trial version

[jselvakumar26071988]

how to make my mob app. trial version.....
give me some idea pls.....

[bogdan.galiceanu]

Well an easy way would be to check the date when it was first run and after a certain number of days display a message to the user saying that the trial period has ended. Then if you want the user to buy your app you can have that option, otherwise just call notifyDestoryed() and the midlet will close.

[amitmishra19]

Hi bogdan.galiceanu,

What if the smart user changes his/her date?

What is your thought abt the following option-

a)When the first tiem application is launched, transfer the client information to the server.
b)In every launch of the application client checks with the server and if the expiry date has occured then simply shows a message.

Regards
Amit

[hartti]

If the "smart" user changes the phone date, then he will also need to change it back to correct time after he has used your application (in order to have the calendar showing correct things and sometimes even to be able to install applications). And then the same thing again when he wanst to use your application.
Also people might have the clock auto-update on, which would make the change one step more complicated.
Put it another way. I would not worry about that.
Or you could additionally put in a check which compares the current time to the last execution time as well (you need to store that in the RMS), and if the current time is smaller, you know the user has changed the clock (not fool proof either, but makes the clock fixing a little harder)

If you need to connect to the network, there is usually a confirmation asked from the user. What if the user denies the access (as he wants to save his data quota). Or if he is in a place, where there is no cellular reception (as I do not know anything about your MIDlet, I do not know if this is viable use case for you...)

Hartti

[jappit]

Hi jselvakumar,

don't expect to find a perfect solution for this. To create an expiring version of your app, you should save some data (e.g.: left usages, expiry date, ...) somewhere, and here's what you've got:

* RMS is useless, since users could easily uninstall and reinstall the MIDlet itself, and have it back to work
* FileConnection API is not available everywhere, and has those fancy permission prompts
* using server side checks costs and is not always viable, as pointed out by hartti

A maybe-simpler alternative: why not to make a "reduced" version of your app (e.g.: with less features) and let your users use it undefinitely? Maybe putting some ads in it could be a good compromise too

Pit