UNDERSTANDING OFFLINE ASPECTS

Understanding the connectivity/offline aspects of licensing is crucial for a bullet-proof implementation. In this context, we need to distinguish between the following cases:

• Primarily online scenarios, in which the client might be sporadically unable to communicate withe SLASCONE API.
  • due to client issues, e.g., no internet connectivity (typical in desktop apps)
  • due to API issues, e.g., API unavailable
• Primarily offline scenarios, in which the client is offline (typically due to firewall), but can go online for activation/heartbeat purposes etc.
• Permanently offline scenarios

PRIMARILY ONLINE

This scenario unleashes the full functionality of SLASCONE. Please refer to this article, in order to find more details about handling sporadic disconnections.

PRIMARILY OFFLINE

Before resorting to the inherently limited permanently offline scenario, it is recommended to "force" primarily offline installations to go online for at least:

• initial activation
• every time a license parameter changes

This is going to significantly reduce the complexity of the whole process, since it is practically identical to the primarily online scenario.

Some ideas that might be helpful in order to enforce such a policy

• Explain that only outbound traffic is required, which can be easily allowed with a (temporary or permanent) firewall rule.
• Give monetary incentives, e.g., a 5% price increase for a permanently offline installation (yes, this works!).

PERMANENTLY OFFLINE

Please refer to this article, in order to find how to handle such scenarios.