Questions regarding Activation Service

[NealC804]

I may issue a product with X number of activations allowed. I don't want to have to provide 50 serial numbers but would rather provide one (1) serial number and allow it to be used for 50 activations. Is this possible?

Is there a method to integrate the serial number generator in a VB.NET shopping cart implementation? For example, I want 100% automation, you come to my store, purchase the product, I need to get a serial number once the credit card comes back approved and display the serial number on screen for the printable invoice and include in the e-mailed invoice. Is this possible?

Can you disable the "phone" option for activation and only allow online and e-mail activations? We don't provide phone services so we don't want it to be an option. Is this possible?

Our products do not use a number of uses or days of use evaluation restriction but instead use limiting feature sets such as a 50 entry limit in the eval, lifted when registered. Is there a system in place where the software can determine whether or not it is registered and know to lift evaluation restrictions?

Our products set different levels of use based on the purchased license. For example: Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions. It's all the same core software but governors are placed on features based on the licensing level. Is there a system where different levels of licensing can be established without requiring multiple installation builds? I only want to distribute and maintain ONE installation for the customer, the serial number/license determines the feature set. Possible?

Is the Activation service integrated into the same web interface as the update service or do we have to use two unrelated web sites to manage our activations and update service?

Is the Activation service integral with the trial build? I don't want to use trial builds, can I use activation service without a trial build wrapper?

Thanks for your responses!

P.S. The video presentation about Activation Service has InstallShield spelled as InstallSheild on the left center area!!!!

[RichAquino]

I may issue a product with X number of activations allowed. I don't want to have to provide 50 serial numbers but would rather provide one (1) serial number and allow it to be used for 50 activations. Is this possible?

Sure. Just upload one serial number to the ISAS Publisher Web Site, and set it's Maximum activation count to 50. As a word of caution, if that serial number leaks into the wrong hands, non-customers may use up your activations, causing failed activations for your true customers. So, you should keep the number of serial numbers high, and the number of allowed activations low.

Is there a method to integrate the serial number generator in a VB.NET shopping cart implementation? For example, I want 100% automation, you come to my store, purchase the product, I need to get a serial number once the credit card comes back approved and display the serial number on screen for the printable invoice and include in the e-mailed invoice. Is this possible?

Once your shopping cart generated the serial number, it may be pushed up the the ISAS via a web service. I believe that the web service is documented both in the IDE and on the ISAS Publisher Web Site.

Can you disable the "phone" option for activation and only allow online and e-mail activations? We don't provide phone services so we don't want it to be an option. Is this possible?

Yes. Just leave that option blank on the Advanced tab of the Trialware view.

Our products do not use a number of uses or days of use evaluation restriction but instead use limiting feature sets such as a 50 entry limit in the eval, lifted when registered. Is there a system in place where the software can determine whether or not it is registered and know to lift evaluation restrictions?

Using ISAS, no. That would require the use of an API, but ISAS purely uses a post-build wrapper. You would have to consider the FlexNet products if you need any sort of API driven logic.

Our products set different levels of use based on the purchased license. For example: Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions. It's all the same core software but governors are placed on features based on the licensing level. Is there a system where different levels of licensing can be established without requiring multiple installation builds? I only want to distribute and maintain ONE installation for the customer, the serial number/license determines the feature set. Possible?

This, too, would require an API implementation.

Is the Activation service integrated into the same web interface as the update service or do we have to use two unrelated web sites to manage our activations and update service?

Currently, they are two separate sites.

Is the Activation service integral with the trial build? I don't want to use trial builds, can I use activation service without a trial build wrapper?

If you are asking whether you need to use the Trialware view to use ISAS, the answer is yes. ISAS is integral with the Try and Buy option (step 2) in the Trialware view.

I'm curious about why you don't want to use trial builds. Do you not want your application to expire at some point, forcing your customers to activate?

[NealC804]

I'm curious about why you don't want to use trial builds. Do you not want your application to expire at some point, forcing your customers to activate?

Thanks for the responses. I don't have much time now, I'll read them when I return from a trip I'm leaving on now.

But to answer your question. NO! I do not want my trials to expire. 7 years ago I used number of uses/days of use type expiration and it just doesn't work! People will install then forget, come back 2 months later, it's timed out, they stop! They never use the product, therefore you never get the sale. They uninstall and move on, or leave it and flip you off! I moved to a system of "governing" the program. In other words, if the software is an EVAL I check prior to saving any entries to see if they reached the data limit, i.e. 50 entries. My AVCataloger app has 10 entry limits. You can use it, play with the app all you want, as long as you want, but you can't enter any more data until registered. This has been the way to go for years! It's really worked for me! You don't generate support calls with "can you please extend the trial period" etc. Not sure how that would even work with ISAS/Trial Builds. So the number of uses or time to expire would not work for me unfortunately. Also not sure if the time to expire can be defeated. Another licensing system I use has the option for integration with internet time servers or MY servers for time reference.

Hope this gives you an idea why this system won't work for me.

[RichAquino]

Hi Neal,

ISAS was designed so that you don't have to maintain multiple builds* of your software. Using Trialware, the full version and the eval version are technically the same binary. It's just that the eval version can only be used for a specified number of days or uses.

* "Multiple builds" may mean multiple media, or even one media with logic conditionalized on a system setting (as it seems is the case for you). Either way, it's costly to implement and maintain.

Rich

P.S. Your "governor switch" scenario is a perfectly logical one. I can see how it would be useful even in a product like InstallShield. We could limit the number of files that can be built in an eval build to, say, 5. Only if you activated, could you add more than 5. Problem is, that would require a code change to accomplish.