Protection! Licensing Server Changelog

What's new in Protection! Licensing Server 4.5.1

Oct 17, 2010

Added ability to lock license to MAC address of the network card for FreeBSD and Linux on Intel x86-64 bit platform.

New in Protection! Licensing Server 4.5 (Oct 17, 2010)

New in Protection! Licensing Server 4.2.1 (Mar 30, 2009)

New in Protection! Licensing Server 3.0 (Jun 25, 2007)

The Licensing Server application is a turnkey solution that is deployed inside the customer's network. It can be run as a Windows service or as a UNIX daemon. The main features of the Licensing Server are:
Support for Floating and Named User models by tracking licenses usage using the concept of license lock (acquire) and unlock (release).
License lock session�s expiration to allow correctly releasing of the license lock when the client application is not responding or the network (connection to the Licensing Server) is down.
Ability to host and to distribute an unlimited number of licenses for an unlimited number of products.
Ability to allocate licenses for specified users and/or user groups.
Ability to control access to the Licensing Server by using access control lists (whitelist and blacklist) for any types of operations.
Ability to remotely monitor and manage the Licensing Server via the supplied Management Console application.
Management Console Application
The Management Console is a GUI application intended for remote monitoring and management of the Licensing Server(s). The main features of the Management Console are:
Authentication and authorization per Licensing Server with the ability to maintain the Licensing Server users.
Support for multiple Licensing Server connections.
Ability to discover running instances of the Licensing Servers via network broadcast.
Ability to maintain access control lists.
Ability to view licensing statistics and server statistics.
Ability to disable/enable any licensing activities.
Ability to shut down the Licensing Server.
Ability to visually monitor current license sessions.
Ability to revoke specific license sessions.
Ability to maintain licenses storage.
Ability to maintain license users/groups
Ability to allocate licenses for specified users and/or user groups.
Client Application Code
Client application code allows for seamless integration with the Licensing Server and has the following main features:
Automatically handling of the Named and Floating User licenses by acquiring and further maintaining license lock by using a scheduled polling connection to the Licensing Server.
Ability to receive notifications from the Licensing Server when the license lock is expired or revoked by the Licensing Server administrator.
License Lock Assistant Dialog that is shown when license lock could not be acquired. It helps in resolving the Licensing Server connection problems and allows client to postpone license acquisition and wait for the license lock availability. Optional ability to specify Licensing Server address helps choosing the right Licensing Server when it is not specified in the license.
New Licensing Assistant functionality responsible for end-user assistance in obtaining licenses from the Licensing Server, including the ability to discover available Licensing Servers over network.
Protection! Launcher
The Launcher concept allows placement of almost all of the Protection! initialization data (currently presented in standard code snippet) into the Launcher resource. Launcher can be loaded at runtime and used to initialize Protection! system. Use of the Launcher provides an easy way to update Protection! configuration (e.g. adding secret storages or changing some other configuration options) without the need to manually modify source code and therefore rebuild the application. The following are the main features of the Protection! Launcher:
Ability to maintain multiple Launcher build configurations. Each build configuration allows specifying:
Target � either file or an archive to generate Launcher.
Launcher Type � either GUI or headless.
Whether Launcher verbose output is turned on or off.
Whether Launcher must be encrypted.
Ability to build Launcher using specified Launcher Build configurations.
Updated code snippets (GUI (Launcher) and Headless (Launcher)) to employ all of the new features.
License Storage
The License Storage allows holding and storing an unlimited number of licenses in one uniform location (container). License Storage is very useful in such situations when for example:
There is a need for keeping together all the licenses for different products from one vendor
There is a server application that contains a number of different modules which could be licensed independently.
The main features of the License Storage are:
Ready-to-use JAR archives based implementation.
License Storage Screen in Protection! Control Center intended for viewing and maintaining the License Storages:
Ability to view contents of the License Storage.
Ability to add new licenses, modify or remove existing licenses.
Ability to import licenses.
Integrity Subsystem
The Integrity (former CRC) subsystem is greatly improved allowing easier integration into client applications and a much simpler build process. The following are the main new features of the Integrity subsystem:
� Ability to specify JAR, classes and file entries that must be checked by Integrity subsystem.
� Ability to specify runtime configuration:
Source � deprecated configuration (pre v3.) where entries and digest are part of the source file.
Resource - entries and digest are placed in a resource which can be loaded and used at runtime.
