SocketTools Library Redistribution

The SocketTools license permits the use of the libraries to build application software and redistribute that software to end-users. There are no restrictions on the number of products in which the libraries may be used. However, if SocketTools has been installed with an evaluation license, any products built using its libraries cannot be redistributed to another system until a licensed copy of the toolkit has been purchased.

System Requirements

SocketTools is designed for the Windows platform, and is supported on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. It is recommended that all platforms have the latest available version of Internet Explorer installed, along with all service packs and critical updates.

Windows 7

SocketTools is supported on the Windows 7 platform (32-bit and 64-bit) and requires that the operating system have all critical updates installed. It is recommended that developers review the guidelines for developing software on Windows 7 published by Microsoft, including information on the User Account Control (UAC) security system and its impact on applications.

Windows Vista

SocketTools is supported on the Windows Vista platform (32-bit and 64-bit) and requires that the operating system have all critical updates installed. It is recommended that developers install Service Pack 2 (SP2) and the latest version of Internet Explorer which includes security updates for the operating system and browser.

Windows Server 2008

SocketTools is supported on the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms (32-bit and 64-bit) and requires that the operating system have all critical updates installed. It is recommended that you install Service Pack 2 (SP2) and the latest version of Internet Explorer which includes security updates for the operating system and browser.

Windows Server 2003

SocketTools is supported on the Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 platforms, and it is recommended that that Service Pack 2 (SP2) be installed with all critical updates. It is also recommended that you install the latest version of Internet Explorer which includes security updates for the operating system and browser.

Windows XP

SocketTools is supported on the Windows XP platform and requires that Service Pack 3 (SP3) be installed with all critical updates. It is recommended that you install Service Pack 3 (SP3) and the latest version of Internet Explorer which includes security updates for the operating system and browser.

Earlier versions of the Windows operating system, including Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 are no longer supported by Microsoft. Using SocketTools on an unsupported platform may require that the user install additional system components such as the Microsoft Layer for Unicode and the latest available version of Internet Explorer.

Library Redistribution

For those applications created using one or more SocketTools libraries, the DLL file must be distributed along with the application. The library has no external dependencies, other than standard Windows libraries that are part of the base operating system. In particular, the library does not use the Microsoft Foundation Classes library, nor does it use the Visual C Runtime library. The libraries are standard Windows DLLs and do not require COM registration. If the SocketTools C++ classes are used, then MFC support is required and must be linked into the application. Note that this is not a requirement for applications written in C or those applications written in C++ which do not use the SocketTools classes.

Version Information

The SocketTools libraries have information embedded in them which provides version information to an installation utility. This information called the version resource, specifies the version number as well as other information about the library. If you are using a third-party or in-house installation program, it is extremely important that the program knows how to use this information.

For example, if you are deploying an application which uses the File Transfer Protocol library, the setup program must determine if that library has already been installed on the target system. If it has, it must compare the version resource information in the two libraries. It should only overwrite the library if the version that you have included with your application is later than the one installed on the system. An installation program which overwrites the library without checking the version number may cause the application to fail unexpectedly on the end user's system.

Installation Directory

It is recommended that you install the SocketTools libraries in the same folder with the application that uses them. It is not recommended that you install the libraries under the Windows system folder. If you do choose to install the libraries in the Windows system folder, you must ensure that the installer makes the appropriate registry entries to indicate that they are shared files. Failure to do so can result in the libraries being removed if the user uninstalls your application, which may cause other applications to fail.