>>Hi everyone,
>>
>>I want to restrict the number of users who can work on my multiuser VFP 5.0 executable simultaneously to a set number, for licensing purposes.
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>>One of the ways I've done that in the past is to use a password table and lock the record for the logged on user in that password table. My worry with this is that when a workstation crashes, the lock may not be released, leaving the user locked out.
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>>Does anyone have any ideas on the best way to achieve what I want to do? Thanks very much. Rene.
>
>Rene,
>I did something similar to this some years ago using C whereas my application contained some 'dummy' data which was then stored in the .exe file. My application then used this area in the exe to keep a log of users. Each time a user ran the app, every few seconds the app would place the time into this area in the exe - when another user comes along, the slots are checked for open spaces and, if none found, would check to see if any have an out-of-date time slot and use one up if it finds it. I think that this idea could be modified to work with VFP in some way.
Unless you have a static list of users, the locking of records in a shared table precludes the dynamic addition of new users. Suggest you consider external semaphore file named for the user, opened exclusively -- may be a table or low-level I/O file. Login checks for count of tables, erases those it can, and then checks for count of those left. Hope this helps.