Licensing Instructions

Standard (Royalty-Free) Licensing

These .NET and ASP.NET components use Microsoft's .NET Licensing scheme.

In Microsoft's .NET Licensing scheme, Visual Studio automatically creates a file named "licenses.licx" whenever you drop a licensed component on the form. The "licenses.licx" file is automatically added to your project as an embedded resource. When you build the project, this licenses.licx file will be used to embed license information into the compiled assembly (in ASP.NET 2.0, the license information will be embedded into a separate App_Licenses.dll by default).

If you are not using a form or you are creating the components dynamically, the easiest way to generate the licx file is to use a separate project, drop a component on a form, and copy the licenses.licx file over to your formless project.

Important Notes:

• The licx file must be named "licenses.licx" and be included in the project as an embedded resource.
• If you are developing a class library, the referencing project must also include the .licx file as an embedded resource and be compiled on a machine with a valid license installed.
• Activation checks are made on the developer machine only, not at runtime.

.NET Standard/.NET Core

If a license for the .NET Standard library has not already been activated on the machine this must be done first.

License Activation

The install-license application is a .NET Core console application included in the toolkit.

If the library was installed from a NuGet package this is present in the tools folder in the package installation directory. Typically the package can be found here on Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.nuget\packages\nsoftware.ipworksedi

If the library was installed as part of the .NET Edition this is present in the lib/netstandard2.0 folders in the installation.

To use the install-license application run the command:

dotnet ./install-license.dll <key>

Where key is your product key. This will install a license to this particular system. Read on for deployment instructions.

Deployment

The RuntimeLicense property must be set before deploying your application. To obtain this value on a properly licensed development machine, output the current value of the property. For instance:

Console.WriteLine(component.RuntimeLicense);

This will output a long string. Save this value and use it in your real application like so:

component.RuntimeLicense = "value_from_above";

Note: The same RuntimeLicense property value works for all components included in the toolkit.

Trial Licensing - .NET Standard/.NET Core

To activate a trial license use the install-license application. The install-license application is a .NET Core console application included in the toolkit.

If the library was installed from a NuGet package this is present in the tools folder in the package installation directory. Typically the package can be found here on Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.nuget\packages\nsoftware.ipworksedi

If the library was installed as part of the .NET Edition installer this is present in the lib/netstandard2.0 folders in the installation.

To use the install-license application run the command:

dotnet ./install-license.dll

Xamarin Notes: When using a trial license in Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android no special steps are required; simply create and use the component.

UWP Notes: Fall Creator's Update and later requires the trial license to be included as an embedded resource. From the solution explorer in Visual Studio add an existing item to the project and add %USERPROFILE%\.nsoftware\BENFA.lic. Set the Build Action property for the file to Embedded Resource.

Single Server Licensing for ASP.NET - Instructions for Installing a Single Server License on a Shared Host

If you have purchased a single server license for the .NET Edition, the first time you deploy your application to your server and run it, you will get an error stating that a valid license could not be found on the system. The error message will provide you with a link to our product activation page where you can download a keys.reg file. This keys.reg file contains your license and can be used in one of two ways:

• You can run the keys.reg file on the server machine, thus installing the license into the registry of the system.
• Or, you can rename the keys.reg file to "nsoftware.IPWorksEDI.lic" and copy it to the /bin directory of your Web Application.

Troubleshooting

If you have purchased a license, but are still getting a license exception, check the following:

• Is there a problem with the licenses.licx file? Does it exist, is it included in the project, and does it contain the correct information (correct components, correct versions)?
• If you are building an ASP.NET 2.0 application, right click the licenses.licx file and select "Build Runtime Licenses". Then, rebuild the project.
• If this problem started after you installed a new build of the components, check to make sure that your licenses.licx file contains the correct version information. If the licenses.licx file contains no version information, that is fine too.
• If you are building a class library, the same licensing rules apply to the referencing application. Does the referencing application include the .licx file as an embedded resource and is it compiled on a licensed machine?

License Transfer

If you would like to transfer your license to another system, please complete our license transfer form. This will ensure your installations are not mistaken for license violations.

For additional information about our product activation process, please refer to our product activation FAQ.