Question about signing application that needs to be re-branded every time it is sold

[shroukkhan]

hi,
first of all this is a re-post of my thread at (http://developer.symbian.org/forum/s...5692#post25692) , I am posting it here , because from experience , i find this forum more responsive than the one at developer.symbian.org . Hope this is fine

Now on to the problem . I was reading about the signing options for distribution an application and I have a few questions . We have a VOIP application that needs to be signed . In that, I am using CommDD capability , which means I can not do express signing on it and has to go through a test house , which costs 150$ and takes a while to get all the tests done (I am guessing the time , as I have not done certified singing before ) .

This is all fine when we do this for the first time . But everytime we sell the product to a customer, we need to re-brand and change certain parameters inside the software , which requires us to recompile the whole thing.

So here is the problem , everytime we have a new customer and we re-brand the product, do we need to go through the whole certified testing process all over again and pay 150$ each time? or is there an easier solution that I am missing out on ?

[symbianyucca]

You could try having it packed in a parts, so for exmaple you would implement the parts that require high capability in a another sis that could be used for all customers. Sign that once, and them embed that to the custom variant sis file.

That way you could use the express signing for the customer variants rather easily.

[tamhanna]

Yes. If you have enough political clout, you can force Symbian to give you code signing rights so that you can sign your code yourself.

Paragon has this right for example.

But you need to have either a carrier or a manufacturer willing to take hard measures (read: de-listing) against Symbian before they cave in.

[symbianyucca]

Yes. If you have enough political clout, you can force Symbian to give you code signing rights so that you can sign your code yourself.

Paragon has this right for example.

But you need to have either a carrier or a manufacturer willing to take hard measures (read: de-listing) against Symbian before they cave in.

there used to be a process for becoming self-signer sort of thing, but I haven't seen that lately, anyway, good way to find out would be to contact Symbian and ask them about it.

[tamhanna]

Hi,
I have to agree with Yucca here.

I know of a large Austrian carrier who has wanted this right for some time, and was not able to procure it so far. Probably they weren't willing to threaten delisting all Symbian devices...

[shroukkhan]

hi,
yes i mailed to the Symbian signed test house (samata yamata or something like that...it is a french company, and i keep forgetting the name. however, they are the only testing house who signs sis files with extended capabilities) . Anyway , the people there told me that I have to re- sign the product every time we re-brand it (infact 155euro is required for the tiniest changes I need to make to the software! ). I gues it is fine , talked to the customer , and they dont mind spending extra 155 euro .

As long as the money doesn't come out of my wallet