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Getting Started with NetLicensing

Adding NetLicensing to your software takes three steps. First you plan which licensing models you need. Then you set up a product with those models in the NetLicensing Management Console. Finally you add one validate call to your application and let the result decide what the user can do. Customers buy and renew their licenses in NetLicensing Shop or in your own online shop.

NetLicensing getting started: planning, setting up, integration

Planning Setting up Integration

Try a validation request now

You don’t need an account to try the API. The public demo account (user demo, password demo) is a shared sandbox with sample products and licensees. Anyone can change it, so list the licensees that exist right now and then validate one of them:

# list licensees in the demo account
curl --header "Accept: application/json" --user demo:demo \
  https://go.netlicensing.io/core/v2/rest/licensee

# validate one of the returned licensee numbers
curl --request POST --header "Accept: application/json" --user demo:demo \
  https://go.netlicensing.io/core/v2/rest/licensee/<licenseeNumber>/validate

You get one result per product module, with values such as valid, expires or remainingQuantity depending on the licensing model, plus a ttl timestamp that says how long you can reuse the result. You can also try the same request in the browser in the API Test Center.

Step 1: Plan

Work out what you’re licensing and how customers will pay. Is the product sold once (perpetual), for a period (subscription) or by usage (credits, quota)? Is there a free trial or a free plan? Should a license be tied to a device, limited to a number of people working at the same time, or neither? Are some features or editions sold separately?

Each of these answers points to a licensing model. Software Licensing Models Compared and How to plan the licensing scheme for your product help with the choice.

Step 2: Set up

  1. Register a free vendor account.
  2. In the Management Console, create a product, then one product module per licensing model, then the license templates that define what customers can obtain and at what price.
  3. Create an API key with the role ROLE_APIKEY_LICENSEE for use inside your application, see API Security.

Setting up walks through a complete configuration example.

Step 3: Integrate

  1. Give every customer, installation or account a unique licensee number. You can create licensees ahead of time, or switch on licensee auto-create for the product and let NetLicensing create them on their first validation.
  2. Call validate with that number when your application starts or when someone opens a licensed feature, and keep the result until its ttl.
  3. Turn features on or off based on the result, and link to NetLicensing Shop (with a shop token) so customers can buy or renew.

Examples for your language: Java · C# / .NET · PHP · JavaScript / Node.js · Python. Overview of all SDKs: Client Libraries.

Next steps

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