VB - A Program Registration Scheme

[MartinLiss]

We could try that, but I sent you a Private Message that you haven't opened that contains my email address.

[Cosmictej]

I have sent the email, like I said in the email, I am very grateful, Thanks

[Cosmictej]

Martin, If I update the vb files, And add more stuff, once installed on a computer where it hasnt been registered, will it still ask for the registration?

[MartinLiss]

Originally posted by Cosmictej
Martin, If I update the vb files, And add more stuff, once installed on a computer where it hasnt been registered, will it still ask for the registration?

No, once registered the user is always registered unless they change their hard drive.

[Cosmictej]

Thanks Martin for all your help

[BrianS]

MAC ID is a solid number to use as well. At least that only changes if you change NIC's/Motherboards with onboard NICs.

[pavan]

Hey Martin

I've downloaded the files and tried to run Protect.vbp file from the IDE. I've selected the Request Registration Key option, entered my name and clicked next. It generates error at the line

[COLOR=crimson]mpMessages.ResolveName[/COLOR]

The error says

Runtime Error '32026'

Not Supported


Could u pls. Help me with this

[MartinLiss]

I'm sorry but I have no idea why you are getting that error. Did you change anything in the program? Do you have Outlook on your PC?

[Cosmictej]

Umm, Martin I recieved an email from someone wanting to register my program and it says this Dinger3410 472400162 but when I enter it in the gen. It dont work I didnt change any of the algo

[MartinLiss]

Is 472400162 the HD serial number or is it the value the you got from GenKey? You should also make sure that the alogrythm in GenKey is the same as the one in the app.

[Cosmictej]

Its ok, I worked it out, basically the guy who registered, the name included numbers Thanks Martin

[Cosmictej]

Martin, I updated my files, and now poeple who have registered, cant register and cant use the functions as it asks them to register.

[MartinLiss]

Originally posted by Cosmictej
Martin, I updated my files, and now poeple who have registered, cant register and cant use the functions as it asks them to register.

I'm sorry but I don't understand what you are saying.

[Cosmictej]

Umm basically, I updated the files and sent them 2 people who had the older version. It doesnt ask them to register but instead when they use it where this code is
If Not gRegClass.Registered Then
MsgBox "You must be registered in order to use this function.", vbInformation, "Not Registered"
Exit Sub
End If

they cant use the program. I need it to realise this is an update.

[MartinLiss]

Do you have the program code set up properly? The following is the important code. (frmDone should be replaced by your normal first form). Note that Sub Main calls GetAppEnvironment and if the person is registered then gRegClass.Registered gets set to True.

Did you send them the code that included my code?

Public Sub Main()
 
    Dim frm As Form ' Create a Form object
    
    GetAppEnvironment ' Calls the routine that finds out if the user is registered
    
    If Not gRegClass.Registered Then ' Registered is a boolean property of theCRegister class
        frmRegister.Show vbModal ' If the user is not registered then the register form is displayed
    Else
        frmDone.Show vbModal ' In this app if the user is registered then frmDone is displayed.
                             ' In your app you would probably replace frmDone with your main form
    End If
    
    For Each frm In Forms ' Loop through all the forms...
        Unload frm        ' and unload them...
        Set frm = Nothing ' and set them to Nothing
    Next
    
    End ' 99.99999% of the time not needed, but it can't hurt after you've unloaded your forms.
 
End Sub

Public Sub GetAppEnvironment()
'***************************************************************************
'Purpose: Get the application environment
'Inputs:  None
'Outputs: None
'***************************************************************************
 
    Dim strKey As String
    
    On Error GoTo ErrorRoutine
    
    strKey = GetSetting(App.EXEName, "Registration", "Registration Key", "123456789")
    If strKey = CalcRegKey(GetSerialNumber) Then
        gRegClass.Registered = True
        g_strRegTo = GetSetting(App.EXEName, "Registration", "User", "Registered User")
    Else
        gRegClass.Registered = False
    End If
    
ErrorRoutine:
 
    If Err.Number <> 0 Then
        DisplayError "GetAppEnvironment"
        End
    End If
 
End Sub

[Cosmictej]

Mate you sorted it our for me

[MartinLiss]

What was the problem?

[evexa]

Yet another question for you Marty.

I used inno Setup to compile my setup file.
At which point I tried the disc on another machine - but the registration program didnt come up - it just went straight to the first form!
What do I need to include in the install? Any registry entries? INNO didnt seem to pick up on anything.

Cheers

Eve
xxx

[MartinLiss]

The setup won't affect anything; everything that's needed is in the code. Take a look at the code I posted a couple of posts up for Cosmictej where I showed what Sub Main and GetAppEnvironment should look like. Did you include that code and does your code look like that?

[evexa]

Originally posted by MartinLiss
The setup won't affect anything; everything that's needed is in the code. Take a look at the code I posted a couple of posts up for Cosmictej where I showed what Sub Main and GetAppEnvironment should look like. Did you include that code and does your code look like that?

