Serial Number Range

[Wayne Freeman]

Hi, I've got a question about exactly what is meant by the "serial number range".

I have generated a serial number text file that contains 900000 serial numbers (yes, I'm being optimistic).

Now, in a script, if I want to verify a serial number and give the function dialog a range of 700000 to 700999, I would expect that all serial numbers in the range between the 700000th to the 700999th entry in the file to be valid. But that's not the way it works. If I set the range to 700000 to 799999, then during installation, I give it the serial number contained in the 700000th entry, it passes the validation. But then if I change the range to 700000 to 700999 and give it the same serial number contained in the 700000th entry, it fails. Change the range back to end in 799999, and the 700000th entry passes.

The generated serial numbers are, of course, not sequential at all.

So, what exactly does "Starting" and "Ending" serial number mean? Do they mean "The serial numbers that were generated from the numbers in the range"? If so, how is that meaningful at installation time, and how then do I give a customer a serial number that I know is valid?

Okay, I'll stop asking silly questions now.

Thanks,

Wayne Freeman
www.analyticabiz.com

[linder]

Wayne,

Let us assume, you create ten serial numbers.

Starting Serial Number: 1
Ending Serial Number: 10

We now have the following list:

1. 10162-616-6726530-41243
2. 27784-472-5729873-94712
3. 35334-750-8752316-79740
4. 12913-276-6039334-99166
5. 10065-777-2211960-65120
6. 27340-619-5218030-72931
7. 35893-598-9433264-99805
8. 11627-613-5115223-18354
9. 84367-054-5041525-13132
10. 13850-987-4022154-27824

If you now define in your installer:

Starting Serial Number: 1
Ending Serial Number: 5

The installer accepts only serial numbers 1. - 5. Serial number "27340-619-5218030-72931" (that's #6) would be invalid.

If you define in your installer:

Starting Serial Number: 6
Ending Serial Number: 10

The installer accepts only serial numbers 6. - 10. Serial number "10065-777-2211960-65120" (that's #5) would be invalid.

Does this help?

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6.5
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[Wayne Freeman]

Hi Friedrich,

Well, it sort of helps and sort of doesn't, because that's precisely how I thought it was supposed to work, but that's not how it's working for me.

Using the 10 serial numbers in your example:

If I define in the installer:

Starting Serial Number: 6
Ending Serial Number: 9

The installer accepts serial numbers 6. - 9, leaving 1 - 5 and 10 as invalid. Serial number "27340-619-5218030-72931" (that's #6) is valid.

That's how it works. But then, if I do it this way:

Starting Serial Number: 6
Ending Serial Number: 8

Then the installer should accept serial numbers 6. - 8, leaving 1 - 5, 9 and 10 as invalid. However, Serial number "27340-619-5218030-72931" (that's #6) is reported as invalid. Changing the range back to 6 - 10 makes #6 valid again.

I know that sounds strange, so I tried it several times, copying and pasting to eliminate typographical errors.

In my case, I'm defining 100,000 to 999,999.
Using 700,000 to 799,999 then 700,000 is reported as valid.
Using 700,000 to 700,999 then 700,000 is reported as invalid.

Wayne Freeman
www.analyticabiz.com

[linder]

Wayne,

Hmm, not here in our test script. We are using the serial number range feature in Consulting setup projects and it works without any problem.

I just tested this again and I defined Starting: 6 and Ending: 8. Serial number #5 and serial number #9 was reported as invalid, #6, #7, and #8 was valid.

I have tested this on XP SP2, Vista-32 and Vista-64.

Could you please send us a small demo project?

Friedrich