How to do time limited install?

[Lorne]

Re: How to do time limited install?

The download method shouldn't make any difference. You're just comparing the date when that particular setup.exe file was created, to the date on the system that downloaded the file.

Did you change anything else about the setup between tests?

[SpaceStationAlpha]

Re: How to do time limited install?

When I use this feature in 6.0.1.0, place the setup runtime on a web server, and download it using http, the runtime aborts, saying that the patch is expired, even though it shouldn't be. If I download it using ftp, it works properly. Is there any way around this that would allow http downloads?

[Lorne]

Re: How to do time limited install?

Originally posted by jassing:
Thanks. I didn't know you could do date math... Cool. thanks.

#JULIANDATE# and %JulianDate% both hold the date stored as an integer...specifically, the number of days since midnight on January 1, 4713 B.C.

Technically, a "Julian" date is supposed to be the number of days since noon on January 1, 4713 B.C., because it was originally created by astronomers. (They wanted each "dark period" to fall within a single "day.")

There's something called a "Modified Julian Date" which counts from midnight instead, but it also subtracts 2400000 or something along those lines to make the number smaller, and the MJD isn't quite as well-defined a standard as the JD.

[jassing]

Re: How to do time limited install?

Thanks. I didn't know you could do date math... Cool. thanks.

[Lorne]

Re: How to do time limited install?

If you want to provide more information to the user before aborting, you can either use a Show Dialog Box action, or you can use a screen.

To use a screen, instead of doing the Abort action right away, set a variable like %DieDieDie% to true. Then, place a suitable screen at the top of the screens list, with %DieDieDie% in the screen condition. Then, add the Abort action to the After tab for that screen.

[Lorne]

Re: How to do time limited install?

Past a certain date, or after x number of days since the setup executable was built?

Either way, a simple IF action on the Startup action tab that uses one of the many date variables (%JulianDate% is especially useful for this) can do the trick. Just put an Abort action between the IF and END IF actions.

To have the setup expire x days after it was built, just subtract the design-time constant #JULIANDATE# from the built-in variable %JulianDate% to get the number of days that have elapsed since the executable was built.

Example:

// expire 30 days after setup was built
IF(%JulianDate% - #JULIANDATE# > 30)
    Abort
END IF

[jassing]

what's the best way to do a time limited install? ie: Won't install past a certain date?