Restricted Publications (and Trial publications)

Applies to HTML Viewer, IE Browser publications.

See security.

Creating different versions or editions of a single publication is possible with HTML Executable: for instance, you can transform your full publication into an evaluation version and several registered editions thanks to certificates & security profiles.

What are certificates and how to configure them

This tab lets you manage the certificates of your publication. To generate a restricted publication, turn "Create a restricted publication" on.

  • To add a new certificate, click on Add and enter the name of your new certificate. Only alphanumeric characters and spaces are allowed.
     
  • To configure the properties of a certificate, either double-click on it or select it and click on Configure.
     
  • To remove a certificate, select it and click on Remove. Note that the Default certificate cannot be removed, and you should always have one Registered certificate at least.
     
  • To make a key for a certificate, please select it and click on "Make Key". The key generator will be displayed.
     
  • Finally to reset the evaluation period on your own computer, click on Advanced and Reset: if you are testing your publication on your computer, you could want to clear the registration information saved by the publication on your system. If yes, then press the Reset button. All settings saved by the publication will be erased. Note that this includes state information, global variables, etc...

In a Trial publication, there are two modes: "Trial" (a.k.a. Evaluation) and "Registered". Please click here for further explanation.

When you start a new project, HTML Executable automatically adds two certificates. Do not forget to configure their properties if you plan to make a Trial publication.

Do not hesitate to download and explore the following sample: "How to make trial ebooks?". It comes with an animated tutorial that shows you all the steps you need to turn an ebook into a trial one, a sample ebook and two HTML Executable projects. Go to http://samples.htmlexe.com

How to deliver keys for restricted publications online after payment

We have an online simulation that shows you:

  • how to deliver registration keys to customers immediately after orders.
  • how you can prevent end users from sharing full versions of your ebooks on the web by using hardware-locked registration keys.

You can see the working sample here

Some hints if you create a restricted publication:

  1. Always lock some of your crucial HTML pages using security profiles:

    There is no 100%-safe registration system. Since any compiled program may be decompiled into assembly code, it is always possible to analyze and break a registration system (especially one whose evaluation mode is based on time), this is only a question of time and skills.
    This is why it is better to lock your pages using Security profiles. If a malicious user is able to clear the trial period data, he/she can then get a "unlimited evaluation period". But if you locked some HTML pages, the latter cannot get an access to them.
     
  2. Registered users of the Professional/Commercial edition: you can contact us in order to receive the source code for the key generator. We also offer server scripts (php, C#, Pascal...) that allow you to create registration keys online on a web server. Please click here for further information.