General Information

ALPHA-VISION^® Licencing: General Information

General Information

SUMMARY

This document describes the Licence and Copy Protection philosophy of the ALPHA-VISION^® Products.

Licence File VISION.LIC
Licence Validation
How Licence Validation Works

Licence File VISION.LIC

The licence file VISION.LIC contains information about the licenced ALPHA-VISION components and possible restrictions.
VISION.LIC must be in the same directory as the ALPHA-VISION executable files.
After you buy a licence or request an extended trial licence (see expiration date and max. running time below) you receive a VISION.LIC as a zip-file. It is important to copy the file to the target machine only in zipped form because the file date is important for decrypting the licence file.
A normal copy operation may change the file date and render the file useless. If no licence file is found ALPHA-VISION is considered a trial version and the programs will exit after 30 minutes.

General Licence Information

License ID
Each licence has this number as a unique identifier. This number is used to validate the licence.
Licensee
This is the end user of the licenced products.
Licenser
This is usually alpha-bit GmbH or an OEM customer.

Information per Product

Product Name
This is the name of the licenced product or component.
You can check the product each ALPHA-VISION^® executable file belongs to by looking at the <product name> entry in the version information. To do so, right klick the file in the Windows explorer, select 'Properties' and then the 'Version' tab.
Version Name
This is some arbitrary additional information which is displayed in splash windows.
Licence Count
This is the number of instances of the licenced component that may run simultaneously on a LAN-subnet.
Object Count
This is the maximum number of data objects like measuring points and process variables that are available in ALPHA-VISION^® VISUalization components when you have bought a discount licence.
Expiration Date
After this fixed date the licence is considered a trial licence.
This may be useful for extended evaluation of alpha-vision components.
Normally a licence has no expiration date.
Max. Running Time
This is an extension of the 30 minutes of a normal evaluation version.
This may be useful for extended evaluation of alpha-vision components when 30 minutes are not sufficient to test an application. Normally a licence has no max running time.

Encryption options

The licence file also specifies whether the various files used at Runtime are encrypted and which keys are used. The affected files are '*.dis, *.do, *.ca' -files and the archive files ('*.zip') created by 'AvZipArchives'.
If the ALPHA-VISION^® copy is used to create these files has a licence file with encryption enabled be sure to use the same licence file when reading (and decrypting) the files.
When you use '*.dis' and '*.do' files at Runtime that are created with a diferent licence file, you get an error message like 'Wrong version number in DO-file' with a very high random version number because vision cannot distinguish between a wrong version number and a badly decrypted '*.do' -file.

Licence Validation

Licence file may be copied freely between machines.
To prevent others from using your purchased licence files the licence must be validated. A non-validated copy of ALPHA-VISION is considered a trial version (max. 30 minutes running time) even if a VISION.LIC-file is present.

Hardware- and Software Keys

To validate your copy of ALPHA-VISION follow this procedure:

1. Copy your VISION.LIC to the subdirectory 'bin' of the ALPHA-VISION installation directory.
2. Start 'AbLicInstaller.exe'. You find this tool in the 'Vision' entry of the start menu.
3. You will see a dialog where you can select the lic-file [...] and an install button [Install].
Please select the Lic-File and push the Install button. If the location of the Lic-File is different from 'vision\bin' then the Lic-File will be copied to this directory and every previous Lic-File in this directory will be overwritten.
4. If the installation was successful, a hardware key was generated and is shown in the corresponding field. You can copy the key to the clipboard and store it in a safe place.
5. Send the hardware key and your licence ID to support@alpha-bit.de or enter them in the appropriate fields in the internet licencing section of the alpha-bit homepage.
6. alpha-bit generates a software key for you. If you use internet licencing you receive the key immediately.
7. Start 'AbSWKeyInstaller.exe'. You find this tool in the 'Vision' entry of the start menu.
8. Please paste the software key in the first edit field and push the install button.

