Robert, I am up for exchanging ideas and I recognise some of the things that you want to do as things that have been done in a variety of ways in the past in various systems I have worked on.
For one of our systems licenses are managed via a simple file placed on an FTP which the system with the corresponding license code picks up and either starts a count down or in severe cases can put them on immediate stop. Of course there is a mechanism that kicks in when the "call home" fails over a period to prevent in house servers from going into off-line mode to keep using the license. We also make use of the REST API built into all our systems now to obtain version data and counts of key data that affects billing. This is a "call in" rather than a "call home" method. What you suggest could be implemented very simply from the systems using a HTTP/S call to a simple 4D database receiving the calls. You would need very few methods: A logging method which saves the telemetry data to a file or a table in the database and a method to run on a scheduled basis to send the log data to the telemetry system. You could even send some messages in real time if required. Background I have a support team of 4 to 5 people who log and resolve customer issues, raise change requests, carry our testing and train customers on the system use for one of the systems I work on. For several years they have been using OTRS with ITSM which is a very good "open source" web based ticket system. But it was getting increasingly frustrating trying to upgrade it; it was too complex for our requirements and we could not (cost effectively) integrate the growing amount of installation and customer data that is required to manage the many systems. This led to too many excel spreadsheets being managed by the support team. So we started building our own in-house system. Step one was to move the change requests out, stage two was to include some of the customer and installation data. The next stage to be completed soon will be to switch on the ticket system which involves a lot of email threading, merging an more complex issues. We are currently also working on providing more telemetry data for billing and management to expand what we already have. Every change we make is driven by a business need to make the small team we have more efficient. One of the biggest challenges has been that this system had to be fully web based for the users and we have few web development skills. Regards, Dougie ________________________________________________________ telekinetix Limited- J. Douglas Cryer Phone : 01234 761759 Mobile : 07973 675 218 2nd Floor Broadway House, 4-6 The Broadway, Bedford MK40 2TE Email : jdcr...@telekinetix.com Web : http://www.telekinetix.com <http://www.telekinetix.com/> ________________________________________________________ ********************************************************************** 4D Internet Users Group (4D iNUG) Archive: http://lists.4d.com/archives.html Options: https://lists.4d.com/mailman/options/4d_tech Unsub: mailto:4d_tech-unsubscr...@lists.4d.com **********************************************************************