Heading down the home stretch

[J. Landman Gay]

On 7/22/10 4:06 PM, David C. wrote:

> As a point of reference for the questions I have below, my app will be
> using Jacqueline's Zygodact product for registration and security
> purposes and targeting Windows only for the initial release.

Cool. :)

>
> Question 1:
> On Windows, what is a sure fire, "will work" folder/filepath location
> (specialFolderPath) where I can place the preference file/stack that
> Zygodact needs to use for basic registration security and/or storing
> user data, regardless of user permission settings?

SpecialFolderPath(26) should be safe on any version of Windows.

>
> Question 2:
> Should I have the installer create the target folder for the
> preference stack and copy the file accordingly or is it better/easier
> to cobble together a routine directly in my application to handle
> that?

Either way works equally well. Since you need the folder to exist early 
on, and especially because you have a pre-made prefs stack, it might be 
easier in this case to let the installer create the folder and copy the 
prefs stack before your app ever launches.

>
> Question 3:
> Do separate sub-stacks need to have the .rev extension or can they be
> named using something else? MyStack.rev>>  MyStack.blah

The extension can be anything, Rev doesn't care.

>
> Question 4:
> Should I be concerned about encrypting any sub-stacks, should I choose
> to separate them?

If they aren't password-protected then users can see your scripts and 
any stored data if they open the stack in a text editor. I usually 
password-protect stacks that will be for distribution. That way they 
can't be read easily.

>
> That's about it in a nutshell. I've read just about everything I can
> find here on the list as well in the documentation on these subjects,
> but I'm still not convinced that I understand it all well enough. I
> just need some solid advice from those that have already "been there,
> done that" so I can get this puppy finished up and out there.

Congrats! The pre-release details are a bear, but it's worth it.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com