GarageBand TracktionMarketplaceStatus issue

Audio Plugins
1

There are issues with the TracktionMarketplace module and GarageBand.

 

A. TracktionMarketplaceStatus::getLocalMachineIDs() returns the same machine ID in every host I tested on my Mac... except in GarageBand. It is

File ("~").getFileIdentifier();

which returns a different integer in GarageBand. I guess the reason is GarageBands sandboxing ( http://www.juce.com/forum/topic/garageband-x-sandboxing ).

 

B. But it gets worse. Because of the sandboxing it also uses another location for the plugin settings (i.e. application properties). In my case

/Users/<user>/Library/Containers/com.apple.garageband10/Data/Library/Application Support/<my company>/<my plugin>/<my plugin>.settings

instead of

/Users/<user>/Library/Application Support/<my company>/<my plugin>/<my plugin>.settings

 

Combined this will results in:
1 User activates a plugin in another host than GarageBand.
2 User loads the plugin in GarageBand... and it's locked!
3 User is not so happy... drags his unlock file onto the plugin... doesn't work!
4 User is upset... might realise that the plugin has another machine ID..
5 User could waste another unlock slot in his user area on my website... but more likely:
6 I get an email from this upset user.

 

Suggestion:
The MAC address based machine id generation gives the same id in GarageBand as everywhere else. I'd suggest to remove the file based ID generation from TracktionMarketplaceStatus::getLocalMachineIDs() on Mac.
This would at least break the above described scenario after step 3.

Better ideas are of course very welcome.

2

I store plugin-settings in ~/Music/Audio Music Apps/MyPlugin which works fine 

 

3

This is kind of a hack. If someone knows a better way to deal with it please let me know!

 

SETTINGS FILE

not working:
If the settings file is set like

    PropertiesFile::Options options;
    options.osxLibrarySubFolder = "Application Support";
    options.folderName          = "Klangfreund/LUFSMeter";
    options.applicationName     = "LUFSMeter";
    options.filenameSuffix      = "settings";
    applicationProperties.setStorageParameters (options);

or

    ...
    options.folderName = "~/Library/Application Support/Klangfreund/LUFSMeter";
    ...

or

    ...
    options.folderName = File::getSpecialLocation (File::userHomeDirectory).getFullPathName() + String ("Library/Application Support/Klangfreund/LUFSMeter");"~/Library/Application Support/Klangfreund/LUFSMeter";
    ...

GarageBand puts it to

/Users/<user>/Library/Containers/com.apple.garageband10/Data/Library/Application Support/Klangfreund>/LUFSMeter/LUFSMeter.settings

 

working:
GarageBand does use the file in the users Library-folder if the absolute path is hardcoded like

options.folderName = "/Users/sam/Library/Application Support/Klangfreund/LUFSMeter"; // If I will sell my plugin only to people named Sam, this is it...

or

options.folderName = "/Users/" + SystemStats::getLogonName() + "/Library/Application Support/Klangfreund/LUFSMeter";

This looks like a hole in the sandboxing of GarageBand to me...

 

MACHINE ID

Same as above. Use an absolut specified file instead of "~" to generate the file based ID and it will be the same accross all hosts, including GarageBand. E.g.

StringArray CopyProtectionStatus::getLocalMachineIDs()
{
    StringArray nums;
    
    // First choice for an ID number is a filesystem ID for the user's home
    // folder or windows directory.
    
#if JUCE_WINDOWS
    uint64 num = File::getSpecialLocation (File::windowsSystemDirectory).getFileIdentifier();
#elif JUCE_MAC
    uint64 num = File ("/Users").getFileIdentifier();
#else
    uint64 num = File ("~").getFileIdentifier();
#endif

 

Jules, can you change the TracktionMarketplaceStatus::getLocalMachineIDs() as described to save others from this stupid GarageBand crap?

4

Thank you for your reply!

It's not the location per se, it's how it is set. See my comment below.

5

In terms of sandboxing for plugins i think its generally not useful to use  "Application Support"-path  anymore

http://www.juce.com/forum/topic/accessing-propertiesfile-plugin

6

Oh, I wasn't aware. Thank you for the link!

I thought using ~/Library/Application Support/ instead of ~/Library/Preferences/ was already state of the art. None of the many plugins I own uses a subfolder of ~/Music to store its settings. Guess they all need to catch up...

 

The machine id issue remains. One should use another file than "~" to generate it.