Development testing: three features needed for enterprise us

[etomm]

[quote="Wyatt"][quote]Yes but how can i know if i am in "trial mode"? I would like to have a function to be able to know if the user ever started a trial or also if the user ever inserted a product key.[/quote]

That's up for you to decide. We look at it this way: if the user [i]is not[/i] activated then they are in trial mode (even if they have a product key entered). If the user is activated then they are not in trial mode.

Does this make sense?[/quote]

Mmmmh. Not quite.

In fact after thinking how the system is working i noticed that if i delete the four positions where the license is stored (and the trial too) the application began the trial from the begin again. If i will repeat this operation everyday everyday i will have a trial period (EDIT) forever.

It would be better to have a server side trial like a normal license in fact. Is this possible?

If i set the trial days to 0 and then use the online extension methods to extend the trial to the desired value is it possible to avoid the described behaviour?

[Wyatt]

Mmmmh. Not quite.

If you're using the trial behavior of TurboActivate (i.e. using UseTrial, TrialDaysRemaining, ExtendTrial) then detecting whether the customer is in trial mode or not is simply at matter of detecting if they are activated (i.e. calling the IsActivated() function).

In other words, if they're activated it means they have a valid product key (and thus not using your trial any more).

Does this clarify things?

[...] If i will repeat this operation everyday everyday i will have a trial period (EDIT) forever.

That's the problem with unverified trials -- they don't need to be confirmed with a 3rd party and the trial data is eventually stored somewhere on disk.

But you already know that, which brings us to the two possible verified trial options...

Server verified trials, option 1

If i set the trial days to 0 and then use the online extension methods to extend the trial to the desired value is it possible to avoid the described behaviour?

Yes, that's possible. This way the trial key (a.k.a. the trial extension) can be only used a limited number of times. and if they delete the trial data from the computer then their trial is reset to 0.


Server verified trials, option 2

It would be better to have a server side trial like a normal license in fact. Is this possible?

Sure, this is also possible, but it's a bit more complicated -- it's better if you use the other option.

But if you want to go down this route then the first thing you'd have to do is create a license feature like "trial_expires" as a "Date / Time" feature and uncheck the "Required" checkbox.

Then, the difference between a "trial license" and a "regular license" becomes whether the "trial_expires" feature is set or not. For instance, to create a "trial license" then set this "trial_expires" feature with a date in the future (e.g. 2011-12-25). Then when the customer activates the product key the "trial_expires" features is downloaded.

Detecting whether the activation is a "trial" would be simply a matter of calling "GetFeatureValue("trial_expires", ...)". If the feature is present then the customer is in "trial mode" and you simply use the date to decide whether to keep allowing your potential customer to keep using your app or not.


If this potential customer becomes a paying customer then you have 1 of 2 choices.

1. You can deactivate their trial license and let them use another product key you send them.
2. Or, you can remove the "trial_expires" feature data from their existing product key and your app can call the Activate() function to download the new feature data.

Obviously the "Server verified trials, option 1" is the easier choice.


Does this make sense?

[Wyatt]

We've just added the ability to add, remove, and edit license features using the LimeLM web API. We'll update the LimeLM web API pack with the easy to use functions a little later today.

• limelm.feature.add
• limelm.feature.delete
• limelm.feature.edit

[etomm]

Ok this all makes sense.

I think in the next months we will be for sure a new customer as soon as the other features will be implemented (like management of trial and extension directly from turboactivate and the possibility to point turboactivate to other dat or the common path for the license).

[Wyatt]

Great, we'll keep you up-to-date on our progress.

[Wyatt]

TurboActivate 3.0 is out. We've added all features you've asked for.

• Static library version of TurboActivate.
• System-level activations.
• Trial extension in the TurboActivate wizard (there's a screen shot of this on the trials help page).
• The ability to specify different product details files to TurboActivate using the --pdets commandline switch.

[etomm]

Hello,
right now i'm again testing LimeLM because we are going to introduce it in our software. BTW, thanks for all the modifications that will help me to use it.

I have some doubts:

1) If i use trialextensions must i use UseTrial function?
2) Why TrialDaysRemaining is returning one day less? Like that if i have 1 day of trial and i check the function it is returning 0, and tomorrow will return 0 again. But in fact today should say 1, because i have 1 day of trial.
3) How can i "deactivate" a trial extension?
4) If i want to extend a trial before the trial effectively ends how can I?

[Wyatt]

4) If i want to extend a trial before the trial effectively ends how can I?

You mean from within the TurboActivate wizard? There's really no way. If you mean with the code, then simply call ExtendTrail().

3) How can i "deactivate" a trial extension?

I'm not sure what you mean by that -- can you explain what you're trying to do?

2) Why TrialDaysRemaining is returning one day less? Like that if i have 1 day of trial and i check the function it is returning 0, and tomorrow will return 0 again. But in fact today should say 1, because i have 1 day of trial.

That's a bug -- we'll fix it for TurboActivate 3.1 (coming monday) or TurboActivate 3.2 (coming in a couple of weeks).

1) If i use trialextensions must i use UseTrial function?

Yes, before you make use of the TrialDaysRemaining() function you must call the UseTrial() function. You can call the UseTrial() as many times as you want -- it doesn't reset the trial. It just sets the trial up the first time it's called.

[etomm]

[quote="Wyatt"][quote]3) How can i "deactivate" a trial extension?[/quote]

I'm not sure what you mean by that -- can you explain what you're trying to do?
[/quote]

I would like to delete all the trial data from the account or the machine.

[Wyatt]

You can remove activations & product keys using the Deactivate() function in TurboActivate. However, the only way to "reset" a trial is to use trial extensions.