This section reviews potential issues you may experience during the licensing process.
Some general notes about licensing you should be aware of:
- This was designed as an Internet-based licensing process. It is best if your end users have an Internet connection to get a License Key. The only exceptions are if you are a User License Licensee, or if you are distributing licenses manually on a very limited basis.
- Once an application is licensed, no further Internet connection or interaction is required until you re-install the system or restore a previously backed-up system onto new hardware.
- End Users are blocked from using the same Access Key to install the same application on different hardware. This is to prevent piracy.
- A lightweight Licensing Component will grant a grace period to your end user whenever there is a licensing issue for any reason. You can modify the end user instructions to solve the problem.
End User has no Internet connection
User License level licensing or manual licensing is required if applications are going to be deployed to end users who will never have an Internet connection. Please be advised that manual licensing requires interaction on your part when installing the application on the end-user system.
Internet connection is temporarily broken during installation
In this case, the auto-licensing method will return an error, and the grace period will be activated. The grace period will allow your application to function normally during a limited period of time, and you will need to repeat the licensing process (either manual, or automatic after connection is restored).
Transferring ImageGear license into new hardware system
An error can occur during installation of your application into a new machine or as the result of restoring a backup into different system hardware.
When you need to transfer an ImageGear license onto new system hardware, you have to use the same Access Key that was used to license ImageGear on the old system.
If you are not distributing access keys to the end users you will need to provide a mechanism for transferring an access key into a new machine using the Licensing Component LicenseInfo API as described below.
The Deployment Licensing Service will issue a new license key if a certain number of days (default = 45) have already lapsed since the previous license key has been generated for the same access key with different hardware parameters. Otherwise end users would need to contact you, and you would need to call Accusoft Corporation to authorize a license transfer.
Reinstallation of ImageGear-based application into the same hardware system
In this case, the license will be either found in the registry, or obtained from Deployment Licensing Service, regardless of when it was last requested.
The End user's Windows registry changed (licensing info lost)
In general, if the registry is corrupted it might make sense to reinstall the application or even the entire system. But if the licensing info is the only data deleted from the registry, the licensing process that is executed as a part of the installation/registration can be repeated to retrieve a License Key from the Deployment Licensing Service.
