Help using registration code
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At the link below, there is an article on this site that provides code to install a program registration system, but the instructions on how to use the code is a bit vague. I posted a question following the article, but thought I may have a better chance of receiving help by posting here. Can anyone provide me with a better explanation on how to install this code into my project? VB.NET 2003 User Registration Form (2.1)
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At the link below, there is an article on this site that provides code to install a program registration system, but the instructions on how to use the code is a bit vague. I posted a question following the article, but thought I may have a better chance of receiving help by posting here. Can anyone provide me with a better explanation on how to install this code into my project? VB.NET 2003 User Registration Form (2.1)
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I haven't actually used this code, but reading the instructions, it seems quite clear to me. What is the problem you encounter?
Thanks for the response. My first thought was to interpet the instructions literally and add two forms to my project. This does not work 1) because the the project can not have two forms with the same name, and 2) the registration program has more the two forms. I then added the registration project as an existing project to my project. There were actually three projects in the registration program so I left the "About" project out. Once I set the registration project to be the startup project, the registration program does begin, however it gives me a registration program error, telling me that my computer date has been changed and will not continue. Once I disable that section of code, I can now see the registration menu. I am now to the point that I need to learn how to have one project call a form in a second project. I will still need to circle back to the date issue because something is clearly wrong there. Any help on the proper code to have the registration program call my original Form1 when the registratio "Continue" button is clicked would be appreciated.
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Thanks for the response. My first thought was to interpet the instructions literally and add two forms to my project. This does not work 1) because the the project can not have two forms with the same name, and 2) the registration program has more the two forms. I then added the registration project as an existing project to my project. There were actually three projects in the registration program so I left the "About" project out. Once I set the registration project to be the startup project, the registration program does begin, however it gives me a registration program error, telling me that my computer date has been changed and will not continue. Once I disable that section of code, I can now see the registration menu. I am now to the point that I need to learn how to have one project call a form in a second project. I will still need to circle back to the date issue because something is clearly wrong there. Any help on the proper code to have the registration program call my original Form1 when the registratio "Continue" button is clicked would be appreciated.
I have not read said article, however: - you can freely choose the names of all Controls you use; it is bad practice to keep the names suggested by Visual Designer (such as Form1 and Button1) as these are not functional names within your application domain. - I see no need to have two projects here, the whole idea is to combine the article's code with yours in a single project. I suggest you get more acquainted with VB and study the article and its code. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
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I have not read said article, however: - you can freely choose the names of all Controls you use; it is bad practice to keep the names suggested by Visual Designer (such as Form1 and Button1) as these are not functional names within your application domain. - I see no need to have two projects here, the whole idea is to combine the article's code with yours in a single project. I suggest you get more acquainted with VB and study the article and its code. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
Luc Thanks for your insights. I could rename the forms that have identical names and move them all into my program, but I am confused by doing this. First vb.net has a feature for adding existing projects into the users project (I suspect it is there for a reason). Second, the Registration program clearly has three projects of its own, including files such as Reference and AssemblyInfo which would (I believe) cause problems if renamed or modified. And lastly the Article's instructions clearly state to "set the Form1 (in the registration code) as the startup project". This last piece of information tells me that all of these files should remain as projects. So back to my question, how does one call a form in a different project?
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Luc Thanks for your insights. I could rename the forms that have identical names and move them all into my program, but I am confused by doing this. First vb.net has a feature for adding existing projects into the users project (I suspect it is there for a reason). Second, the Registration program clearly has three projects of its own, including files such as Reference and AssemblyInfo which would (I believe) cause problems if renamed or modified. And lastly the Article's instructions clearly state to "set the Form1 (in the registration code) as the startup project". This last piece of information tells me that all of these files should remain as projects. So back to my question, how does one call a form in a different project?
as long as your solution holds multiple EXE projects, you won't succeed. if all but one project create DLL files, then all the code can call all other code as if it were one big project, provided you: - add an appropriate reference to the calling project; - add an appropriate Imports statetement to the calling project. Protection code should be integrated in the code it is supposed to protect. FWIW: if the above is new to you, I don't think your code needs copy protection or license scheming. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
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Luc Thanks for your insights. I could rename the forms that have identical names and move them all into my program, but I am confused by doing this. First vb.net has a feature for adding existing projects into the users project (I suspect it is there for a reason). Second, the Registration program clearly has three projects of its own, including files such as Reference and AssemblyInfo which would (I believe) cause problems if renamed or modified. And lastly the Article's instructions clearly state to "set the Form1 (in the registration code) as the startup project". This last piece of information tells me that all of these files should remain as projects. So back to my question, how does one call a form in a different project?
Please pick up a book, statements such as
Peter Leipzig wrote:
Second, the Registration program clearly has three projects of its own, including files such as Reference and AssemblyInfo
are extremely inaccurate and embarrassing to say the least. This is not your fault, but you have made it abundantly clear that you do not have a clear and concise knowledge on the fundamental basics of the language to proceed at all.
Check out the CodeProject forum Guidelines[^] The original soapbox 1.0 is back![^]
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Please pick up a book, statements such as
Peter Leipzig wrote:
Second, the Registration program clearly has three projects of its own, including files such as Reference and AssemblyInfo
are extremely inaccurate and embarrassing to say the least. This is not your fault, but you have made it abundantly clear that you do not have a clear and concise knowledge on the fundamental basics of the language to proceed at all.
Check out the CodeProject forum Guidelines[^] The original soapbox 1.0 is back![^]
ElliotA Hey I never claimed to be a wiz at VB and if I have written something here that has embarrased you, then you've got a problem I am not embarrased to say the I am learning, that I do not know everything, and to ask for help.