Yup they are identical
I wish they werent - it would probablly make it simpler lol

[MartinLiss]

Would you want to zip up and send me your source code?

[MartinLiss]

evexa, I looked at your code and the project Startup Object should be Sub Main and not Form1. The way it works is that Sub Main calls the routine that finds out if the user is registered. If the user is registered then Sub Main displays Form1 otherwise it displays frmRegister.

(My 9000th post!)

[evexa]

Marty your suggestion worked perfectly thank you so much!

There is however one thing **
The function includes a square root, a hard drive i tested had a negative number and obviously will not work with the sqrt.

I tried adding aline to say :

if strlicenceetc < 0 then strelicenceetc = (int(strelicenceetc * -1))

but it didnt work.

Any idea what i should do?

THank you

[MartinLiss]

A couple of suggestions.

You don't have to use the alogrythm that I use at all so you can make one up that doesn't use the square root, or you can use the Absolute Value function (I thinks it's Abs but I can't check it now) before taking the square root. Whatever you do however make sure that you make the algorythm the same in both places.

[evexa]

Cheers Marty everything works perfectly now (well except for a registration error that occurrs but i think thats due to software on my machine that blocks silent emails.)

Thanks again!
xxx

Originally posted by MartinLiss
A couple of suggestions.

You don't have to use the alogrythm that I use at all so you can make one up that doesn't use the square root, or you can use the Absolute Value function (I thinks it's Abs but I can't check it now) before taking the square root. Whatever you do however make sure that you make the algorythm the same in both places.

[manavo11]

Originally posted by MartinLiss
(I thinks it's Abs but I can't check it now)

Yep, it is

[Slaine]

Excellent work Martin.

Just one suggestion to the people using this - You really do need to change the algorithm otherwise anybody can download the files above and generate keys for your program.

[MartinLiss]

Thanks, but it's not up to change it. That should be done by whomever downloads it and I implied that in my original post. I did however edit that post to reinforce that point.

[David RH]

Hello Marty

I have a question that is VB 101 I'm sure but I can't find a reference to this type of usage, the so here we go:

In your code you append a $ to the end of some variables. I know that the $ is code for string variable. But you have already declared the variable as a string at the start of the function. So what is the purpose of the $ at this point?

Thanks

David

[MartinLiss]

It's redundant. Some of the code I used was picked up from other places and I never bothered to change it.

[David RH]

Hello Marty

I have the program setup and working.

But my users get wigged out and shut it down when the program resolves the recipname and then again when it sends the email.

Either Outlook (depending on their security settings) or their anti-virus program will pop up a dire message on attempting to resolve the address that a virus may be attempting to access your address book and do you want to stop it?

Then it happens again when it goes to send the message and you get a simularly frightening warning. I tried remming out the resolvename line To at least get rid of the most dire of the two messages, but now it won't send the message and throws the dreaded error 32002 unspecified error.

Any ideas?

Thanks

David

[MartinLiss]

Perhaps you could remove the automatic email and instead pop up a message saying something like "In order to register, please cut and paste the following information and send it in an email to..."

[David RH]

Is there a way to mail something without going thru Outlook?

Mapi appears to just be a portal to the installed email client. So, it looks like I will have to use something else to bypass Outlook. Any ideas?

Also what is the purpose of "resolving" the email address in outlook? I'm confused as to why when I supply it with an email addy thru the code it still needs to look it up in the outlook addy book.

If I could get it to send with out the name resolve it might be doable. As most people will ignore one mild warning if they trust the app. But almost no one will bypass the 3 dire "THIS MAY BE A VIRUS" warnings that mapi triggers in outlook.

Thanks

David

[MartinLiss]

I did a forum search for email without outlook and this was one of the hits.

[David RH]

I also found this:
http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.Asp?ID=109

I've given it a short test run and so far it seems to work very well. I'm going to send it to beta testers to see if it holds up under stress.

David

[Dasiths]

What if the user gets a new hard disk .....
he will have to register again ?

I use the same system with my program ..... and this is one of the problems I had to encounter .........

I save my registration info on a file .... is it better to store it on the registry ....... ?

[MartinLiss]

Originally posted by Dasiths
What if the user gets a new hard disk .....
he will have to register again ?

I use the same system with my program ..... and this is one of the problems I had to encounter .........

I save my registration info on a file .... is it better to store it on the registry ....... ?

Yes, the user will need to register again if he gets a new hard disk. I obviously think it's better to store the info in the Registry but some people like using files.

[ZeBula8]

could possibly be the reason the hard drive is showing as 0 is that the disks have been made as 'dynamic' under xp operating system?

[weisi]

Hi.....For the above code, may I know whether it is possible to modify it for my appforge program. My appforge program requires the user to register the name and product ID which is given by us and after the user register the name, he or she will be unable to change the name. My program is a chat program between a PDA and a desktop computer, so whenever the user message the computer using the PDA, the user name will be displayed. Assistance is much needed! Thank you for all the help!

[MartinLiss]

I can't help you with that but you are welcome to copy and modify my code in any way you wish.