Until our webhost suddenly sold itself to a competitor without cpanel we had the following solution:
We supplied a Windows app to a customer where they could change data and upload to pre-defined FTP path through their own FTP account. (Hence they could never access/tamper with other customers data) - e.g. ftp://example.com/data/customer1/ - We would then have their app automatically download new data (images XML etc.) from the webserver http://example.com/data/customer1/
We can either move webhost or change our solution:
We could code the Windows app to upload files over HTTP I suppose - but we would need a PHP solution that could verify user account and accept file uploads. My problem is... Even if we develop that ourselves- is such a solution future proof?
- Is there any existing solution we can use that fits our needs?
- Is it likely PHP file upload will continue working? And on most webservers and https:// and future "best practices" security changes?
I am particular interested in hearing if I have thought through potential problems - as I have not worked with HTTP file upload before, I am not sure how well such a solution will work in the real life.