I am trying to work this out, so excuse the rambling.
I am concerned about the fact that a client ID does not quite match up on a per PC basis and need to offer a suggestion.
Ideally for me, (especially with the multi pc clients as discussed in the d7II forum) their should be a second level to the client ID, maybe even 3
So can have
DRJames-pcname-dateinstalled
I can then apply a template to the Master account (customer), or any of the second level (individual machines). the 3rd level would only be for differentiating date of install and would help reduce duplicate client IDs.
Here is an idea for getting my foot in the door for new customers.
Ideally for me, I would like the customer name / name of the pc to become the client id when the generic installer is installed.
Process would be,
- client downloads the generic installer from my site.
installs it.
it asks for name/ph/email (only), then automatically creates a client ID in the database called
%customer name% - %pc name% - %timestamp%
- o - %customer name% = comes from the name supplied
o - %pc name%= comes from the pc
o - %timestamp% = some sort of randomisation to stop duplicate client ids from being created.
ANY client IDs created should utilise the "free/no frills" template, which would have prominent "UPGRADE NOW" branding taking to my payment gateway.
The idea being that if a customer pays, I can just apply the new template to their installation, and upgrade them over night

This would take care of the Free Version people are looking to distribute, and for me, it works because I would only have to distribute one binary, even to my paying customers, which would have it's features turned on after install.
This also avoids piracy of the "full Versions" because no full version is ever distributed.
Discuss.
