This minor release of SOLO Server has two significant changes:
- It was time to renew our Microsoft Partner subscription, so we underwent the rigorous Microsoft certification process of running SOLO Server under Windows Server 2012 R2. During this process, we needed to digitally sign all of our DLL and EXE files. We are delighted to report that SOLO Server passed the certification test with flying colors! We have customers successfully running SOLO Server on every version of Windows Server reaching all the way back to Windows Server 2008.
- While working on the previous point, we “snuck” in a new Product Option Type called Activation Code with License Counter. You can read more about this below.
You can read the full release notes here.
New Product Option Type: Activation Code with License Counter
The Instant PLUS Licensing tool and the Protection PLUS APIs employ the concept of Trigger Codes to communicate product activation state. You can read about this concept in the Protection PLUS 5 SDK manual.
A Trigger Code contains an Event (a value of 1-50) and Event Data (up to 14 bits of data used with the Event command). The Trigger Code Event is specified on the SOLO Server Product Option field Trigger Code #. Depending on the type of license that you are giving the customer, the Event Data can come from different sources, and now the License Counter field can be used as a source. The Protection PLUS 5 APIs receive all of this information in an XML file through an online or manual activation, so use of the different option types only applies when performing a Trigger Code activation.
- New! Option Type: Activation Code with License Counter – The License Counter is an integer field available in every license in SOLO Server. We explained the need for the License Counter field in this blog post. Now it is possible to use the License Counter as the source of the Trigger Code Event Data in case you want the user to be able to purchase renewals and upgrades to change the License Counter value. Refer to that blog post for details on the use and configuration of the License Counter feature.
These other Option Types were available before this release, and here is a quick overview of how they can be deployed:
- Option Type: Activation Code with Quantity – The Quantity field specified on the License record. This is ideal for use when the user purchases an item through the shopping cart and chooses a unique quantity for their specific needs. For example, if you want to let the user choose a quantity of network floating users, you can specify a price per user and let the user change the quantity in the shopping cart. Alternatively, when an administrator adds a license manually, the Quantity can be specified. During activation, this Quantity value is passed as the Trigger Code Event Data.
- Option Type: Activation Code with Fixed value – The TC Fixed Value field on the Product Option settings in SOLO Server. This is useful if you want to present the user with multiple product option choices for a set of values instead of letting them choose a quantity. For example, you can create Product Options for different sets of users (5 User License, 10 User License, 25 User License), giving each a unique name, price and TC Fixed Value. This value can be interpreted by your application however you want.
- Option Type: Activation Code with Days Left – For subscription-based licenses, the License record will likely contain a date on which the user’s software license expires. The Days Left Product Option type instructs SOLO Server to calculate the number of days between today’s date and the subscription expiration date and send this value down as the Trigger Code Event Data.