Registering Create – Manual Licensing (Standard)

Setting up a User Licence

Manual licensing requires a personalised licence record to be set up on the licensing database in advance of each user registering Create. The purpose of manual licensing is to stop unauthorised users being able to register Create.

Each client site will need to appoint an administrator, who will be able to control the licensed user database. The portal administrator will be required to create a licence record for all authorised users; before the registration stage can take place. The following details are required for each user: first name, surname and email address.

Validation

Create software needs to validate via the internet but users do not need a browser or access to the internet via internet explorer or other, as this happens silently. If you add our domain to your internet trusted locations, then users will be able to continue using Create (see below). 

At Registration

This process requires access to our web service at initial registration – where a user’s name and email address has been approved for Create – the registration checks and validates the license on first use and thereafter every 30 days. 

• If our web service cannot be reached, Create will continue to work for another 7 days.
• If our web service still cannot be reached, Create will continue to work for another 10 days, however, users will see a warning informing them that they must connect to the internet soon to validate their licence. This message will show once a day. 
• If after the 17 day grace period, the web service still cannot be reached, the user will be unable to use Create until they have successfully validated their licence. The Create tab is still shown but functions do not work. 
• Once internet access is re-instated Create will validate the registration for another 30 days. 
  

This gives our clients the luxury of only paying for what they use – they can stop and start within a month. It also provides peace of mind that only users who have been approved for Create can access it.

License Key Location

The registration process accesses the Presentation Solutions web service:

https://webservices.presentationsolutions.co.uk/licensing/LicenceValidation2.svc

and grants a license to a user, sending back the license key which is stored in the registry in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Presentation Solutions.

Web Services URL

Create connects directly to a WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) web service to validate licenses at the following URL:
https://webservices.presentationsolutions.co.uk/licensing/LicenceValidation2.svc

It transmits the following data collected by Create, in XML form, for initial licence registration:

• Email address, first name, last name (entered by user)
• Domain name, username, machine name, OS version, regional settings (provided by Windows)
• Create and Office version numbers
• Create product and customer codes (from Create’ s customisation files)

Then monthly for further licence validation and billing reports:

• Domain name, username, machine name, OS version, regional settings
• Create and Office version numbers
• Create product and customer codes

The data is compared to licence data held in the licensing system database. The server then replies with an XML response containing a licence token, assuming the request is valid. This token is stored in the user’s Windows registry. Licence information stored in the registry is validated the first time Create is used in each Office session. Initial registration is validated by email address and product codes. Ongoing, licenses are validated by username, domain name and product codes.

The licensing web service and its database are hosted in Windows Azure in Microsoft’s “West Europe” region. According to the Azure website, “West Europe” servers are located in the Netherlands. Data is not distributed across regions so will not be sent outside of Europe, to the best of our knowledge. Microsoft has a long-standing commitment to privacy. More information about The Azure Privacy Statement describes the specific privacy policy and practices that govern customers' use of Azure can be found on this link.
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/support/trust-center/privacy/

Error Logging and Reporting

Within Create there is an error log upload facility which users can nominate to send to us if they are experiencing problems in using Create. The information captured in the log gives us an insight into the cause of the error (please note we do not see any confidential data or screenshots or details from other applications running). 

All errors are captured in the User profile. Errors are recorded in the folder which can be found in:
Documents\Create Error Logs\CreateLog.xml

This also uses a web service at this URL:
https://webservices.presentationsolutions.co.uk/licensing/ErrorService2.svc

Typical content of the Create error log: