Technical Implementation of NI Software Licensing

National Instruments provides many different ways to activate and license LabVIEW programs. NI has chosen the following licensing behaviors for our products based upon customer and licensing industry feedback. Each Alliance Member should independently evaluate its own needs and alternative licensing implementations to choose the appropriate licensing methodology for its products.

Activation Overview & Benefits

Activation improves the efficiency of delivering software to customers.  Activation helps facilitate distribution of software on Web sites. With activation, customers can download and install evaluation software and activate the fully featured version after purchase. Without activation, customers must uninstall the evaluation version before installing the purchased software.

Because of activation, customers also can add features or migrate to higher product levels without reinstalling software. For example, a customer may purchase LabVIEW Base and later decide they need the analysis tools available in LabVIEW Professional. They can purchase the upgrade and use their new serial number to activate the additional features on their computer without installing additional software.

To review the National Instruments activation process, refer to ni.com/activate.

Note    Measurement Studio does not use activation; therefore, you must uninstall the evaluation version before installing a purchased copy.

NI Software License Management Technology

NI has implemented activation and volume license management tools for our customers; however NI does not have licensing tools available for Alliance Members to use to license their own products. 

Evaluation

• Time period - NI software typically has a 30-day evaluation time period.  After the 30-day evaluation, customers must activate the software to continue using it. If your product uses another NI product, consider that customers might want to evaluate your product with a National Instruments product that is also in evaluation mode.
• Customers want to know when a product is in evaluation mode or when it is fully activated. Consider adding text or graphics to show customers which components are still in evaluation.

Activation Process

• A simple activation process makes activation easier for customers and introduces fewer complexities.  Using short activation codes rather than license files allows for computers that cannot accept files (such as computers in secure labs) to be able to activate.  There are fewer opportunities for user error when entering a short code compared to a long code.   Alternately, longer codes or license files might offer additional levels of security.
• Many times activation is tied to a hardware identifier.  If you choose to create a hardware identifier, consider creating the identifier so that if the user installs additional hardware or changes their existing hardware, it would be unlikely for them to have to reactivate.
• Customers generally desire to have a way to activate their software at all times. Some common ways for customers to activate, include the internet or with an automated email or phone system. If 24/7 support cannot be provided, a temporary license might be appropriate.
  • Temporary licenses could be extended evaluation licenses that you provide to the customer.  Another possibility is to programmatically create a temporary license if your licensing architecture comes across an unexpected circumstance. Temporary licenses help avoid interrupting the customer’s use of the software.
• Many National Instruments customers are in secure areas or have limited access to the internet or phone.  Consider all of your customers when evaluating different activation approaches. If you make activation difficult or inflexible, you may negatively impact customers.
• Some people prefer software licensing over hardware dongles. If a customer purchases many products that use hardware dongles, their computer might not have enough ports to enable all products at once.

Deployment Activation

• If your product is deployed to other computers, consider whether it makes sense to require activating deployment computers.
• You can use LabVIEW to determine whether a program is running within the LabVIEW Application Development Environment or if it is using the LabVIEW Run-time Engine.
  • Use the LabVIEW Application class Property Node with the Kind property to tell if your application is using the LabVIEW Application Development Environment or the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine.

1 ratings | 1.00 out of 5

Print

Reader Comments | Submit a comment »