Jim Lawrence (AccessD)
accessd at shaw.ca
Fri May 21 21:23:24 CDT 2004
Hi Arthur:
I feel it is. Recently, with a partner we purchased a full Miscroft 'Action
Pac' for about $560.00Can. The software in the package was worth an
estimated $10,000.00US. The deal on the software is great but now all my
software has to be registered...a trade-off. I feel it was an acceptable
trade...at this moment but you are right this is just the tip of the
MS-berg.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 2:38 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: [AccessD] Licensing / Registration Stuff (was Date Format
Again)
Your code looks nice and I have no complaints on it. Rather I'm
wondering how you all feel about these automatic-internet installations
that seem to send your CD serial # to home office, and in most cases
prevent duplicate installations of the same CD. (If you have Enterprise
MSDN, for example, you can install everything a bunch of times without
issue, but if you only have Professional, it'll pop you on the second
install, which IMO SUCKS, but that's another issue.)
What I'm getting at is, How many of your clients are net-ready? Is it
realistic in your environment to assume net connections and try a
registration scheme like Microsoft's, where the new install logs in
automatically, sends the serial number and whatever else, checks the
database to see if this serial number is allowed multiple installations,
and so on?
Is this where registration is going? In general, and specifically for
you freelance developers?
TIA for your responses.
ATTN: moderator -- if I'm taking this discussion off-topic please
redirect us to dba-Tech.
Arthur
-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Rocky Smolin
- Beach Access Software
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2004 5:13 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Date Format Again
Jim:
Here's how I solved it. I have two dates encoded in the key - one is
the license expiration date, the other is the date of last access.
Every time the user starts the app I update this last access date in the
key.
(This stops the user from just rolling their clock back a year when the
expiration date rolls around. If the system date is less than the last
access date I give them a message that says 'adjust your system date',
and quit the app.)
So, instead of trying to reconstruct the expiration and last access
dates correctly based on the user's regional settings I set up global
variable to hold the month date and year:
Public gintExpirationDay As Integer
Public gintExpirationMonth As Integer
Public gintExpirationYear As Integer
Public gintLastAccessDay As Integer
Public gintLastAccessMonth As Integer
Public gintLastAccessYear As Integer
and put the values in there when I decrypt them from the key. Then,
everywhere I need to do a test I use the DateSerial function with the
proper
values:
Like on the caption of the label on the opening screen which displays
the
expiration:
"License Expires: " & Format(DateSerial(gintExpirationYear,
gintExpirationMonth, gintExpirationDay), "Short Date")
or checking the expiration date
' Check to see if license has expired
If Date > DateSerial(gintExpirationYear, gintExpirationMonth,
gintExpirationDay) Then
MsgBox "License has expired. Please call Beach Access Software
(858) 259-4334.", vbExclamation
Application.Quit
End If
Hopefully this will be a global solution to the problem.
Thanks for all inputs, folks. But the subject's not closed if there's a
better way...
Rocky Smolin
Beach Access Software
http://www.e-z-mrp.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Lawrence (AccessD)" <accessd at shaw.ca>
To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving"
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 3:46 AM
Subject: RE: [AccessD] Date Format Again
> Hi Rocky:
>
> Why not just store your expiry date in 'yyyymmdd' format. It can then
> be used as a date or string and will still validate and sort
> correctly. Then just DateSerial and Format their date, as previously
> described to match
your
> expiry date....
>
> Dim TheirDate as Date
> Dim MyExpiryDate as String
>
> TheirDate = Date
> MyExpiryDate = "20040630" '30 June 2004
>
> if str(format(DateSerial(Year(TheirDate), Month(TheirDate),
> Day(TheirDate)),"yyyymmdd")) >= MyExpiryDate then
> MsgBox "Your viewing time has expired, please contact....
