Demo vs Licensed Software

[ImAMacGuy]

So I have several apps that I've setup with a demo / trial install. After X amount of days, the users have to put in a SN. My thought was to allow the users to try the app to see if it works for their needs. Today our Asset management team came to me and said I can't do that because they can't figure out who has a license and who doesn't in casper.

How do you handle such things in your environment? is there a way to determine which apps are in trial mode vs licensed?

(Apps currently in demo section: Camtasia, Font Doctor, Omnigraffle, Screenium, Snagit, Suitcase Fusion 5, and UltraEdit).

[tron_jones]

Install the two in different paths. The licensed version could be /Applications/demo.app while the trial gets installed to a custom path, say /Applications/trials/demo.app. You could at least track the two separately then.

[yan1212]

Another way is to write a dummy receipt together with the policy that installs the trial software.

For example executing this command as part of your Camtasia Trial policy:

touch /Library/Application Support/JAMF/Receipts/trial.camtasia.pkg

You can then create Smart Groups or searches based on these receipts.

[chuck3000]

besides using a custom dummy receipt, I need the ability to know whether an app is a demo or the real, licensed app. Seems there could be a plugin of some sort that can be built, similar to what we do with Composer Package manifests, that looks at an app and it's associated license files or embedded licensing, and reports to the JSS if it's a demo or full install. Today, a software inventory simply reports the total amount of installs of an app, but doesn't tell me if they're licensed or demo (unless the name of the app is different). I think this is going to become an Enhancement request...

[emily]

+1 dummy receipts. You can build an EA out of it to report Trial versus Full for an app.

[mike_paul]

Not sure if the developer's of those apps use it but you could try to suggest to them to use Software ID tags: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=343

If only we could get all developers to standardize things like this and versioning, then all of our lives would be easier.

[mm2270]

@mike.paul,

Yes! Thinking along those same lines - https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/featureRequest.html?id=2749#responseChild7680