L I C E N S I N G
Retrieving Information from CodeMeter License Central
Many software developers favor CodeMeter as a licensing system because of its easy and reliable integration with a vast range of software platforms and its ability to link up flexibly with different processes and back-office solutions . The essential solution provided by Wibu-Systems for this purpose is CodeMeter License Central , as the master tool for creating , delivering , and managing licenses in tandem with established ERP , CRM , and e-commerce solutions .
CodeMeter License Central also offers other simple means to transfer licenses to the end users ’ devices . In the normal run of things , this would be an asynchronous process , i . e . it would happen at a point in time chosen by the user . However , it is oftentimes essential for information about the activation status and the CmContainers of each license to also be known by the back-office systems of the software developer .
The challenge : How best to ensure that this information makes its way back from Code- Meter License Central ?
Custom Internet Extensions This approach works by calling an interface provided by the software developer whenever licenses are processed in WebDepot or Gateways . That interface would then report the new license status to the back-office system , although the reported data would be limited to the activation status and the serial number of the chosen CmContainer .
The necessary mechanisms are easily established , but they suffer from the lack of an integrated cache in the Internet extensions . To prevent any loss of data , the back-office system would have to provide a redundant and always available interface with integrated cache to receive the incoming data . Since this is not the norm , this mechanism is not overly popular among practitioners .
For most projects , we recommend querying the data directly from CodeMeter License Central to be safe and sure that the correct status for each license is reported to the back-office .
Pull Mechanism One straightforward , but labor-intensive option would be to integrate a form of pull mechanism in the back-office system , which regularly contacts CodeMeter License Central to retrieve certain information to copy into the relevant internal objects .
If the back-office system in question uses direct SOAP communication to create licenses , it would already have all the details needed to access the other API interfaces of Code- Meter License Central . If , on the other hand , other PHP applications are placed in between , such as GenericConnector . php , the mechanism would need a suitable expansion to retrieve the necessary information from CodeMeter License Central and translate it into the right format .
In both cases , care must be taken to define precisely which information is needed and how it would be mapped to the data on the back-office system .
Push Mechanism With push mechanisms , the system with Code- Meter License Central would run a process at regular intervals that defines which new data is available and then publishes it in a defined format , using a separate interface put in place by the developer . That interface could be a SOAP or REST interface or WebHooks , and its job would be to send the data back to the back-office system . The relevant data would usually be mapped with a defined criterion
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