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ElliotA Hey I never claimed to be a wiz at VB and if I have written something here that has embarrased you, then you've got a problem I am not embarrased to say the I am learning, that I do not know everything, and to ask for help.
While I can appreciate that English may perhaps not be your first language, I still can point out the lack of basic fundamental understanding of visual basic. Your questions are extremely rudimentary & illogical. This is in no way an insult, but you are attempting to complete a task that is above the scope of your intelligence as a programmer. You must learn the basics before attempting to continue. We can give you all the answers in the world, but it won't do you any good as you won't be able to understand them.
Check out the CodeProject forum Guidelines[^] The original soapbox 1.0 is back![^]
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While I can appreciate that English may perhaps not be your first language, I still can point out the lack of basic fundamental understanding of visual basic. Your questions are extremely rudimentary & illogical. This is in no way an insult, but you are attempting to complete a task that is above the scope of your intelligence as a programmer. You must learn the basics before attempting to continue. We can give you all the answers in the world, but it won't do you any good as you won't be able to understand them.
Check out the CodeProject forum Guidelines[^] The original soapbox 1.0 is back![^]
Well as it turns out English is my first language and I have a good command of it in both written and verbal form. You are not a helpful individaul, you are simply mean spirited. I do not need to ask you what the "A" in EllittA stand for, your behavior has demonstrated what you are.
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Well as it turns out English is my first language and I have a good command of it in both written and verbal form. You are not a helpful individaul, you are simply mean spirited. I do not need to ask you what the "A" in EllittA stand for, your behavior has demonstrated what you are.
With respects, between the both of us you are the only one issuing insults. I kindly remind you that in my original post, I merely demonstrated the fact that you stated that completely erroneous statements and issued a general lack of understanding for the utmost basic concepts of visual basic. A prime example is stating the the project you downloaded contained 'multiple projects' citing 'references' and 'assemblyinfo' as projects. This is entirely incorrect. My advice was simply to begin to understand those basic concepts otherwise you will never be able to completely understand any of the complex concepts or utilize the language, and your potential or skill to its maximum level. If you take this post as insult then I wish you the best of luck selling your software, I'm sure you will be the next Bill Gates.
Check out the CodeProject forum Guidelines[^] The original soapbox 1.0 is back![^]
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Thanks for the response. My first thought was to interpet the instructions literally and add two forms to my project. This does not work 1) because the the project can not have two forms with the same name, and 2) the registration program has more the two forms. I then added the registration project as an existing project to my project. There were actually three projects in the registration program so I left the "About" project out. Once I set the registration project to be the startup project, the registration program does begin, however it gives me a registration program error, telling me that my computer date has been changed and will not continue. Once I disable that section of code, I can now see the registration menu. I am now to the point that I need to learn how to have one project call a form in a second project. I will still need to circle back to the date issue because something is clearly wrong there. Any help on the proper code to have the registration program call my original Form1 when the registratio "Continue" button is clicked would be appreciated.
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Peter, I'll try to take a closer look at it and help you out. Unfortunately, I'm away from my desk today and have got no time for looking at it. I will do so tomorrow if you haven't solved the problem by then...
I do appreciate your help. I have also been away from my computer while traving on business.
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I do appreciate your help. I have also been away from my computer while traving on business.
Hi Peter I've spent around an hour now trying to incorporate the code into a testapplication, and the result was so/so. It's because I'm running VS2008 and the code is written for VS2003, so slight modifications are needed. I'm confident I could get it to work in another half hour or so and that I would be able to guide you through the incorporation process if needed. BUT: I will STRONGLY advise you against using this code. I haven't gone through all of it, but what I have seen is poorly organized and poorly written. In several places, for instance he is declaring variables without type (defaults to object), which affects performance of course, plus he's relying heavily on implicit conversion (typical for old VB6 programmers that haven't learnt .NET properly). As for the security, I'm not sure, but the poor programming I've seen leads me to believe that there could very well be security flaws. One thing is sure: Unless you obfuscate your exe file after using it, it's useless. Then all code (including this licensing code) can easily be decompiled and circumvented. The author claims he has written the code in 5 hours, and I can certainly believe that. I've done a similar (but probably a little more complex) system for own my software, and it took me one or two months to perfect. I would advise you to go for a commercial solution where the licensing logic is encapsuled in an obfuscated dll you can simply reference from your application. They're quite expensive, but compared to writing it all yourself, it's not really worth complaining about.
modified on Thursday, June 3, 2010 6:10 AM
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Hi Peter I've spent around an hour now trying to incorporate the code into a testapplication, and the result was so/so. It's because I'm running VS2008 and the code is written for VS2003, so slight modifications are needed. I'm confident I could get it to work in another half hour or so and that I would be able to guide you through the incorporation process if needed. BUT: I will STRONGLY advise you against using this code. I haven't gone through all of it, but what I have seen is poorly organized and poorly written. In several places, for instance he is declaring variables without type (defaults to object), which affects performance of course, plus he's relying heavily on implicit conversion (typical for old VB6 programmers that haven't learnt .NET properly). As for the security, I'm not sure, but the poor programming I've seen leads me to believe that there could very well be security flaws. One thing is sure: Unless you obfuscate your exe file after using it, it's useless. Then all code (including this licensing code) can easily be decompiled and circumvented. The author claims he has written the code in 5 hours, and I can certainly believe that. I've done a similar (but probably a little more complex) system for own my software, and it took me one or two months to perfect. I would advise you to go for a commercial solution where the licensing logic is encapsuled in an obfuscated dll you can simply reference from your application. They're quite expensive, but compared to writing it all yourself, it's not really worth complaining about.
modified on Thursday, June 3, 2010 6:10 AM
Thank you Jonny J for taking the time to look at the code and for your honest elauation and opinion. Advice such as that is truly valuable. I will explore alternative options.