DJ2006
27th December 2006 15:17 UTC

Web Automation for Serial Numbers
Red Wine did an incredible job of showing me the light relative to NSIS with regard to the registry. I've been trying to come up with a way of automating serial numbers, so that I don't have to manually generate installation files containing serial numbers, and can reduce my activities, potentially, to eventually creating a web site that sends an e-mail with an automatically generated serial number. The only way I can think of by which to approach this is to use a mathematical "key" instead of a serial number embedded in the installation file. That way the same installation file is downloaded each time, and the e-mailed serial number unlocks the installation.

I was thinking of putting specific serial number information (instead of a key) in an external text file, attaching it to the serial number e-mail, and telling the user to put the text file in the directory in which the installer is located, but this seemed like it might amount to expecting too much of the user. Any ideas or opinions with regard to this option?

Thank you.

Can anyone suggest a simple but better approach?

Red Wine
27th December 2006 15:28 UTC

Thanks!
I think you should take a look at this forum thread.
Probably it might points you to a solution. Also download the examples there and examine them :-)

DJ2006
27th December 2006 15:47 UTC

PHP???
I'm "hopelesslly" illiterate when it comes to scripting languages. I've never used one before. (FORTRAN, yes. Visual Basic, yes. C/C++, yes. PHP, Python, HTML...?????)

As I indicated previously, I'll do the front end for the web site on Publisher 98. Any PHP tutorials out there that help with generating a script that will produce a serial number on some form of mathematical algorithm?

Red Wine
27th December 2006 15:53 UTC

http://www.phpbuilder.com

deanbayley
2nd January 2007 19:00 UTC

If you absolutely HAVE to use a WYSIWYG system to create your website for goodness sake DONT use M$ Publisher, its beyond cr@p!

Use Dreamweaver, as for using a mathematical formula my advise is don't, if you do and someone figures it out then they can create a keygen for your program, just use a good random string generator and use the activation system i created, the code example listed on that thread is nearly finished...

Spend a few hours reading the NSIS manual and you will be able to finish it..

DJ2006
2nd January 2007 23:45 UTC

Thanks for the response
Thanks. I appreciate the response. Publisher is what I have, and I'm in no position to be buying something new right now. I will take a look at your code, although as you correctly perceived, it is unlikely that I have the PHP skill to "finish it". Should I ever produce something that is likely to sell more than ten copies, a more technically robust approach to serial numbers may be merited, and, hopefully, I'll have the PHP capabilities by then.