.net controls and licence files

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Torrie Moore >> Wed, 20 May 2009 2:52:16 GMT

We've been trialing a schedule / calendar control (http://www.dbi-tech.com/ComponentPage_dbiDayView.aspx) which appears to work well with Jade. However the control developers require a licence file (*.lic) to be compiled with the executable that uses the control. Obviously we can't recompile Jade.exe! Has anyone struck this issue with either .Net controls (or ActiveX controls) and if so is there a work around?

Otherwise, if anyone has a schedule / calendar control that works well with Jade could you let me know.

Thanks

Torrie

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Patwos >> Wed, 20 May 2009 23:20:15 GMT

My understanding is that for licensed ActiveX controls, if you did the initial import of the control into your schema on a machine that has the fully licenced version of the control installed, then the licence key details are imported into the hidden meta-data for that control.

When the control is used at runtime in a deployed system, the control is created with the appropriate runtime mode set and the licence key details from the import process is passed through as part of the process of creating the runtime version of the control. This is Jade's equivalent of "compiling the key into the executable".

I can't say for sure if the same situation applies when importing .Net controls, but maybe someone with a licenced .Net control or someone from Jade can confirm or deny this is handled in a similar way to licensed ActiveX controls?

Hope that helps,
Pat.

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Torrie Moore >> Thu, 21 May 2009 0:26:33 GMT

Thanks Patwos.

We are just evaluating the demo version which doesn't come with the licence file. Was hoping understand how Jade handles this before we actually purchased the control.

Torrie

[torrie]

To update this, it's possible in .NET to load licenses from an assembly (e.g. dll) these are stored by the framework in memory and used when the control is created. We've compiled an assembly which references the controls we need to use and this also contains the license file as a resource. We load this assembly and call a method which loads the licences from the assembly. The third party controls can then find their license when they are created by Jade. E.g.

Assembly assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(@”C:\Your\assembly\path”);
LicenseManager.CurrentContext.GetSavedLicenseKey(typeof(string), assembly);

See http://softwaregreenhouses.com/blog/ for details of loading the licence and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... S.80).aspx for how .Net controls can be licensed.

[Patwos]

I guess that means that Jade doesn't automatically handle licensed .Net controls like it does with licensed ActiveX controls.

That's somewhat of a shame. Did you put anything about this issue to Jade to see what their response was.

eg: Are they considering enhancing their .Net control support to automatically handle licensed .Net controls in a future Jade release?

Pat.

[torrie]

I did as Jade about the .Net licensing and the response was that Jade leaves the licensing to the .Net control. I did try putting the *.lic, *.licx and *.licenses files that would be picked up by Visual Studio in both the Jade bin directory and the directory containing the .Net assembly but file auditing didn't show any access, so unless Jade looks elsewhere, I don't think it picks up these files. I would assume that if Jade was to import the licences then LC.exe (available in the .NET SDK) would need to be installed so Jade could compile the license before importing it.

Jade does appear to be using different .NET licence contexts for development and runtime. With the runtime licence, the control only works when the application is running and not when the control is opened in painter. However on a machine where the .NET control has a development license, the control works OK in painter.

I haven't raised a NFS for Jade import these licenses.