Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Setup on demand.

The joys of making a custom setup for each user.
Your reviewer was amused over the next generation of watermarking - custom setups.

This would involve putting the setup environment to the server. It involves putting an PHP/ASPX/Java back-end to call either Final Builder/Automated QA/ or an automated custom script.

Thus:
1) User clicks on a link to start a batch process that lasts 3 or 4 minutes.
2) The click triggers a FB Server or AQ Server or custom script.
3) The script goes and in turn automate the setup package build process (of course, on the server)
4) The script would put some nice watermarks into the setup (unnoticed, of course)
5) Then EXE is created (try to use EXE, not MSI).
6) Code-sign the setup package.
7) Move it to the download site for user to download.

Additional:
8) Deploy an activation server.
9) Give the password to activate the thing.
10) The activation server downloads the actual password to decrypt the RAR (DevExpress), CustomZip file (RentACoder - Exhedra solution packages).
11) Setup complete, along with watermarking all necessary files.

10 needs explanation:
a) You give the login and password to the user
b) The user logs in and "authenticate" to the activation server
c) The activation server via SSL will download the RAR/Encrypted packages password file
d) Decrypt the files and then "forget" the password after that.

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