How can I make a setup version from my web application that will allow any user who have the required files to :
Provide initial information through a simple interface or editing a file that is required for the website to start (The admin user and password, the production database credentials, etc)
Copy the database schema (my application's ordinary tables + the membership tables)
...There's a point I'd like to learn more about but it's not that important at the moment but if you have a link or an idea, it would be great: how to protect my application from users who might buy it and share a copy of it on the internet or with friends!
Sorry for replying this late! I was kinda sick yesterday .. Thanks for your time and I'm commenting on your answers right now :)
AGAIN! .. for who ever voted down my question, please leave an explanation so people including the question owner would learn or put some light on a confusion .. just down-voting it and run is just about you satisfying your need to down vote a question you think might be worng! =)
Really depends on the definition of "any host" as there are lots of things one can do on a dedicated box that you can't on a shared box. In any case, if I had to do this today, I would look at creating a wevb deployment package. That will work on anything running 2008, which is most commercial outfits. It will also hand db deployment and config tweaking.
Regarding rights management, the best bet is some sort of system where the app has to ping your service to check licensing -- pretty much the only foolproof way. Of course, unless you got something real special, most people won't bother with anything so encumbered and will likely look elsewhere for a solution. If you are paying, you might as well go turnkey IMHO.