Upgrades Page

The Upgrades page allows you to create the license upgrades that you want to offer to the user.

To add a license upgrade, use the Insert New Upgrade button. You can then edit the newly added upgrade to enter the upgrade information and define the licensing properties. For a software application, you can create as many license upgrades as you want by defining different licensing properties. For instance, you may create upgrades for different subscription periods, or different features/modules. To apply a license upgrade to a user account, use the Control page.

The fields in the Upgrades table can be grouped into the following categories.

Upgrade Information

The following fields allow you to enter basic information about the upgrade.

UpgradeName

Specify the upgrade name.

ProgramID

Specify the Program ID of the application.

UpgradeTitle

Specify the full upgrade title.

License Upgrade

The following fields are used for the product license upgrade, for example, adding features or modules, and renewing license subscription.

Master License

A pair of Master ID and Master License is the encoded Key Properties, which is used as the master license for the upgrade. During license upgrade, the Activation Server will merge the upgrade Master License with the account’s current license (e.g. the product Master License), and create the MasterLicenseCust for the user account. Until the application connects to the server to reactivate or update license, then the Activation Server will use the MasterLicenseCust to generate and send the new License Key to replace the Key Properties on the user machine.

To Generate Master ID and Master License

1. Run LicenseKey Manager.

2. From the Tools menu, select Generate Master ID.

3. In the Generate Master ID dialog box, from the Program ID drop-down list, select the Program ID of your application. Then, select the appropriate checkboxes of the flags, and click the Generate button. A Master ID is generated.

4. Copy the Master ID. Then, go to the Main tab of the Key Properties pane. Paste the Master ID in the Registration ID field, and click the Check button.

5. The Identification field shows the Key ID, Program ID, and flag decoded from the Master ID.

6. From the Implementation drop-down list, select the appropriate implementation and specify the limits as you want.

NOTE: It is recommended to use the provided Upgrade implementations that are presetted for license upgrade, including Upgrade-Extension, Upgrade-NoLimit, Upgrade-Expiration, and Upgrade-Period/Exec. For more details, see the topic LicenseKey Manager / Key Properties Pane / Main Tab.

Alternatively, you can use the Custom implementation. In the Key Properties pane/Main tab, you can enable the Add to existing Limit checkbox to add Key Properties; otherwise it will overwrite the existing Key Properties. Similarly, in the Network tab, you can enable the Add to existing Max-User checkbox. In the Modules tab, you can enable the Add to existing modules checkbox. In the Advanced tab, you can enable the Add to existing Key Data checkbox.

7. From the Note pane, you can enter notes about the Master ID and Master License in the Messages field.

8. From the Main tab of the Key Properties pane, click the Generate button. The Master License is shown in the License Key field.

Activation Upgrade

The following field is used for the account activation upgrade.

AddedActivation

Specify the number of activations to be added to the MaxActivation field in the Accounts table. The table below lists the values and their meanings.

Value	Meaning
0	Not applicable
1 - n	Number of activations
-1	Unlimited

Subscription Renewal

The following field is used for the account subscription renewal.

SubscriptionPeriod

Specify the subscription period in days, which is used to calculate the SubscriptionExpDate field in the Accounts table. The table below lists the values and their meanings.

Value	Meaning
0	Not applicable
1 - n	Subscription period in days
-1	Unlimited

NOTE: In the Control page, the [Select an upgrade] drop-down list automatically filters and shows the available upgrades from the Upgrades table that have the Program ID to match the current product of the account. Besides, if you want to create an upgrade for activation or subscription renewal that is available for any product, set the Program ID field to -1.

Product Upgrade Delivery

The following fields allow you to specify the settings for delivering the product upgrade to the user.

EmailTemplateFolder

Specify the folder that contains the email template files (EmailBody.txt and EmailSubject.txt). If not specified, the Activation Server will use the default email template files in its main folder.

UpgradeURL

Specify the download URL of the upgrade, to be shown under the <UpgradeURL> tag in the email template. Besides, the field can also be used for other purposes to show the specified value in the license delivery email.

Ecommerce Interface

The following ecommerce product ID fields are used for interfacing with ecommerce providers. In the provided Activation Server, EcommerceProdID1 and EcommerceProdID2 are assigned to interface with Share-it! and PayPal, respectively. EcommerceProdID3 and EcommerceProdID4 are not assigned, and you can use them to interface with other ecommerce providers.

EcommerceProdID1

Specify a product ID that matches the one used in your Share-it! order processing system (implemented in the file ShareIt_KeyGen.aspx).

EcommerceProdID2

Specify a product ID that matches the one used in your PayPal payment gateway system (implemented in the file PayPal_KeyGen.aspx).

See Also