Infralution Support

[Guest]

Using the "demonstration" version on Compact Framework 1.0 SP3, the toolbar and SIP do not show up with the LicenseInstallForm. This makes it impossible to enter a key without either a keyboard attached to the device, or using something like Remote Desktop Display.

I'm using the example code provided (although I'm not sure if the example code is Compact Framework specific):

LicenseInstallForm licenseForm = new LicenseInstallForm() ;
license = licenseForm.ShowDialog(applicationName, LICENSE_FILE);


Adding the following line between the above two lines enables the SIP to be displayed:
licenseForm.Menu = new System.Windows.Forms.MainMenu() ;

[Infralution]

Thanks - we'll look at modifying the sample code.
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Infralution Support

[Guest]

I appreciate it! I'm getting my first comments on the licensing system as I've implemented it. My Product Info contains 10 characters plus the Licensee name (often 10-15 characters). I end up with keys around 80 hex characters long (plus hyphens).

The first reaction of one tester was "You aren't serious with that registration key, are you? No way would I want to try entering that monster... I mean, sure for testing I'll do it, but wow... 20 groups of 4???" After another tester took a screen shot, I mentioned that they might not want to show that because of the key, they "joked" that "it's okay because thats only 25 characters of the 8000 that are in the key. It won't help them much." The other handful of testers have not commented yet.

After I listed the advantages (taken liberally from your website, there are 3 user advantages--the other advantages you list are developer advantages), and the fact that they do not have to enter the key again even after a program update (due to the way I am doing the updates), I think they were more accepting. But the first reactions spoke volumes, I think.

One thing that would help is if there were a way to copy/paste into the Pocket PC text box that is used or even if you could have a "read from file" option.

Comments? Suggestions?

[Infralution]

If your application requires the user to enter the key manually (as opposed to copy and pasting) then license keys of 80 characters are certainly far too long. To reduce the size of the key you need to reduce the size of the product info you include in the key.

Probably the best way to do this is to allow the user to enter certain details (such as the Licensee name) as normal (clear) text and include a checksum of this data (using the EncryptedLicense.Checksum function) in the ProductInfo. When you read the license you check the Checksum of the entered data matches that in the license ProductInfo. See the Custom Licensed Application sample for an example of this approach. It is much easier for the user to enter clear text then a long encrypted key.
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Infralution Support

[Guest]

Thanks. I'll look at that example. I had originally thought that the "checksum" implied a checksum of the Device ID/User ID. I had not thought of allowing a separate entry for the Licensee name that could be different from the User ID entered into the device. Apparently using a modified entry Form.

The separate entry for Licensee name retains the ability to hand out 1 key per organization. Thanks.

I've done some additional playing around to find the right key size, and I hadn't seen it mentioned elsewhere the exact relationship between Product Info size and Key size.

Keys are 16 bytes long (32 hex digits long) and every 8 bytes of Product Info yields 16 additional hex characters, and the first 5 Product Info codes are "free".

So if your Product Info is 0-5 characters long, your Keys are 32 hex digits = 16 bytes. Like this:

Product Info characters => Hex digits = bytes
0-5 => 32 hex digits = 16 bytes
6-13 => 48 hex digits = 24 bytes
14-21 => 64 hex digits = 32 bytes
etc...

So now I'm trying to "encode" the expire date (including "never") plus 2 characters (one for license version, one for program edition--one choice in 5) plus Licensee checksum into 5 characters, if possible! And if not, then the next step up allows 13 characters because there's no difference in key size from 6 Product Info characters to 13.

[Infralution]

[Guest]

[Infralution]

[Guest]

This is great! I have my custom generator now and it pre-populates the Licensee using customer name first+" "+last. Is the license tracker unicode capable? If I enter non-ASCII characters, will this propagate all the way through the Licensee checksum to the Compact Framework?

It looks like there is some opportunity to improve the License Tracker:

1) An Exception in the Custom Form causes the License Track to display a debugging error message then crash. You may want to surround the call with try/catch and display a full debugging error message without crashing.

2) There seem to be a lot of clicks necessary to enter a new license. Most licenses (I think) will be for new customers. I'll need to soon enter about 50 licenses each to a different customer. It seems to me that I'll have to enter each customer name and/or email (which is all I require), click ok, enter a new sale, click generate, then enter license details on my custom form (more clicks!).

I have expire date and program type encoded in Product Info. While I can issue a wide variety of licenses, I have 2 most common license types: "Professional" which is unlimited time, and "Evaluation" which is generally 30 days (ProductInfo carries the type as well as the date of expiration). I'm thinking I can prepopulate either situation based on the Sale "Reference" field (maybe based on the first character).

It seems like this is going to be a lot of clicks per license. Is there a more efficent way?

It seems like an option should be to add custom fields (I would need "Drop Down text selection" including arbitrary name->number mapping, and I would need a DateTime field) the tracker that would then send those fields to a custom generator using one button. Or the Tracker would call the form (just like now) for more custom actions.

Thinking about this, it is a lot of work. But it sure would make USING the License Tracker easier, I think (hope?).

[Infralution]