When your software is first run, the Usage Intelligence SDK creates the following files on disk:

• ruiconfig*.cfg
• ruilog*.log

NOTE: The SDK may create multiple ruilog*.log files at any given time.

Every time your application is run, the SDK will attempt to search for these files which are used to store config data as well as tracking/usage logs. If the files are not found in the specified location, the SDK will recreate these files, generate the client fingerprint again and registers itself with the server.

The location of the folder where the files are created is set through the ruiCreateConfig() function in the Usage Intelligence SDK. You must make sure that your application has write permissions to the folder you specify. Ideally you set this path to the same location where your application stores data/config/settings.

Keep in mind that on some machine configurations (especially Microsoft Windows Vista or higher with UAC enabled), if the user does not have administrator privileges, your application will be denied access to the ‘Program Files’ directory. Therefore you want to avoid using the default path if your application runs from the Program Files directory.

If your application supports multiple user profiles and you want to track statistics from each user separately, then when calling the ruiCreateConfig() method you need to specify a unique folder for every user. This can either be a folder within the user's Windows profile or else a manual folder created inside your application data directory where the folder name would include a unique username/ID/hash identifying that user. Using independent folders for every user would allow Usage Intelligence to generate a unique fingerprint for every user and therefore track them as independent installations.

CAUTION: The configuration and log files are unique for every installation and should not be copied between installations and users, both on the same or different computers. Doing so will cause the client fingerprint verification to fail and the server will not track usage statistics for that client. You should always allow the Usage Intelligence API to create the config and log files for new installations.

CAUTION: The content of the log and config files should only be used by the Usage Intelligence SDK. Your application should not modify or otherwise rely on the content of these files. Flexera reserves the rights to change the structure and content of the files without notice.

Related Articles

• Dealing With UAC and File-Access Permissions for Non-Administrators Accounts
• How Does Usage Intelligence Identify Unique Users/Installations?