Licensing Infrastructure

The infrastructure that supports our licensing mechanisms.

Proposal

Licensing library design after refactoring

Components

  • LicenseManager (dll)

    • Resolve licensing aspects for the generic controller

    • Handling the active license

    • Downloading new licenses

    • Validating licenses and execution requests

    • Check internet settings

  • LicenseModel (dll)

    • Representing the license data in a standard way.

    • Serializing and deserializing the data

    • Encryption

  • License WebService:

    • Provide license files on request

    • Add new licenses to DB

    • Query licenses DB

  • Licensing WebApp:

    • Provide UX for licensing manager users

    • Show status of licenses

    • Create new licenses

Sequence Diagrams

Database Migration

There are currently 3 software components where licenses are created, each of them with its corresponding database:

  • Studio: for Snow

  • VBUC CLI License Generator: for VBUC manually generated licenses.

  • VBUC in Sales Web Flow for automatic VBUC sales.

License Model

After considering Snow, VBUC and other experiences with licenses, this is the purposed LicenseModel:

public class LicenseModel
{
	private Dictionary<string,object> licenseData;
	private string LicenseFile;

	public const int unlimitedUnits = -1;
	public readonly DateTime unlimitedDate = DateTime.MinValue;
	
	// Create and Save
	public LicenseModel(string filename);
	// Will save be available here or in a different dll?
	
	// Basic Data
	public string GUID; //license key
	public DateTime DateIssued;
	public DateTime LastExecutionDate;
	public string Product;
	public string ProductFriendlyName;
	public string OwnerCompany;
	public string OwnerName;
	public string OwnerEmail;
	public string CreatedBy;
	public string OwnerIpAddress;
	public string CreatedAtComputer;
	public List<string> Products;
  public List<string> ProductFriendlyNames;
  public string LicensingAssemblyVersion;
  
	// Restrictions
	
	public string LicenseType
	public string UnitsType;
	public int AccumulatedUnits;
	public int UnitsPerExecution;
	public DateTime StartDate;
	public DateTime EndDate;
	public int TimesDownloaded;
	public int AvailableActivations;
	public Fingerprint Fingerprint;
	public ExecutionMode ExecutionMode; // (Scanning | Migration)
	


	// How to store status?: ConsumedAccumulatedUnits & LastUsedDate
	
	// Other
	public int NotifyDays;
	public IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string,string>> FriendlyRestrictions;
	public List<string> AllowedCustomFeatures; // CSharp, ASP, ...
}

Pending Questions:

  • LicenseFile: why is this text field stored in the VBUC DB?

  • DateIssued: should it be the original date when the license was inserted into the DB? (makes more sense) or the date when the current license file was serialized?

  • Unmutable License Files: Where to handle ConsumedAccummulatedLines & LastUsedDate?

  • LicenseType & ExecutionMode: define a generic mechanism to solve all possible scenarios.

  • Serialization of new files: available in the LicenseModel, or only in a separate private dll?

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