Add more fields to help Desktop application licensing

[alaali]

Hello,

I am using this addons from a long time, all my projects was a web application and most of the time the license addon was working like a charm.

What I want now is to be able to use this addon for my desktop applications. The way the addon is storing and dealing with the information is just not applicable to Desktop applications.

What I want is:
1) be able to save MAC address in a field which is labeled as MAC address.
2) be able to save the CPU id in a field which is labeled as CPU id.
3) be able to set the number of PCs which can use this desktop application: for example I can make the max number of installations to be 5, the system then can allow the user to install it on 5 PCs and save the information on (MAC and CPU) fields.
4) a way to allow the user to revoke a license. for example if he want to install the license in a new machine and uninstall it from the old machine, there should be a way to do that (like ioncube revoke license function)
5) set the number of installations: so the user can install it on the same PC for the set number of times. for example if that is 5, after the 5th installation the license should not allow the user to complete the installations without an intervention for our side.

I know that other people have different ideas for this, any suggestions?

[furrymitn]

I agree, but to make all of those possibilities into custom fields. I would to be able to set a license as different levels like site,100,5, etc and have it decrease the counter for each install seen. As well as do what you said with the extra fields, but I would like to be able to send those back from the application itself as custom fields.

[alaali]

What I want is to make this addon more flexible to allow us to use it on all our applications. web/desktop.

There are a lot of improvement which can be made on this addon.

[gohigher]

I'm coming from a PHP background, so forgive me if this can't be done, but couldn't you use whatever fields you want and tie them to the license? What I mean is instead of using an IP address, pull the MAC address and send it for license verification? I haven't checked the DB to see what sort of field it is, but I would think it would have to be a text capable field. Then labelling on the web end could be handled by renaming the field in the template language file?

In my case, I am using a product addon to control the number of "connections" a given license has. By default it has 3 potential connections, and the customer can purchase connections as product addons. The license check figures on 3 then when the license comes back, it sees how many addons are purchased and adds them in.

I would think something similar could be accomplished, having the app figure on five mac addresses, then exploding the IP address field (that contains the mac addresses) and counting how many macs are stored, resulting in the number left to the customer. For revoking a license, perhaps a function to explode that field, wipe that mac address, remotely call your reissue license function before validating the license, and then storing the license? Probably a whole lot more complicated than it needs to be.

Just some ideas...

Steven

[alaali]

This can be accomplished if I am only using the system for Desktop application only.

In my case I am already using the system for my wep applications. so changing the labels on the language file are not a good thing to do.

I think what we need is a little enhances addon to allow a user like me to use it in a different scenarios like what I describe.

[gohigher]

I can see needing that; in the mean time, if it doesn't happen, you can use some smarty if thens to change the way the name appears on the client end ie if $pid eq xx render this name else render default name... that sort of thing.

Maybe even using the same functionality of the licensing module, but add the ability to have differnt Types of license, ie web, desktop, mobile, etc and be able to customize each type's labels. This would have to be a WHMCS modification though, but would be a possible solution for them to implement what you are looking to accomplish.

[bill]

i can see some good points here, im alo using the same module, and wanting to do similar sort of things, it would be great if the manual had more info regarding the use of custom fields and the licensing module, or if this is documented somewhere ive missed please direct me. Also whne looking at the license for a product under the product and services, it displays the license number and product name, however it does say which domain is using it. To find out which domain is associated with the license key i need to go view full details.

thnx

[alaali]

Hi,

As a programmer I know that I can modify the template and add some conditions here and there to show what I want. however this is can add more tasks to do when upgrading the templates and the system.

What we are looking for is more flexibility. unfortunately most of that should be done at the core level of this addon.

For me the licensing addon is good and I can use it to fullfil most of my web application licensing needs, however if I want to move forward to use it as my main licensing system, it is just cannot handeling the desktop application in a proper way.

I second what bill said about a need to show the domain name at the list rather than the need to see the details to know to which site this license is belong.

Thanks,
Sayed

[peterruiter]

You can do this by creating add-ons for this.

If you create an add-on called 'MAC address', and then add it to the clients license with the clients mac address as it's custom name, then you can read it from the results array.

See this thread for an example.
http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?48317-Muilti-Site-Custom-Integer