Evaluation mark and license keys

Applies to: BarcoderX Basic and Ultimate

Status: Planned. Nothing is released yet and there is nothing to download. This page describes how licensing is designed to behave. Time values such as the length of an evaluation and of a grace period are set before the first release, so this page does not state them.

Using BarcoderX without a key

BarcoderX is fully usable without a license key. The only difference is the evaluation mark.

• The mark is a black band along the top edge of every label, with white text that repeats along it. The text reads BARCODERX EVALUATION in English and BARCODERX EVALUACIÓN in Spanish, in the language of the job.
• The band is sized from the label's height, so it is the same on every printer and every platform. It sits above every other element.
• Every label of a job carries it, including each label on a roll or sheet with several labels across.
• It appears in every output: images, PDF, SVG, HTML and EPS, and in the printer commands. For printers, it is sent as a graphic and is the last thing drawn on the label. Because it is not a printer command, a new printer language needs nothing extra to show it.
• The label editor does not mark its previews of single elements. When its add-on is not licensed, it shows its own banner and a watermark instead.

Evaluation keys

A time-limited evaluation key removes the mark until it expires, and tells you how many days remain. After it expires, output is marked again, with no grace period. You can register a new evaluation key at any time.

License states

Grace is a short period during which a license that has lapsed still gives unmarked output. A key that is forged, malformed or compromised gets no grace.

A perpetual license is valid for any release dated on or before the end of its updates window. A release that is dated after your updates window ends is marked from its first run, so you see it in development and test and never find out in production.

If you use a feature that your license does not cover, for example a symbology that your edition does not include, the job still completes. Its labels are marked, and a message names what is missing.

Never stops printing

No license problem ever throws an error from, blocks, delays or fails a render, an export, a command generation or a print. Whatever goes wrong inside licensing, such as a missing key, a damaged key, a missing or locked license file, a clock set wrongly or an unreachable activation service, the result is marked output at worst. The printer still receives a complete, valid label. This is tested for every fault in a list that includes all of those.

Licensing does no input or output while a job runs, so a license check cannot make a job wait.

Registering a key

You can register a license key in four ways. BarcoderX uses the first way that provides a key:

1. A call in your code, at start-up.
2. Your application's configuration, including the dependency injection options.
3. Environment variables.
4. A file named barcoderx.lic next to your application.

One source can hold several keys, for example an SDK key and an editor add-on key. BarcoderX combines them. A bad key never causes an error. It is recorded as a diagnostic and the affected product runs unlicensed. Your key is a secret, so BarcoderX never writes it to a log. Logs carry only the license ID.

A host, such as the web API, checks the license at start-up and never refuses to start because of it. It shows the state, without the key, at GET /api/v1/meta/licence.

Verified on your machine

• A license key is a signed document. BarcoderX verifies the signature on your own machine, with the cryptography that comes with .NET. It needs no network.
• Signature verification happens once for each license in a process, so it does not slow down your labels.
• BarcoderX tolerates a clock that is a day or two out. If it detects that the clock was set back, it reports it and prints anyway.
• A signed list of revoked licenses ships with each release and can be refreshed online. A revoked license takes effect from a date that is set in the list.

Activation

As decided, a license is activated online when you register it, and BarcoderX checks in from time to time. How often, and what happens when a license is used on too many machines, are not decided yet. The terms of the license will state this openly.

• An activation or check-in sends only the license ID, a hashed fingerprint of the machine, and the version of BarcoderX. It sends no machine name, user name, application name or usage data. The fingerprint mixes in the license ID, so it cannot be matched across licenses.
• It never blocks output. If the network is closed or the check fails, printing and rendering go on exactly as before. The worst case is still marked output.
• Sites without internet can activate by exchanging two files: you create a request file and send it to BarcoderX, and you install the response file that comes back.
• A developer license covers one named developer on up to three machines. Moving an activation to another machine is done from the developer's account. This guide describes it when the account page is available.
• Build servers are covered by your team's developer licenses. Running your finished application in production needs a deployment license, and an OEM license covers redistribution.
• A bx-licence tool ships with the SDK. It shows the license state, verifies a file, and handles activation and revocation refresh, in English or Spanish. It never prints the key.

The data that licensing sends and stores will be documented in the product documentation and in a privacy notice.

BarcoderX is a product of P4 Software.