SoftwareShield Application Deployment, Web Deployment, Source Control, and Installer Questions

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• Our organization uses source control software. How do I manage my licenses for the build process of our installer?

  Most importantly - ensure that the license that is compiled into the installer package is always a distributable freshly compiled license. Once a copy of the distributable license has been opened and parsed by the ClientProtector, its contents are permanently altered and must never be deployed to a new machine.

  For this purpose we recommend that once your license project design has stabilized, you make a copy of a freshly compiled distributable license in a special folder named "ORIGINAL LICENSE".

  Never let the ClientProtector touch this original license file. This way, to test your code, you copy the original compiled license into your application directory and run your tests (which will alter the copy of the distributable license in the app directory). When you need to reset your environment, you do a clean with the SoftwareShield License Manager. This deletes/cleans all Alias files. Then, simply overwrite the distributable license in the application installation directory with a fresh copy from the "ORIGINAL LICENSE" directory and you are effectively "re-set" as though it was a fresh install.

  Make sure your automated build process fetches a copy of the distributable license from the "ORIGINAL LICENSE" folder to ensure a fresh license is deployed with your installer/build.

• We build our product several times in the day. Do we have to make sure to clean the license each time I do a build and before I remove it?

  You generally only have to do a "clean" if you are actually testing the license and wish to reset your machine to "fresh". The process that the ClientProtector goes through for StartUp (and other functions) modifies the distributable license file as well as creating or modifying the alias files and possibly registry keys. The clean process simply deletes/cleans all the alias files and keys. A subsequent re-compile of the license project generates a fresh distributable license which has never been touched by a ClientProtector. These two steps allow you to "start-over" when you are testing and debugging your license code.