Here's the first version. It supports both Giveaway of the Day and the Game Giveaway of the Day. It'll also let you know if you missed some part of activation (such as a registry popup box). It's not fully automatic as there is no way to do that with so many different types of setup programs used and packaged in the GAotD wrapper package. Well, if you want to use it, it's available at:
What this program does:
1. Check offerings.
2. Download offerings.
3. Un-zips the file.
4. Run installer(s) (this includes activation stuff).
5. Deletes files downloaded.
As soon as you launch the program, it will connect to get ticker information. If the ticker does not show up, then something is wrong with your connection (it may take up to 5-10 seconds for it to show up).
In response to Bob from:
The problem with an autodownloader is that say you are away for....10 days but you left your computer on. When you get back, you'll have around 20 or so programs open. It may or may not work as some installers would say that another installer is running (depending on installer). In addition, GAotD files in an archive differ in each day's offering. Even if I were to put them in individual folders and run them, again you'd have to be present to allow it to pass through your firewall (depends on firewall - in the case of ZoneAlarm they'll say that a program has changed and would be asking for permission again and again for each activate.exe or whatever the wrapper is). The end result would be, the files are downloaded, but the activation process would not complete.
As to releasing the source code, perhaps at a later time.
To download the offerings, there is a built in function for downloading files. Or if you mean how to get to the link, then the best way is to parse the ticker. Look for something that appears constant so that you can use it to reliably strip away the unecessary elements leaving only the parts of code that are needed. For now, I just need to see if this will work for tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, etc. Time will tell if I did this right and correctly picked a method on parsing.
Well, the other thing from watching my family use this, I've noticed some things that make things harder on the users - my dad while installing "Notables" did not understand that he had to use the name "Giveawayoftheday" for the registration info. He understood the key portion but the top he didn't. Perhaps the way it is posted is a bit unclear.
Example of current:
Install the software and then register it using
and registration key
Revised for clarity:
Install the software and then register it using the following:
Registration Name: Giveawayoftheday
Registration Key: xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx
Lastly, GAotD should consider (it's much more work, but I'm sure it will help users) creating a phototutorial walkthrough of the install process as at times things can get VERY hectic and the user can get lost. My dad for example did not understand that to turn "Notables" off you have to quit it via the system tray. He just kept hitting the "x" which minimized it to the system tray. So until the program was restarted, it looked and functioned as a trial as the registration data was not loaded into the program yet.