This one is filed under Mildly Irritating Things because I cringe every time I have to deal with it:
Occasionally we get a request by a Secure Delivery user for “Multiple Product Downloads”. What the customer is asking for is that instead of the way SD works- their customer pays, gets to download their file- They want the customer to pay and be given a list of files to download.
What really bugs me about this is that Secure Delivery has no product size restrictions (for paid accounts) and no file type restrictions.
What stops people from zipping up their products and bonuses and delivering it as one file? Lets compare and contrast the benefits of zipping all your stuff in one file:
Pros to Zipping:
Customers get everything in one operation.
You only have to set up one file
ZIP works on every platform- Windows, Apple, Linux
Cons to Zipping:
…..?
Really people, why? Is there some perceived value to downloading 10 single files compared to one big honking archive of everything you need? Are you worried about making your customers download too much stuff? You do realize that making customers download 10x 1mb takes longer than 1x 10mb right?
Somebody explain this to me- what is the aversion to zip files for delivering multiple product parts?
Are some product parts optional or might there be different versions including or not including things upon which the main project is dependent (e.g., a common runtime environment that the user may already have)?
One problem I have discovered with zip files is that Windows Vista—at least with my 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium—chokes on Mac-created zip files, stopping to confirm whether I want to expand files to a location that does not offer encryption and repeatedly telling me that files already exist when nothing but newly expanded files actually exists. So much for that cross-platform standard.