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What do I need to develop and distribute apps?

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    What do I need to develop and distribute apps?

    Forgive me if this has been addressed elsewhere on this forum, but I am considering switching from Visual Foxpro V9 to Alpha Five Platiunum and I need to figure out what I need to convert/develop and distribute desktop apps.

    I would like to explain what I am currently doing with Visual Foxpro to make it easier to address what I need to continue doing the same thing with Alpha Five.

    I have one major desktop application that is sold with a site license and allows the user to install it on every computer in their office. The site license was started 23 years ago and I've regretted it ever since, but it's probably one of the primary reasons that I've sold thousands of copies. Understand that I have no idea how many copies are being installed at each user's site.

    So I need Alpha Five for five developer's in the office and I need to be able to distribute a copy to all my users that will allow an unlimited number of users.

    Any help would certainly be appreciated.
    John J. Fatte', CPA
    PRO-WARE, LLC
    Omaha, NE 68137

    #2
    Re: What do I need to develop and distribute apps?

    Best approach...contact Alphasoftware sales.
    Mike W
    __________________________
    "I rebel in at least small things to express to the world that I have not completely surrendered"

    Comment


      #3
      Re: What do I need to develop and distribute apps?

      If you don't need active link tables, the "concurrent user" runtime (up to X amount of users on the same network accessing the app at the same time) should do the trick although if you email [email protected] they may be able to give you a flat price.

      With active link tables you need the run engine which is a per user license so you can't buy one that lets you re-distribute freely, however it gives you much more flexibility for distributing your apps (e.g. your customers need to get licenses from you if they want to install on more PCs than you originally sold them the app for).

      Full documentation on the runtime licensing model is here: (removed broken link)
      Last edited by Lenny Forziati; 06-02-2023, 01:56 PM. Reason: removed broken link

      Comment


        #4
        Re: What do I need to develop and distribute apps?

        Thank you guys for the responses.

        I am going to email sales to see what kind of pricing I can get. We will probably just use dbf tables because that's what we use right now with VFP - aside from the fact that we will need to roll back to Foxpro 2.6 dbf files. Not a big issue going forward, but will take a little planning to convert current users.

        I know there will be some trade offs going from VFP to Alpha Five, but it appears that there will be continuing support and product enhancements going forward, which is more than I can say for VFP.
        John J. Fatte', CPA
        PRO-WARE, LLC
        Omaha, NE 68137

        Comment


          #5
          Re: What do I need to develop and distribute apps?

          You mention a "site license". I'm curious what you mean by this. Is there some type of registration process that enables it to work on each site or is it simply sold to a "site" with no protections to keep it from being installed on a different site?

          Comment


            #6
            Re: What do I need to develop and distribute apps?

            Originally posted by CALocklin View Post
            You mention a "site license". I'm curious what you mean by this. Is there some type of registration process that enables it to work on each site or is it simply sold to a "site" with no protections to keep it from being installed on a different site?
            One of our applications is sold with a site license as the only option. It allows the purchaser to install the application on every computer that they own at that "site", aka location. However, every computer they install it on has to go through an activation process that we built into our application. It basically phones home through a webservice that we wrote and gets a return code that unlocks the application; otherwise, it functions as a demo with slightly limited features or for a limited time (usually 30 days).

            Unfortunately, it's been a huge selling point with one of our applications for 23 years so we can't really take it away, because our users buy updates for it annually. It's tax related so we have to update it annually... sometimes more often.

            The webservice has worked pretty well, but we run into problems with a lot of users who have firewalls setup and can't get the reply back from our server. We have a manual option for activation, but they have to call us to get the code.

            With A5V9 we would change this so they could log into a website and enter their activation code. We would then supply them with a return code that they could enter and activate their application.

            The purpose of our activation routine was originally designed to just let us determine how many ACTUAL users we have, because once the CD is sent to them, we really had no way of knowing how many computers they installed it on. And we really don't stop them from installing ANY of our apps, even the single-user ones, more than the allotted times, but it does tell us how big a problem we have. The most important feedback that we've gotten from this information is that many of our users enter the wrong serial number in their applications - we provide them with a perpetual customer/serial number. A number of them have the wrong one in their software and because we transfer it from year-to-year (version-to-version), we need to address this in the future.
            John J. Fatte', CPA
            PRO-WARE, LLC
            Omaha, NE 68137

            Comment


              #7
              Re: What do I need to develop and distribute apps?

              Originally posted by Mike Wilson View Post
              Best approach...contact Alphasoftware sales.
              I sent them a detailed email last night and have gotten no response. Sent another email just moments ago regarding first email. Still waiting. Maybe they don't need the business?

              Update: I just received a call from Richard Rabin stating that Alpha Five was closed for the holiday weekend and I'd probably get a call back from sales on Monday (perhaps Tuesday due to catch up for the long weekend). I'm enthused again.
              Last edited by jjfcpa; 07-03-2008, 03:24 PM.
              John J. Fatte', CPA
              PRO-WARE, LLC
              Omaha, NE 68137

              Comment


                #8
                Re: What do I need to develop and distribute apps?

                Originally posted by jjfcpa View Post
                I sent them a detailed email last night and have gotten no response. Sent another email just moments ago regarding first email. Still waiting. Maybe they don't need the business?

                Update: I just received a call from Richard Rabin stating that Alpha Five was closed for the holiday weekend and I'd probably get a call back from sales on Monday (perhaps Tuesday due to catch up for the long weekend). I'm enthused again.
                Gosh I am agog that they actually take the holidays off - over Easter weekend they were all on the forum discussing and amending the V9 runtime licence range and pricing hours after the first price plans were released...

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: What do I need to develop and distribute apps?

                  Hang in there until Monday or Tuesday - it will be worth the wait. The Alpha products and support is amazing. Best I have seen in 20 plus years.


                  Ted Berry
                  TLBerry Enterprises

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: What do I need to develop and distribute apps?

                    Originally posted by TedBerry View Post
                    Hang in there until Monday or Tuesday - it will be worth the wait. The Alpha products and support is amazing. Best I have seen in 20 plus years.


                    Ted Berry
                    TLBerry Enterprises
                    Not to worry. After getting a personal phone call from Richard Rabins, I'm more than happy to wait a couple of days. Got an invite to look at a new web app that they developed for a large company, so this will be something we definitely want to take a hard look at.
                    John J. Fatte', CPA
                    PRO-WARE, LLC
                    Omaha, NE 68137

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