Note:

Internet licencing does currently not work for master licences.
If you loose your hardware key before sending it to alpha-bit you may start AbLicInstaller again and generate the key again.
The hardware key depends on your hardware and the licence ID stored in the file VISION.LIC.
If you copy a licence file with another ID to the 'bin' -directory the hardware key and the corresponding software key become invalid and ALPHA-VISION runs as a trial version.
Copy the original licence file back to re-validate ALPHA-VISION.
The hardware key also changes when you have to exchange your PC or parts of it like harddisks and interface cards after a hardware failure.
In this case run 'AbLicInstaller' again and send an e-mail to: 'support@alpha-bit.de' containing with the licence ID, the new hardware key and a confirmation that you need the new software key because of a hardware failure or (if you had to exchange the PC for another reason) that ALPHA-VISION is completely removed from the old PC.

30 Day Licence

When you run 'AbLicInstaller' and generate a hardware key ALPHA-VISION^® runs unlimited for 30 days (unless there are restrictions in your licence file).
This is useful in case you install new hardware and don't have access to internet or phone.
You can do this only once per PC. Repeated use of 'AbLicInstaller' will not change the expiration time of your licence.

Dongles

Instead of hardware and software keys you can also use dongles to validate your licence.

Dongles are available for parallel port and as USB-sticks. The dongles for parallel port can be used in addition to a printer connected via the parallel port and may be screwed to the PC.
Like the hardware and software keys a dongle is bound to a specific licence ID so must use a VISION.LIC with the same licence ID.
Dongles may not be removed while ALPHA-VISION^® components are running.
To use dongles you have to install a device driver on the PC the dongle is attached to. Start WkRuntime.exe and follow the installation instructions. You may remove (deselect) all networking options. Without this device driver ALPHA-VISION does not find the dongle and is considered a demo version.

How Licence Validation Works

Determining the Program termination time

When each ALPHA-VISION component starts, it determines whether it is licenced unlimited or it shall be terminated after some time. In this case the reason for the limited licence and the time when the application will close are displayed in a small window.

Situation	Time when the application will be closed
The product name in the application's version information is wrong	1 minute after program start
No licence file was found, the licence file is corrupted or has the wrong file modification time.	30 minutes after program start
The product the application belongs to cannot be found in the licence file	30 minutes after program start
The ALPHA-VISION Runtime was started with a project that has more data objects than given in the object count in the licence file.	30 minutes after program start
A max. running time is given in the licence file	The specified amount of time after program start
If neither a software key nor a dongle nor a 30 day licence valid for the licence file can be found	30 minutes after program start
If a 30 day licence is found but not a dongle or software key and the 30 days are not yet over and a expiration date is given in the licence file	30 days after installing the first hardware key on this machine or at the expiration date from the licence file whichever is earlier.
If a 30 day licence is found but not a dongle or software key and the 30 days are not yet over and NO expiration date is given in the licence file	30 days after installing the first hardware key on this machine.
If a valid dongle or software key is found but also a expiration date in the licence file	At the specified expiration date
If a valid dongle or software key is found and NO expiration date in the licence file	The program will run unlimited

Periodic Validation Checks

In addition to the termination time that is determined when a program starts the licence system checks the following conditions periodically. If any of these conditions is met, the program will be terminated immediately:

A valid dongle is removed (unless there is also a valid software key).
The system time is set to a time more than 6 hours before the start of the program.
More instances of this component are found running than the licence count value for this product in the licence file indicates.
The system time is set to a time more than 1 day before the installation of the 30 day licence. (only if neither a valid dongle nor a valid software key are found).

Application termination

When an ALPHA-VISION component is terminated because of licence restrictions:

1 minute before the application closes you are given a warning message.
Console applications are closed immediately.
GUI applications are closed using the normal windows APIs so you may save your work before.
If the licenced component is a dynamic link library ('*.dll, *.avx, *.avy, *.avz' -files) the application that loaded the DLL is closed even if it has a valid licence. So be sure that you do not use DLLs for which you don't have a licence.