Well, I’ve got another release ready.  You can download it here.

Of course, there’s always a heaping amount of nonsense when you’re dealing with software.  I foolishly thought I might get by this one with very little effort.  I was so close.  And yet again, at the finish line, something lassoed me an violently jerked me off my feet and put me on another part of the course to make my way through.

Here’s the good, both items have to do with how I changed my software:

• I added code to better support affiliates.  Regnow has an SDK, which is (surprisingly) designed very well, which is used to certify that your application ensures proper payment to affiliates who sell your product.  I was able to implement this in a matter of hours.  All I did was read the two page overview doc, looked at an examples, and implemented it.  Thanks, Regnow!  If only the rest of your system was this well-planned.
• I changed my install program from a crappy old copy of InstallShield (I stay as far away as possible from the new versions which are awful) to Advanced Installer, which is fantastic.  I can’t say enough about how good it is.  Nowadays, finding something good makes me happy because I’ve been burned by so many bad upgrades!  I was up and installing Snatcher and Son 3.1 in about thirty minutes.  The only difficulty was dealing with the registry, but around an hour of learning how it worked fixed all the problems.  I was able to create my installation package using the free version.  I may end up buying a license, just so I can customize the graphics and a few other little things.  At $299, it’s way more affordable than InstallShield.  Oh yes, and my installation program shrunk from 7 megs down to one.

Here’s the bad, these all come from the fulfillment side:

• I went to upload my .msi file on the Regnow.com servers and got an error message that they only support .exe files.  You’ve got to be kidding!  I shot off an email to support right away.  I can’t believe this is true, but I guess it is.  Maybe I’ll have to buy a license to Advanced Installer to get this too.
• On Upload.com, where I have a paying account, I went to modify my product and made all the necessary modifications.  It went smoothly (save for the fact that the icon doesn’t show and I uploaded both .png and .ico files…got a support message out for that).  However, I got asked to upgrade my account from a free account to a basic or premium one.  What?  I already am paying!  I went back to my product page which indeed showed that I had added a new product!  But, I am certain that I clicked on modify.  So, another support message is out.  Bah!  I won’t even go into describing how confusing their help system is.

I’m looking forward to the day when I make an upgrade and it takes a total of thirty minutes to deploy the whole thing.  As of right now, that seems a long way off.

Again, as they say in Chinese:  “Hao Shi Duo Mo”, or, “The road to success is paved with hardship.”  Too bad I don’t know how to say, “and nonsense, and foolishness, and bad designs, etc.”