> end if
>
> HTH
> Jim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Rocky Smolin
> - Beach Access Software
> Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 9:18 AM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] Date Format Again
>
>
> Drew:
>
> The date is encoded in three characters in the key - one for month,
> one
for
> day, one for year. I encode it from mm/dd/yy because I'm an
> ethnocentric American. But the system may be shipped anywhere in the
> world where they may be using little known date formats like dd/mm/yy.
>
> So when I uncode the expiration date from the key I have to know
> whether
to
> create an mm/dd/yy date or a dd/mm/yy date. I think. (There's
> probably a better way, but I don't know what it is.)
>
> In the Taiwan case, they were using the (popular if common) American
> date but had chosen yyyy-mm-dd for the short date format. Which
> caused another problem.
>
> So now I'm thinking that instead of assembling the expiration date I
> could just keep the month, day, and year in separate strings and use
> date serial to compare to the date serial of the system date? Is that
> where you're trying to lead me? Like:
>
> DateSerial(varExpireYear, varExpireMonth, varExpireDay) <
> DateSerial(DatePart("yyyy",Date), DatePart("m",Date),
> DatePart("d",Date)
>
> ?
>
> Regards,
>
> Rocky Smolin
> Beach Access Software
> http://www.e-z-mrp.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <DWUTKA at marlow.com>
> To: <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 8:53 AM
> Subject: RE: [AccessD] Date Format Again
>
>
> > Again, why Rocky? A date is a date. If you are 'encoding' it, you
> > know
> the
> > format you have encoded it as. So if you are encoding mm/dd/yy, and
> > you want to compare it to the local date, then just use DateSerial.
> >
> > It doesn't matter what region you are in, you are setting the
> > encoding
to
> > the format that you want, right?
> >
> > Drew
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Rocky
> > Smolin - Beach Access Software
> > Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 10:23 AM
> > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> > Subject: Re: [AccessD] Date Format Again
> >
> >
> > Jim:
> >
> > One problem - I'm not using a regular date. I'm assembling the date
which
> > is encoded in a key. So to build the date, I need to know the
> > format to construct it in - mm/dd/yy or dd/mm/yy.
> >
> > I then compare it to the system date to see if the license has
> > expired.
> >
> > Rocky
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Jim Lawrence (AccessD)" <accessd at shaw.ca>
> > To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving"
> > <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 6:04 PM
> > Subject: RE: [AccessD] Date Format Again
> >
> >
> > > Hi Rocky:
> > >
> > > Why do you not use this piece of code to check the date. It does
> > > not
> > matter
> > > what is the format of the date, in which region because a Day is
> > > still
a
> > > day, a Month is still a month and so on... The following code will
> > translate
> > > any date.
> > >
> > > if format(DateSerial(Year(Date), Month(Date),
> > > Day(Date)),"yyyymmdd") > MyCutoffDate then...
> > >
> > > Just pick your required result format.
> > >
> > > HTH
> > > Jim
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> > > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Rocky
Smolin -
> > > Beach Access Software
> > > Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 8:06 AM
> > > To: AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> > > Subject: [AccessD] Date Format Again
> > >
> > >
> > > Dear List:
> > >
> > > I thought I had the date format problem solved but in Taiwan they
> > > use
> the
> > US
> > > format but they've got their machines set to yyyy-mm-dd.
> > >
> > > The problem is that I have a license expiration date encrypted in
> > > a
key
> > and
> > > so the routine that decodes the key yields (among other things)
> > > the expiration date which I compare to the system date.
> > >
> > > So I guess I'm going to have to use an API to get the regional
> > > setting
> for
> > > short date format? I've been mucking around in the Knowledgebase
> > > but
> > can't
> > > seem to find what I want.
> > >
> > > Does anyone know the format for retrieving this item?
> > >
> > > I guess I will have to use a Select Case on the short date format
> > > to
do
> > the
> > > decryption to yield a short date in the local format. And just
> > > add
> cases
> > as
> > > I find more short date formats.
> > >
> > > MTIA,
> > >
> > > Rocky Smolin
> > > Beach Access Software
> > > http://www.e-z-mrp.com
> > >
> > > --
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> > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
> > >
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> > >
> >
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