App Distribution and Firewall Issues

[Negligence]

Hi folks,

 

Years ago I developed a PHP application that is available online. Today, I've taken that software and moved it into a distributable release (using Uniform Server) that will be for sale shortly. Our customers are not technical. We are at the point now where we are testing the installation process and have hit some snags.

 

In hindsight I did not do enough testing with Uniform to make sure it could be easily used across the Windows platform. Through our testing I have come to realize that XP and Vista tend to cause a lot of problems when they run Uniform Server for the first time, particularly with MySQL.

 

When a new user first runs Uniform, the OS firewall blocks the application. This is not desirable but OK -- we can tell our customers about this to make their life easier. Usually it's just a matter of clicking Allow. But MySQL cannot start unless we tell them to Run As Administrator (in Vista). If they don't do this, they have a working server but no database. MySQL fails to start and gives them an 'Access Denied' error.

 

Has anyone else encountered this and have any recommendations of what I can do to help with this? Are there any custom-releases of Uniform Server that mitigate these issues, so they are truly portable and avoid firewall issues?

 

Our software comes in an installer package and we would like to minimize the amount of disruption a user has when trying to run the software for the first time if they are not logged in as an administrator.

 

Thanks in advance!

[olajideolaolorun]

First of all i would like you to please read up on the Uniform Server License. As it is open source you have to make sure you inform your users that they are paying for your part of the product and not Uniform Server.

 

As for your problem, Uniform Server can be ran on any Windows OS platform. Error free*. With Vista, ofcourse you have to have admin privileges to run it because of the Vista UAC.

 

As long as they sign in from an admin account everything should be ok. They dont need to force the Run as Administrator. It should work. ;-)

[Negligence]

Thank you for your reply. I will be doing some more testing, and if all that's required is to be logged in as an Administrator then I will be very happy! Great product, by the way... I hope other's have found it as useful as I have.