Metered Licensing is a new runtime licensing option for ImageGear .NET (starting with ImageGear .NET v24.13). Instead of purchasing a traditional runtime license for a single machine, you can purchase a number of transactions that represent a fixed number of actions (API calls to metered features).

When you purchase metered licensing, you will receive a license key string that you will need to embed in your application. This license key will be validated via the internet automatically when your application is initialized.

This licensing model allows you to scale your application distribution and only pay for what you’re actually using. When using a metered license, multiple separate machines can use the same license key, and they will all share a common pool of available transactions.

For uninterrupted service, you must ensure that your account balance retains enough transactions at all times.

This topic provides the following information:

Requirements

Using a metered license requires the following on the target system:

• An always-on internet connection.
• Ability to reach the licensing server over HTTPS port 443.
• The Starfield Services Root Certificate installed. See the certificate and installation instructions.

Overview

When you purchase a metered license, your Accusoft customer account will have an associated number of transactions available. This transaction balance is reduced automatically when your application successfully calls certain ImageGear APIs. See Metered Features.

When using a metered license, your application must maintain an always-on internet connection. This connection is required any time your application makes metered ImageGear API calls.

• When your application is first initialized, the license will be validated with the Accusoft cloud licensing service via the internet.
  • If this validation fails or if the account has no remaining transactions, then an ImGearException will be thrown, and all metered features will be disabled.
• After initialization, your application will periodically check for updated license information from the server.
  • If this check fails, your application will try again later. If this check fails several times consecutively, then an ImGearException will be thrown the next time a metered feature is called, and all metered features will be disabled.
• Any time your application uses a metered feature, such as loading an image from a file, that usage will be logged and periodically synchronized with the license server.
  • If the account runs out of available transactions, an ImGearException will be thrown the next time a metered feature is called, and all metered features will be disabled.

Acquiring a Metered License

Contact sales to purchase a metered license. Once the purchase is complete, you’ll be able to sign into the Accusoft Customer Portal to access your Solution Name, Solution Key, and License Key. Also contact sales to purchase additional transactions for your application, when required.

Licensing API

Using a metered license with your application works just like using an OEM runtime license.

Use the information available in your Accusoft Customer Portal to provide values for the ImGearLicense.SetSolutionName, ImGearLicense.SetSolutionKey, and ImGearLicense.SetLicenseKey method calls, then recompile your application.

Solution Name

The solution name is assigned by Accusoft to your company or organization when you purchase the license. Set it with the ImGearLicense.SetSolutionName method.

Solution Key

The solution key is a set of four numbers assigned by Accusoft when you purchase the license. Set it with the ImGearLicense.SetSolutionKey method.

License Key

The license key is a unique identifier of the customer, product, version, edition, and platforms enabled. Set it with the ImGearLicense.SetLicenseKey method.

Example

To license the product for distribution, you must call the above methods using the license information that was provided with your purchase. These calls can execute at any time prior to invoking ImageGear .NET features, but ideally they should execute during initialization.

ImGearLicense.SetSolutionName("YourSolutionName");
ImGearLicense.SetSolutionKey(12345, 12345, 12345, 12345);
ImGearLicense.SetLicenseKey("2.0.ALicenseKeyStringContactAccusoftSalesForMoreInformation...");

Metered Features

When using a metered license, certain features are metered, i.e., using those features will consume transactions. These metered features are detailed below:

Load Operations

When loading an ImGearPage or ImGearDocument, a transaction will be consumed for each page loaded. This occurs any time the following methods are called:

• ImGearFileFormats.LoadPage
  • When you call ImGearFileFormats.LoadPage, only a single page is loaded, so only one transaction is consumed.
• ImGearFileFormats.LoadDocument
  • When you call ImGearFileFormats.LoadDocument, the number of transactions consumed is equal to the number of pages loaded.
    For example, if all the pages of a ten-page document are loaded via a call to ImGearFileFormats.LoadDocument, then ten transactions will be consumed. If only three pages of the ten-page document are loaded by specifying the optional startPageNumber and count parameters, then three transactions will be consumed.
• ImGearPageFromBitmapSource
  • This is a single-page load operation, so one transaction will be consumed.

Save Operations

When saving or exporting an ImGearPage or ImGearDocument, a transaction will be consumed for each page saved. This occurs any time the following methods are called:

• ImGearFileFormats.SavePage
  • When you call ImGearFileFormats.SavePage, only a single page is saved, so only one transaction is consumed.
• ImGearFileFormats.SaveDocument
• ImGearPDFDocument.SaveCompressed
  • When you call ImGearFileFormats.SaveDocument or ImGearPDFDocument.SaveCompressed, all the pages in the document are saved, so the number of transactions consumed is equal to the number of pages saved.
    For example, if all the pages of a ten-page document are saved via a call to ImGearFileFormats.SaveDocument, then ten transactions will be consumed.
• ImGearPDFDocument.Save
  • Some methods allow a range of pages to be specified, such as ImGearPDFDocument.Save. For these methods, the number of transactions consumed is equal to the number of pages saved.
    For example, if only three pages of a ten-page PDF document are saved via a call to ImGearPDFDocument.Save, then three transactions will be consumed.
• ImGearRasterProcessing.Export
• ImGearFileFormats.ExportPageToBitmap
  • When you call ImGearFileFormats.ExportPageToBitmap or ImGearRasterProcessing.Export, only a single page is exported, so only one transaction is consumed.
• ImGearRecOutputManager.WriteDocument
  • This is a per-page save operation, so one transaction will be consumed for every page in the ImGearRecDocument.
• BitmapSourceFromImGearPage
  • This is a single-page save operation, so one transaction will be consumed.

OCR Operations

When performing optical character recognition on an ImGearRecPage, one transaction will be consumed. This occurs any time the following method is called:

• ImGearRecPage.Recognize