Trying to decide and need to know...

[Scissor]

[list=1]

How does my application get access to the key typed in the Activation Dialog?
My application uses the registration key to enable certain features, like 'PRO' features.

Can activation be used with system services?
My application can be started as either an application or a System Service.
When my product is launched as an application, activation works fine. However, when it's launched as a system service, the activation dialogs come up on an invisible desktop and the user cannot interact with them, even to dismiss them. (Even the trail fails because the dialogs still come up asking if you want to evaluate the product—hanging the service load.)

Can I indicate an entire range or block of serial numbers as N uses?
I know I can set individual serial numbers to N uses, but I want to upload a bunch of "enterprise' licenses and I want them to be N uses (like 100)

Where is there some sample code to invoke the WebService?
I found some paragraph that said it exists, and it gives a function prototype, and then points to a bunch of XML… um.. any more help than this? Any help here would be great.


Support for Activating for a System Service could be accomplished if there was an API that would allow me to manage the UI myself (basically suppressing the trial dialogs until the trial period is over) Then when the trial ends, my service could simply 'not work' and issue a message the to the Service Event Log that "This service needs activation blah, blah, blah."

Granted it's probably less secure than your "baked in" dialogs, but would at least give guys like me that want activation for their System Service.

Thank you for any feed back.

[Kallex]

Hello!

1. We are also considering about taking this service into use. This Windows Service functionality is one of the concerns that applies to us also. Our application is entirely .NET, but supposedly wrapping would also work for Windows Services.

2. Can the application access the activation code/serial number that was used when it was activated? Our solution has ideal structure of independent nodes that could use this information as unique identification key when communicating with the main server. The node installation could otherwise be bypassed by simply XCopying the solution, however this kind of approach would require each node to have valid license.

3. How is the activation counter counted per purchased package? Ie, 1000 activations / one year, does it count for trial activations also, or for "full product activations" only?

That is, is 1000 per year license valid either for the entire year, or when 1000 full products have been activated? How does deactivation/reactivation (uninstall/install) affect the activation count; does it reduce it?

[Stefan_Krueger]

I don't have answers for all your questions but from my undertsanding:

Kallex wrote:
Our application is entirely .NET, but supposedly wrapping would also work for Windows Services.

.NET apps cannot be wrapped directly, but a workaround is documented at http://support.installshield.com/kb/view.asp?articleid=Q111198

The node installation could otherwise be bypassed by simply XCopying the solution

Why don't you wrap the node installations? Activation is per-machine so XCopying an activated app to another machine will not work (it will run in trail mode).

does it count for trial activations also, or for "full product activations" only?

Inistalling and using a trial version of your app will not count as activation. "Activation" means converting your trial version to a full unlimited version so this will only count if your customer buys a license.

How does deactivation/reactivation (uninstall/install) affect the activation count; does it reduce it?

From an end customer perspective: uninstalling the app will de-activate it and then allow activation on another computer, so the software can legally be moved to another machine.
As for the pricing and usage count of your InstallShield Activation Service account, each time your end customer activates the software this will be counted as one activation.
So for example if he installs on machine A, then uninstalls and installs on machine B you pay for 2 activations (on A and B) but your end customer only has one active license in use.

[Kallex]

This is overall good news.

Of course the XCopying is taken care of by the activation service, didn't sort focus on that properly I guess 😉

Thanks for the swift response. I'll prolly be back with more precise questions, once we start evaluating the service.