of course, you'll still need a Merchant Account. Products such as Open Market's Transact provide end-to-end commerce services that include online customer authentication and authorization, online order and payment processing, automated tax and shipping calculations, online order tracking and status, and online customer service. Some of these options require you to purchase a Security Certificate for your Web server from a recognized certificate vendor, while others handle it via their own secure servers.

Unfortunately, there is not an easy, one-step solution to setting up shop on the Web. As with any business venture, providing your customers with the ability to complete transactions online in a secure environment is not going to be free or necessarily easy.

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Last modified: Wed Sep 22 06:06:05 EDT 1999

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