File - entries and digest are placed in a file which can be loaded and used at runtime.
Support for building of Digest for obfuscated code. Zelix KlassMaster and RetroGuard obfuscators are currently supported.
Ability to maintain multiple Digest build configurations. Each build configuration allows for specifying:
Target � either file or archive where Digest data will reside.
Obfuscation type and location of generated by obfuscator change log file.
Mapping of Digest entries for example to allow the building of Digest for classes (development) or for archives (deployment).
Ability to build Digest using specified configuration.
Updated code snippet of all of the Digest subsystem new features.
Protection! Builder Utility
This new command line utility allows building various Protection! resources. Protection! Builder Utility allows for use of various build systems (i.e., Ant) and scripts to automate assembling of protected applications. This utility allows building:
Protection! Launchers using specified configuration and optional target.
Digest�s using specified configuration and optional target.
Protection! Web Services application.
Products Storage Protection
This functionality allows protecting products storages for opening and modification. The main features are:
Ability to apply read-protection by specifying a password. If read-protection is applied to the products storage then the correct password must to be provided to be able to open such products storage. After read-protection is applied to the product storage, such products storage will be strongly encrypted. That in turn minimizes possible damages if products storage was stolen or lost.
Ability to apply write-protection by specifying a password. If write-protection is applied to the products storage then the correct password must be provided to be able to make any modifications to such products storage.
"Lock" decorations is introduced in the Product and Integrity screens when write-protected products storage is opened.
Ability to use double-clicks in the status bar to quickly lock/unlock write-protection.
Product Audit
This new functionality of Developer Control Center (Products Screen) allows checking selected product for errors, option conflicts and potential issues depending on selected target (Code Snippet). The following are the main features of the Product Audit subsystem:
Ability to view a list of audit results and review a detailed description for the selected audit topic using the Audit tab.
Ability to quickly fix audit issues using context menu or hyperlinks in the issue description or by invoking the default fix action by pressing the Enter key or mouse double click.
Ability to ignore specific audits and maintain an ignore list using the Edit Product dialog.
Control Center
Support for new User Licensing Models in the License Screen.
Added command line options to the Protection! Control Center to allow for specifying products storage to open and for printing license and system information during startup. Running Control Center �help displays all the available options.
Added ability to use specified License Alias to provide default license attributes during creation of new licenses.
This new command line utility allows building various Protection! resources. Protection! Builder Utility allows for use of various build systems (i.e., Ant) and scripts to automate assembling of protected applications. This utility allows building:
Protection! Launchers using specified configuration and optional target.
Digest�s using specified configuration and optional target.
Ability to optionally place customer information into the license (Options | Store Customer into the License).
Ability to manage multiple Facade connections and view tooltip in the "Send to Backend" button to see connection info.
Ability to construct an Activation Key using known end-user attributes i.e. MAC address, host name, user name, etc.
This new command line utility allows building various Protection! resources. Protection! Builder Utility allows for use of various build systems (i.e., Ant) and scripts to automate assembling of protected applications. This utility allows building:
Added ability to specify a License Alias to provide default license attributes during creation of new licenses.
Added auto restoring of the recently selected code snippet in the Products Screen.
Framework
Improved User Licensing Model which defines how to handle different users working with the same license. The following models are now supported:
"Uncounted" � any number of users can work concurrently with the license regardless of the license number of copies value.
"Floating" � only a certain number of users can work concurrently with the license according to the license number of copies value. Actual usage check is done using the network broadcast facility.
"Named" - only a certain number of users can work with the license according to the license number of copies value. This is done via activation and/or activation-and-lock facility.
"Floating - Licensing Server" � only a certain number of users can work concurrently with the license according to the license number of copies value. Actual usage check is done by contacting the Licensing Server and acquiring the license lock.
"Named - Licensing Server" � only a certain number of users can work with the license according to the license number of copies value. Actual usage check is done by contacting the Licensing Server and acquiring the license lock.
Added policy to the Network Check to allow for control when running several instances of protected applications on either the same or on different hosts.
Minor improvements and issue fixes.