L I C E N S I N G
Creating and Delivering Cloud Licenses Made Easy
The License Portal gives software developers a simple and flexible way to allow users to create and manage their CmCloudContainers and activate or deactivate licenses themselves . But this degree of freedom and trust does not fit in with every software project . In such cases , these abilities should be handled by a dedicated portal or separate software , where the entire license portal , including user registration , is completely hidden from viewers . This is why the CodeMeter License Portal comes with a special REST-API for the purpose . This article takes a closer look at this API , called Gateways .
The Credential File The License Portal and REST-API represent a simple means to communicate with CodeMeter License Central and the CodeMeter Cloud . Users are given credential files with the details they need to access their CmCloudContainers . CodeMeter Cloud creates these files , but it does not store them . This is where the License Portal enters the picture : it maintains a direct one-to-one connection between a user on the Portal and a CmCloudContainer and , by implication , a credential file . Whenever a user decides to change their password , the old credential file is invalidated and a new one created . Everything happens in the background , without the user having to know what the credential file is doing for the application or the Portal . The reasons for this are psychological in nature : Users are less likely to share their passwords than their files . For even greater security , the credential file is encrypted with the user ’ s password .
User Accounts Required This unbreakable link between a credential file and a user account demonstrates that License Portals and CodeMeter Cloud together can only function with user accounts . There are three options for integrating this with existing solutions :
■ Using the Portal ’ s own user admin capabilities
■ Creating dummy accounts for all users
■ Integrating with a Single-Sign-On ( SSO ) system
The latter option is currently handled by Wibu- Systems ’ Professional Services , but is scheduled for release as a standard feature from version 22.11 .
Creating Accounts The first step in using the password is creating a user account , achieved with four parameters : mail ”, “ password ”, “ data ”, and “ ticket ”. The email address (“ mail ”) functions as a unique identifier of the user in question , which has many benefits that may outweigh the potential downsides of using email accounts for this purpose : For most users , the License Portal is something they rarely encounter , and it is unfair to expect them to remember the random name they chose for the purpose . Their email address , on the other hand , should be something they remember .
The password (“ password ”) should be checked in a separate client before registration , i . e . the user should have to enter it twice to double-check it . Specific rules and restrictions for passwords can also be put in place , and the system can check whether the password is compliant with those rules before the proper registration starts .
The “ data ” field accepts entries in any format . Its purpose is to capture additional details in the form of a Json string about the users , such
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