License Key Types

Quick License Manager supports several different types of license keys:

Activation Key: An activation key is a key that does not enable your software. It just allows a user to request a Computer Key. Activation Keys are used for online / offline software activation. An activation key packs the following information: A product ID, major version, minor version, features, expiry date and expiry duration.
Computer Key: A Computer Key is license key that is bound to a specific computer by embedding and encrypting a unique identifier of the computer in the license key. The benefit of Computer Keys is that a key cannot be reused on other computers (unless they have the same unique identifier). The QlmLicenseBinding property allows you to define what unique identifier to bind the license to. A Computer Key packs the same information as an Activation Key along with the unique computer identifier.
Generic Keys: Generic keys are not bound to a specific computer. The advantage of this type of key is that you can pre-generate a large set of keys and just distribute them to any customer. The disadvantage is that any user who gets access to a key is able to use that key on any computer. Generic keys are not recommended.

Typical online activation scenario:

A customer buys your software online. An Activation Key is automatically generated via our ecommerce integration and emailed to the customer.

The customer installs your software and is prompted to enter an Activation Key. The customer copy/pastes the activation key received by email. Your application, using the QLM API, connects over the internet to your License Server providing the information required to create a Computer Key. The License Server creates the Computer Key and returns it to your application.

Your application then validates the returned Computer Key and stores it on the end user system.

The next time your application starts up, it reads the stored Computer Key and validates it. If the Computer Key is valid, your application starts up.