Blogs

Web Site, Distribution, and Procedural Changes

TatukGIS has recently redesigned its web site experience. There are visual changes. Some content has been reorganized and, in some places, rewritten. There are significant procedural changes to simplify how products are distributed.

Enterprise Licensing

Enterprise licensing has been simplified. Previously the price for each Enterprise license quantity reflected the Developer Kernel standard license price, the additional Enterprise cost, and a large volume discount. Now there is a single "Enterprise upgrade" purchase item that converts all DK licenses in a customer organization, regardless of license quantity and when purchased, to Enterprise status. The cost and benefits of Enterprise licensing remain unchanged. We hope the simplified presentation is more intuitive and improves the purchase process.

Subscription Licensing

In addition to perpetual licensing, we now license the DK product as a subscription for significantly less than the perpetual license price. Subscription of a DK standard license costs $200/month, structured as a 12-month advance payment. A subscription can later be converted to a perpetual license by paying the difference between the perpetual license price and the subscription price.

The primary disadvantage of the subscription option is the DK product cannot be used for any purpose after expiration of the subscription period, though applications compiled during the subscription period will continue to work. Even debugging will be blocked and the DK software must be removed from the computer. Other considerations include no subscription volume discount, and any subsequent one-year subscription costs the same as an initial subscription. Also, a subscription of the DK for Delphi edition is without the product source code.

Distribution Changes

Starting from the version 100 release (on Apr. 9, 2025), product distribution procedures are greatly simplified.

  • Accessing a trial, retail, or educational version of a TatukGIS product is now done with the same download package. The scope of the license determines the product serial number provided. This means a downloaded and installed trial version can be transformed into a fully functional product (retail version), without reinstallation, just by changing to a new serial number.
  • Activation is no longer a separate program and starts the first time you start a DK application in debug mode. (Not applicable to ASP.NET.)
  • If activation is not performed, the application can be run for a few minutes to allow a quick familiarization with DK product, such as for developers running the DK for .NET edition from GitHub/NuGet.
  • All samples (except for ASP.NET) use the GisSampleDataDirDownload() method, which retrieves sample data from the network the first time it is used.
  • In recognition of an increasing number of programmers in larger corporations requiring limited ability to install programs in Admin mode, all programs now do not require installation administrative privileges to install. Furthermore, installation of the complete DK version is done only in one directory (typically in %LOCALAPPDATA%\TatukGIS\)

Changes specific to each DK edition are described below.

DK for Delphi
  • DK distributions for individual versions of RAD Studio no longer contain source code. Only compiled binaries are included.
  • A new separate source code setup includes a new Source Code Manager that compiles and installs components in the selected RAD Studio version. The program also downloads new versions of DK for Delphi from the web and allows a developer to switch between downloaded versions. This also works for C++ Builder!
  • Samples are available on GitHub (https://github.com/TatukGIScom/DK.Delphi-Samples
DK for .NET

NuGet packages have been renamed:

  • The version for Windows utilizing .NET Framework and .NET 6+ is now available as a single package: TatukGIS.NET.Windows (also .dll within the package is renamed to TatukGIS_Net_Win.dll )
  • The Standard package is now available as TatukGIS.NET.Standard
  • STABLE packages are now available publicly on Nuget.org
  • Old TRIAL packages are being deprecated from public NuGet
  • UNSTABLE packages are available on a private NuGet server for 8 weeks (for supported customers only)
  • DAILY packages are available on a private NuGet server for 2 weeks (for supported customers only)

Samples are available on GitHub (https://github.com/TatukGIScom/DK.NET-Samples) and can be run directly from Visual Studio (without installing the DK for NET!)

DK for ASP.NET

NuGet packages for ASP.NET Core:

  • STABLE packages are now available on public NuGet.org
  • Old TRIAL packages are being deprecated from public NuGet
  • UNSTABLE packages are available on a private NuGet server for 8 weeks (for supported customers only)
  • DAILY packages are available on a private NuGet server for 2 weeks (for supported customers only)

Samples will be available on GitHub later.

DK for Java

Upcoming changes

  • We want to simplify the management of deployments. For .NET, we are not quite able to use the NuGet mechanism because some deployments require downloading specific libraries and accepting the license of a 3rd party developer (e.g., ECW, MrSiD, and others). Eventually, deployments will probably be available as a separate setup.
  • Distribution versions will be further simplified. Since Sample Data is now automatically downloaded, we are considering removing it from the version setups.
Posted: April 15, 2025