Manual activation is used in circumstances where the licensed application is not able to directly connect to the internet e.g. the machine does not have direct internet access. In those circumstances the activation request from the application must be communicated indirectly to Software Potential activation service at http://manualactivation.softwarepotential.com. This involves copying the activation request to a machine that does have internet access, submitting the activation request on that machine, copying the resultant license file back to the target machine, and then installing the license to complete the activation process.
Manual Activation Process
The manual activation process involves several phases:
- The Software Vendor creates a license and distributes the corresponding Activation Key to the Customer.
- The Customer uses the activation key to create an activation request on the target machine.
- The Customer copies the activation request to a machine with internet access and submits the request to the Software Potential activation service.
- The Customer downloads the license file, copies it back to the target machine, and installs it to complete the activation process.
All license types apart from Resident Licenses have the option of being manually activated; nothing has to be done at the point of license creation to enable manual activation.
To enable this process you will need to implement an appropriate Manual Activation dialog in your licensed application; please see Manual Activation for more details, including relevant code snippets.
Phase 1: Software Vendor Initial Steps
The software vendor creates a license using the following general steps:
- Create a product definition.
- Issue a new license.
- Distribute the corresponding Activation Key e.g. include the Activation Key with the deployed product or make it available via email or web download.
Phase 2: Generate and Submit Activation Request
To manually activate the license the end user:
- Selects the Offline Activation option in the Activation Dialog provided in the licensed application User Interface (UI).
- Enters an Activation Key (which was provided by the software vendor in the earlier phase) and generates the activation request file.
If the manual activation process generates an Activation Request string rather than a text file the end user will need to copy and past the request to a text file e.g. using Notepad.
- Transfers the request file from the "activating" or target computer to a computer with email or web access.
- Uploads request file via the Manual Activation site to the Software Potential activation service.
- Downloads the license file (.bin extension) returned by the activation service on a successful activation.
Phase 3: Install License File
On receipt of the license file the end user:
- Transfers the license file to the target machine (i.e. on which the activation request was generated).
- Launches the Activation wizard, navigates to the location of the license file, and installs the license.
On completion of the above process the application is activated and ready for use.
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