As for java applets, you don't need an installer, because java applets are run directly from the html page they're loaded from. If you really want to install something, and you want that something to be a perl program, you can take a look at PAR's pp program.

thank you for your reply... what I am out to do is install a file on the pc of a user... these users have no choice to have this placed on thier pc or they will not be able to access the files/scipts... I am looking for a way to verify that a user is accessing it from a authorized pc or the attempt will fail or atleast be loggged as well as interact with my scripts I write to read this file...

the part about the java applet, I am thinking a java applet on the site would do the work of getting the info off of the users pc to verify thier username and the pc they are using for access agaisnt my mysql database...

on like a simple example of what I want it to do would be like have the font colors and faces to be used be stored on thier pc and I need to access that file for the settings.. font colors and face is only an example of what I am out to do but if that can be done I will make it work for me..lol

sorry for my not so good explanation of this... I have been doing perl since 98 and have self taught myself to get it to do what I want it to... I have never gone to school for any of this so my terms or prases of explantions or questions gets rough at times...lol I am just real good at makin perl do what I want it to after 500 trial and error attempts...lol

Thank you both for your time in the replys :)

Without any information about why you would want to install anything on a user's machine, it's a bit difficult to answer your question. In fact, it's not really clear what your question actually is.

There are many different ways to verify a user's identity. The best one depends on the scenario it is being used in. I think Joost was asking what scenario you need this script for. You had already explained what you needed the script to do. I can think of two possible scenarios:

(1) Verifying return users who registered online.
Since there are already thousands of websites (including this one) that require users to register and later verfiy their identity, just look around the web and model your system after existing ones. I can't think of any website that requires me to download and install a program that will verify my identity at a later time, and I definitely wouldn't register at a website that had such a requirement. You can make a very secure username/password system.

(2) Creating scripts on your company's website that are supposed to only be accessed by company computers.
This would be the only case where I'd find a program on the user's computer appropriate and even then I don't see why a username/password would not be sufficient. There would be no reason to create the program using Java. The program could be created using Perl, and if you needed to create an executable, just use PAR and pp.

Since business computers are usually in an intranet, you probably wouldn't need to worry about the users having to install the program themselves. Just talk with your sysadmin and have him deploy the program to all the needed computers.

On a decently configured machine it is impossible to install anything without the user's consent, and trying to bypass that could be illegal depending on the circumstances - I would consider it immoral in any case. Also, running a certain program will by itself not guarantee a specific user sitting at the keyboard. What's wrong with a simple user/password scheme anyway?
"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

lol... the login and cookies is already made and there is no problem in that....

what I am after is a way to access a file on a users pc that holds config setttings or what not and to use them in my scripts...

this file or all files for that matter is 'not unknown' by the users at all.. they will be the ones putting them there themselfs... there is nothing shady about this at all... the installer I am talking about I might make is a user executed one and they know what they will be putting it on there system... none of the files it will install are executable files that get put on thier pc unless this is the only way to do this where my scripts could read from it.. and they would be informed of this anyhow... then I would need to know where to find that info...lol

with IE you can create a dir on your pc and a websites graphics can be pulled from that location on the pc by using the location of the files in the HTML or perl generated HTML with the html IMG SRC tags as long as those images are there. IMG SRC=C:\TEST_DIR\THE_IMAGE.jpg
this makes for no loading time at all as the files are on the users pc already
I have used this method before with all success (except on netscape it wont work at all)

I am wanting to access a file of settings (not an image) and take them settings and have my scripts work with the file on the users pc... I will only read it from my scripts and not update it.. they will do that part themselfs
I am pretty sure a java applet would have to be used to do this but I am at a loss of where to even find any info like that...lol

The reason I stated to another about an online game needing this function is to limit that only 1 player name uses one pc to play the game and keep from one person having ten accounts.. yes they could still use another pc to create another player name etc but the purpose still worked as he then will only have 2 accounts or as many as he has pc's to use and NOT 10 on one pc

I need a way to verify the files are there before the html pages are generated or things will be X'ed out as well as holding custom values for these images and the way my scripts will handle them.

Thanks for your reply and if anyone can steer my in the right direction of where to go to do something like this it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks !!

MG SRC=C:\TEST_DIR\THE_IMAGE.jpg

Will only work with extremely low security settings on IE, wont work on mozilla at all, and anyway, standard browser caching will take care of the reloading issues.

Java applets can't access local files either because of the same security issues.

There is no way to limit any application to one physical person. I've got 5 PC's at home. You might be able to limit access to one simultanious run per account, though.

You're still really vague about what your application is doing, why you would need all this "security" in the first place (since you claim it's not a game).

Maybe I'm being paranoid, but your username is not exactly giving me confidence either, so I'll proably not be posting in this thread anymore. All information you'd need for a well-working usable system is in this thread or easily found on CPAN anyway.

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"