STANDARD
In standard licensing model each license requires valid Client, Program and Order data in activation center. This means that you need to set Program, Client and Order data in order to be able to generate valid licenses for end users (clients). This licensing method allows centralized tracking of all information about your protected programs, clients and their orders and licenses. Licenses are managed in Activation center manually by end users (clients) or/and by administrator users. Clients can manage only their licenses where administrator users can manage licenses for any client. Clients, Orders and Licenses can also be managed programmatically by using ACEN web service methods.

 

acen standard licensing diagram

In above example standard licensing diagram we have two programs (Program 1, 2), two clients (Client 1, 2) and three orders (Order 1, 2, 3) defined in activation center. Client 1 has two orders (Order 1 for Program 1 and Order 2 for Program 2) and Client 2 has single Order (Order 3 for Program 2). Two licenses are granted for Order 1 and single license is granted for Order 2 and Order 3.

WEB
In web licensing model each license is identified by Program and Serial Number pair only. No Client or Order entry is required. Add Program to activation center, protect application, generate serial numbers and distribute serial numbers to end users so they can automatically activate software over Internet just by entering valid serial number. In out of the box implementation of web licensing model web licenses are managed automatically over Internet by our protection code. Web licenses can also be managed programmatically from your own code (self handling) by using appropriate ACEN web service methods. Administrator users can also manually manage web licenses in Activation center.

 

acen web licensing diagram

Above web licensing example diagram shows two different programs (Program 1, 2) in ACEN. Two licenses are granted per serial number for Program 1 and single license is granted per each serial number for Program 2 in above example. Serial numbers are generated in PC Guard and distributed to end users after purchase. No client nor order entries are required in web licensing model. End users are identified with serial number.

Supported protection scenarios

REMOTE (standard only)
REMOTE + SERIAL NUMBERS
REMOTE + LIMITED LICENSE (standard only)
REMOTE + SERIAL NUMBERS + LIMITED LICENSE

Serial numbers

Number of granted web licenses per serial number is defined in ACEN Program settings (valid values: 1-100, default value: 1). By default, single license is granted per single serial number. Multiple licenses can be granted per single serial number.

Custom features

By default, custom features stored inside serial number will be used for generation of activation code. If no feature is set in serial number, default program features will be used.

Demo mode

Demo mode can be combined with all protection scenarios. Application will initially work in demo mode and will not require activation until demo period is over.

Custom counters

Default ACEN Program custom counters will be used for generation of new activation codes.

License removal

License removal feature is available only in case limited license feature is disabled. If license removal is enabled, web license can be removed by end user by selecting "Remove license" radio button on activation dialog and by clicking on "Continue >>" button. License will be removed from both local machine and from activation center. If computer is offline at the time of license removal only local license will be removed. License in ACEN will stay active in this case. Next time it is run, protected application will automatically try to activate (reactivate) license on that computer.

RemoveLicense advanced protection interface function will remove local license only. ACEN web license will not be removed. This function will remove local license even if license removal feature was not enabled for protected application.

Limited license

Limited license should be enabled in both Activation center program settings and limited license remote protection settings in PC Guard with same initial limited license settings.

Both default and fixed date limitations should be enabled in remote protection settings. In case limited license is enabled, ACEN will always generate extended activation code  with appropriate default and fixed date limitations set. Start date for fixed date limitation is always set to current date minus one day and end date is set to calculated expiration date.

Expiration date for each web license will be based on default limited license validity period, fixed date limitation and (if enabled) day of the month limited license settings in ACEN. 

When reactivating or transferring (standard model only) web license, expiration date, custom features and custom counters from original web license will be used for new web license instead of default program settings. Expiration date, custom features and custom counters of original web license can also be changed in Activation center by administrator user at any time. Next time web license is reactivated, transferred or validated by license validation task, updated data will be used for new web license.