Licensekeys - how to handle?

[marcohagen]

Hi Guys,
is it possible in any way to use lincesekeys with the downloads?
We´re offering virtual products which need also licensekeys.
any idea, how to handle?
regards

[ColinM]

Hi
The answer is basically Yes but it depends how your licence key scheme works.

Does each product (a Download) have its own Licence key?  That is if someone asks you for that product you send them the key.  If someone else asks for the same product they would send them the same key.
If this is the arrangement then in jD terms your key is a password.  A unique password may be set on a Download.  In order to download the file associated with the Download the user will be prompted for the password.

Another scheme is that Downloads may have an Alpha points  'price' and you could authorise an individual with the required number of Alpha points.  Of course in this approach you could authorise many more points and the user could decide to use on a variety of products.

Schemes where there individual 'keys' per User-Download combination would be challenging.

Colin

[marcohagen]

Hi Colin,
thanks for your answer, but:
I dont understand anything The licensekey need to be unique (first of all) and next is, that it should not be generated. Means, I´ve another db where the keys are located and i need to add them manually, after confirming payment.
any idea?
regards

[ColinM]

Hi
Sorry for delay - had a bad cold.
I have assumed that the licence key is needed in order to download the file.  Please tell me if that is incorrect.

As you have a specific licence key which you need to add manually then you could set that as the password on the Download from the jD backend.  When a user tries to download then they are asked for the password, which is of course the licence key - see attached pic.
The text presented to user may be modified so instead of asking for a password it could ask for the licence key.

Colin

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[marcohagen]

Hi COlin,
sry but you missunderstood.

If a user bought one of our extensions, he also needs to get a licensekey from us. So he should be able to download his product AND ALSO a lincesey so that he can activate his purchased product in his system.
Hope, this was clear now. regards

[ColinM]

Hi
Sorry for misunderstanding! 

Clearly you would not want any user to be able to download the product and especially the Key.  jD supports identifying one or more Downloads as belonging to a specific named user.  So for the purposes of this discussion I will assume that the Product download is straight forward. and is publicly available.  But that the licence key is the critical one.  So for that I will assume that the licence key is in a separate text file.  Alternatively you could create a specific Download as a zip file containing both items

jD supports identifying one or more Downloads as belonging to a specific named user. This means however you would have to register the user for a suitable period of time. The licence key file, or the combined zip, would then need to created as a new Download with the specific name of the user as its creator.  This is straight forward, and you could give the user a specific number of times in a month (or in a week or in a day) that the licence key file, or the combined file, is able to be downloaded. The user would log in and use a Menu item 'list my downloads'  You can also get an alert email telling you that the file has been downloaded.  At this juncture you could delete the user, or disable, and delete the Licence key Download.

An alternative would be to add a password to the licence key Download and email that password to your user. This would avoid the registration step. But it has less control.

Is this more along the lines you are seeking?

Colin

[marcohagen]

Hi Colin, much better.
But the thing is, that it´s Not the same license for the procudt, we have different licesekey for the same product. Means Customer 1 bouth Product 1 and gets Lincensekey 1, Customer 2 bought product 1, too but gets the second key and so on. Best would be, that e.g. we can add 10 lincensekeys to a product and system automatically uses 1 key after another. THat would be the best, but I think it would be not possible?!

regards marco

[ColinM]

Marco
I understand that the same product will of course have a different licence key for different users.

If I were doing this I would make the product download open to either pubic or registered users.  Each time a user purchased a licence key I would create a new licence key Download ensuring that the particular customer was the 'creator' of the Download.  That Download would probably be a simple text file with details of which product and the actual licence key.  Actually you could put the details in the Download description.  When the user logged in he would see the menu item 'My Licences'.  It could be orderd by date so latest licence was at the top.

A more sophisticated variant, especially if you do not want anybody to be able to download the product until they have paid, would be to put the actual Product in a Category called Products say, and create a User Group called Members.  The only people allowed to actually Download would be the Members UG.  So when a person has paid a licence fee you add them to the Members UG.  Then in the description of the Download with the licence info you add a jD Content link to the specific Download.  Obviously you could create many product 'sub categories' with their own User Group download capability.

Colin

[marcohagen]

Hi Colin, the first Idea I dont like. The second is much better, but: What is a jD Content link? For your Information, this is my actual handling:
I sell virtual Products using subscriptionsystem "payplans". After user bought, he will be moved to a spec. usergroup (I actually use 28 diff. groups). Every download (product) is specific usergroup. So all downloads are not public and every user will see only the dowdnloads of the usergroup he belongs. So this part already is done. but i dont understand how to show a license, too. the best option would be to add a textfield e.g. where a user can see his licenses WITH the downloadable product. any ideas?

[ColinM]

Hii
I have been beset with a bad cold/flu so apologies for delay in respoding.
Content link.  If you look at the jD Content pluin it tells you how to put a link to a Download in an article but you can also put a link in the description part of a Download. So in a users licence keys Download description you could put a link to the product Download.

There are varity of ways of passing the licence key value. A simple way would be to put it in a text file or similar a the file that is downloaded from the Licence Download.  Another way would be to put it into one of the regular field such as the Version number field, or to use one of the Custom fields. The Custom field method may be better as you could also choose the preceding text. You would need to adjust the layou but I can assist.
Colin