Tips on preparing code for sale on sites like download.com

[adrian1906]

I have a photography business and I wrote two applications that I thought would benefit me. I have used both of them for about a year now and believe I have worked out many of the bugs.

I would like to offer these applications for sale as shareware and was looking for some tips on preparing my final package. For example, how important is it to put the application in the Program Files folder? Currently, I am having difficulty installing into this protected folder. Are there any encryption algorithms I should avoid in creating an un-lock key?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Adrian

[baja_yu]

I can't remember for sure how they rate, but they will rate your installation process, availability and quality of documentation/help, GUI quality, functionality etc. There is also a score minimum required for an app to be posted there, if you don't make it you will be rejected.

Why are you having problems with placing your app in Program Files? What are you using to create an installer package?

[adrian1906]

Thank you for responding,

I created an installation project along with my main project in VS2008. It will install fine into the Program Files directory. I believe this is because when the installtion file is ran, a prompt appears letting the customer know I'm not verified (I need to figure out how to fix that). When the customer clicks ok, it has access to the Program Files folder. However, when the program is run, I am unable to write to a folder that was created in my subfolder located in the Program Files directory. It took a long time to figure this out. I've since just created the folder on the C:\ however, that approach is inconsistent with what is expected.

Adrian

[si_the_geek]

To get rid of the prompt that the program isn't verified, you need to buy a digital signature from a company like Verisign (I think the price is roughly 100 US$ upwards, depending on where you buy it). The user will then be prompted in a similar way, but with less glaring colours and a note to say that it is verified.

As for your program having problems writing to the ProgramFiles directory, that is entirely expected - because you aren't supposed to do it. Instead you should be using folders that are meant to be written to, such as one of the AppData folders or the users Documents folder.

[baja_yu]

In addition to what Si said in the second paragraph, you shouldn't be trying to write to the root folder either (C:), that is a restricted folder too.

[adrian1906]

Thanks for the tips.

My code configures supporting files based on the installation folder location at the time of installation. The user/documents folder will work just fine for the current user at installation but a problem could arise if another user does not have access to that folder. For this reason, the user/documents folder would not be ideal unless I could guarantee access to the folder.

Does the AppData folder have the same issue? How is the AppData folder determined in VB? AppData is a hidden folder. This could present a problem when the end user wants to access a file in that folder.

Right now, I create a folder on the c:\ and all the support documents lie inside that folder.

The VeriSign Code Signing is $500/year.

https://www.verisign.com/code-signing/content-signing-certificates/microsoft-authenticode/index.html

[si_the_geek]

VeriSign is the most expensive, if you want it cheaper you'll need to find another option. Some have been recommended in this forum before, but I have no idea what they were.


There are 3 AppData folders, two for the current user (one on the current computer, one for any computer on the network), and one for all users on the current computer. There is a bit more information (and a VB6/VBA/VBScript code example) in the article Where should I store the files that my program uses/creates? from our Classic VB FAQs (in the FAQ forum)

By default all users have full permission to their own AppData folders, but read-only permissions to the shared one (so if you want it to be shared, create a sub-folder and change permissions for it during installation).