I'm struggling with the best/most economical way to allow some of my clients access to their product and pricing data, so they can log on and place product orders over the Internet.

My original idea was to have Sesame generate an html page that could be uploaded to my website, which would allow client data entry for delivery instructions and quantities, etc, and then push a Submit button which would send the html order page  to my email for processing.   But that seems like it might become quite involved, and maybe over my head.

I had a new thought - could I have customers log onto a workstation on my network that was a dedicated workstation only for a Sesame client, which the customer could then gain access to only their data via a userid and password?   That way I could just design an order screen that they could enter and print themselves on my printers, sparing me the ordeal of html - java - submit - programming, updating.
                If so, can anyone here suggest how I might pull that off?  I've used gotomypc for many years (it's great), and have a technical support question in to them right now about whether they have a product that would allow this type of very specific access.   But I thought some bigbrain type on this forum    might have an alternative method that would be better.

Thanks!

Hi Hammer,

thanks for the quick reply!    Once the client gets to the Sesame icon, I'm confident I can (with some forum help!) get the ordering set up just as you describe.    My more general question is - does anyone know how specifically the customer 'comes in on my remote workstation'?   I'm talking about an inexpensive/elegant 'taphammer' technique (I know there are fullblown commercial solutions to that, but we're small and don't have the resources for the 'sledgehammer' solution). 

As a second question to deal with your insightful comment about 'session control' to deal with customer B trying to get in while Customer A is entering an order .... can I have multiple Sesame client licenses on the same workstation?  Icon A and Icon B?

Remote Desktop will disconnect an existing user after prompting you for authorization to do that.  You can also change the ports on Remote Desktop, but again it only allows one concurrent logon.  Host system must also be XP PRO or higher. XP HOME does not support hosting Remote Desktop, but HOME and WIN98SE systems can make Remote Desktop connections to a host.

A free remote access program is UltraVNC ( http://www.uvnc.com/download/ ) that I believe does allow multiple simultaneous connections.  And you can define different ports so each user could be using a unique connection.  That would also involve some port forwarding on the routers and firewall configurations.

FWIW: I know that a browser-based solution sounds intimidating, but it's really the right way to go with this...

lksseven wrote on Jan 30^th, 2009 at 7:02pm:

In a nutshell, yes. It's going to be a much better choice for the long run. The specifics of implementation, like where you host the web pages and whether you use a report or a command button, will vary depending on the requirements but if your clients do not actually own copies of Sesame then a browser-based solution that creates orders that can be pulled into your Sesame database is going to be your best bet.

lksseven wrote on Jan 30^th, 2009 at 8:55pm:

That's an interesting suggestion for the future, but it occurs to us that it already exists in another form. It's called our Trial Version. Your Customers can download and install the Trial Version for free. If your Sesame Server is internet-accessible, they can hook up to it as clients, just like they would with a paid version. The 30 day limit on databases is server-side, so there wouldn't be any issues there. You just need to purchase enough licenses for your server to handle as many simultaneous connections as you think you'll need. Hmmm indeed...

lksseven wrote on Jan 30^th, 2009 at 9:57pm:

NO MAPPING! We're actually client/server. If your IP address, as exposed to the internet is 123.123.123.1, then the Customer would set the icon to run the program as something like:
C:\Sesame2\Program\sesame.exe - client 123.123.123.1


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You could make it do that, yes.

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With this method, yes. I think this solves the various network and security and sharing issues.

Following up on Carl's setup....the clients can install DynDNS free software, and your server can confirm the incoming IP against the master whitelist.  Your server would update the whitelist by doing lookups at DynDNS.  Works great for sites with dynamic IPs.  I use it for Remote Desktop and other remote tools.