The basics of Software Activation
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Zentitle's Cloud-Based Licensing makes it easy for end-users to activate your software. Once the Application is activated, the Entitlements (what features an end-user can and can't use, under what circumstances, and for how long) are delivered from the Zentitle Cloud to your application, which can then be queried by your application to decide how it should behave. Offline Activation is also supported. Zentitle provides you with a portal for this that you can brand. Offline Activation is used when your end-users either have devices that aren't connected to the internet or your application on their device isn't permitted to talk to the internet—both scenarios where their application can't directly communicate with the Zentitle Cloud. Zentitle also offers a LAN Daemon (Local License Server) for licensing within Dark-Site Networks, for business, industrial, and secure locations.
When the end-user's application is activated, the Zentitle Cloud tells it how long its License Check Interval is. The License Check Interval (sometimes known as a Lease Period) is the time after which the end-user's application needs to check with the Zentitle Cloud to determine whether its entitlements are continuing 'as is' or have changed. This check, which happens at the end of the License Check Interval, is called a License Refresh. NOTE: The License Check Interval should not be confused with the Subscription Period (which is something specific only to Subscription-Based Licenses).
The License Check Interval (with the resulting License Refresh) is the driving force behind Dynamic Entitlements. This means that a customer's entitlements are not set in stone forever, in fact you have the ability to change them at any time and these changes are delivered automatically upon any License Refresh, without the customer needing to do anything at all. So, you can kill, add to, or change what parts of your software a customer can use. Automatic processes such as a Subscription License ending when a customer hasn't paid are taken care of. Dynamic Entitlements makes the automatic fulfilment to the customer of upgrades, downgrades, and up-selling and cross-selling possible. When the lifecycle of an end-user's application is under your control in this way, including via e-commerce, CRM, customer support, and via your own backend systems connected to Zentitle using its API, running your business as a Software Vendor becomes much easier.
The License Status, which is accessed through the Zentitle SDK, represents the current status of the License. The License Status is key information you can use within your Application to implement whatever licensing policy you wish. It is also one of the attributes you can query of the License locally. Our example applications will help you get started with this concept. A quick tip to remember here is that a License Status has a numerical value: Any positive value means the client has been given permission to remain licensed by the Zentitle Cloud, but negative values mean the permission to remain licensed has been denied (each value has a meaning; examples for negative values may include Subscription Expired, Too Many Seats In Use, or License Has Been Deactivated). It is important to implement a timer-based routine in your application to periodically check the License Status and have your application behave appropriately to any changes.
