>> 1) If I do use the backed-up preferences database, I assume by the comments
>> that there is no way to have it automatically deleted if the app gets
>> removed.
>> Can anyone correct me?
>
>There is nothing magical about this DB. Unless you have more than one
>ID (which is frowned upon), one can simply see what your app ID is and
>go into the saved preferences DB (or unsaved) and delete that data.
As Jesse said, the issue is what happens when the user deletes the app
from the Launcher. "One" can't do anything at this point since one's
application is not running and will not be running since it is being
deleted. And, assuming that you do the normal, well-behaved, approved
thing of creating preferences with the same ID as your app, Launcher will
delete them at them same time. Most apps will want to initialize
preferences when they run the first time and find that the prefs don't
exist when they try to read them, but few apps will ever need to delete
their preferences.
On the subject of shareware, though, one thing I have thought about but
never done (it really depends on the app) is that if there is an app with
a lot of preferences which take a while to set up, one way to set up a
trial version would be to make it fully functional except that it doesn't
save the prefs. Now every time you use it you'd have to go through the
setup process, whereas if you registered it your prefs would be
remembered. As I said, none of our apps have seemed to be appropriate for
that scheme, but I suspect some are.
Another thing we have never done but seems like a good idea that I
encountered recently with some desktop software was a time-based trial
serial number, which is emailed to you after filling out a form on a web
site. Now you download the software and enter the S/N, but after 30 days
(or whatever) that S/N expires. Re-installing the software won't help,
because you still need the S/N which has expired. Of course you can
revisit the web site, but since you are being emailed the S/N, presumably
the web site keeps track of what addresses it is emailing the S/N too and
won't allow a duplicate. Of course if you have your own domain,
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] etc. form an
unlimited set. Well, no scheme is perfect but I thought I'd throw this
one out for thought.
Steve Patt
President, Stevens Creek Software
http://www.stevenscreek.com/pilot
The home of...
PalmPrint && UnDupe && On Hand && Take An Order!
Athlete's Diary && SnailMailer && many more
