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PLUSManaged Sample .NET Applications

The PLUSManaged samples, which lack integration with PLUSManagedGui (which you should consider using if you are protecting a traditional form/dialog based application), show you how you can integrate the PLUSManaged API with any of your .NET applications. Even though most of these samples use Windows Forms, it is simple to re-use most of this sample code with nearly any type of interface (as shown with the ASP.NET samples that are included). These samples are especially useful when your application (such as web applications, services, etc...) cannot use a traditional dialog/form based interface.

Overview

Here are some of the features and highlights to note about the PLUSManaged sample applications:

• The collection of basic samples included are each named after the type of license(s) supported. These are described in the Sample Projects section below.
• For the samples that use writable licenses (the "SelfSignedLicense" and SelfSignedTrial" samples), a 30-day evaluation is automatically started the first time the application runs on a computer.
• Activated licenses do not expire.
• These samples allow users to activate using a direct Internet connection, or manually using another device's Internet connection.
• Using a direct Internet connection, users can deactivate a previously activated license, which allows your application's users to essentially transfer the license to another computer.  This is a convenient way to allow your customers to migrate to a new computer, without the need to contact you for support or additional activations. SOLO Server can limit the number of times a license is deactivated, and retains the history so you can make informed decisions when providing support.
• The application can validate and refresh its license with SOLO Server using a direct Internet connection.
  • This can be done on demand, which is especially useful if you expect users may need to have a way to update their license properties quickly. (E.g. adding extra network seats, extending/renewing a time-limited license, etc...)
  • This can be done automatically, which is important so that your application can detect when it has been deactivated previously or remotely.
  • You can also control how frequently your application tries to validate in this manner, and how frequently it is required to validate in this manner. This prevents network congestion, and helps avoid the perception that your application is slow or unresponsive should an unreliable network connection cause such delays. Further, when offering time-limited licenses that can be renewed/extended, this is a convenient way to automatically retrieve the new expiration date after the renewal has been processed.
• These samples include the source code for all forms/dialogs used, which makes it easy for you to customize in any way needed.
• These samples also include basic support for proxy servers and proxy authentication.
• The "SimpleTextEditor" samples are designed to show what a licensed application would look like. It is intentionally similar to what you would expect from a basic text editor that ships with your operating system.
  • These samples also show you how you can enable and disable individual features for licenses. In this case, these samples conditionally enable/disable menu and toolbar buttons based on what bits are enabled on the TriggerCodeFixedValue property (set in the Product Option in SOLO Server) or the UserDefinedNumber1 property (set in the user defined fields for the License ID in SOLO Server).
• The NetworkFloatingSemaphore samples show how to limit the number of concurrent users (or instances of your application) that can use your protected application using exclusively locked semaphore files on a Windows (SMB) share.

To see additional licensing features in action, check out the PLUSManagedGui samples!

Sample Source Files

The %PUBLIC%\Documents\SoftwareKey\Protection PLUS 5\Samples directory can be opened by running Protection PLUS 5 SDK from your start menu/screen, and clicking on the Protection PLUS 5 SDK Samples link. This directory contains all of the files and folders listed below, as well as several solution files (one for each supported version of Visual Studio). Each solution is configured with the sample projects that are designed for the corresponding version of Visual Studio, and the projects are organized by the underlying framework and language used to develop each sample application. For example, any C# applications that use System.Windows.Forms dialogs are located in the CSharp\Windows.Forms directory (in the Solution Explorer pane/tab).

Sample Projects

Each project listed below is contained in its own directory, and each of these directories is prefixed with "PLUSManaged_" in order to distinguish them from the PLUSManagedGuisamples. When you open the sample solutions however, these samples are isolated under a PLUSManaged solution folder (under the solutions folders for the respective language and presentation/GUI framework).

Source Code Files

The PLUSManaged samples use a variety of source code files that are common amongst many or all of the sample applications. The source files are summarized below, and each source file contains commenting which documents the source code in great detail. A summary of the shared source code files is provided below.

Configuring your licensing options

The LicenseConfiguration class contains a variety of settings, many of which are extremely important to change before re-using the sample source code in your applications. As noted earlier, many of the source code comments in this file begin with TODO and IMPORTANT. These comments indicate an area of code or a setting that you need to review and, in many cases, update. These settings are outlined in the table below.

The LicenseConfiguration class will also contain other settings that are not mentioned here because they only apply to the PLUSManagedGui samples.