Providing an ID and name for the rule set
Selecting the activation method
Indicating whether to display the Register and Confirm pages during the activation process
Setting the rules for providing activation details (regular activation only)
Setting rules for key generation and certificate management
Selecting survey questions (regular activation only)
Each product can be assigned a set of rules for when users activate entitlements for that product. The rules control the information users can enter and the format required for that information. They also control how products are activated together.
The activation rule sets include rules for:
Each rule set can be assigned to multiple products. For example, you might set up one rule set for each product family, or one rule set for hardware products and another for software products. Or you might create a separate rule set to handle evaluation entitlements.
The settings you use primarily are based on:
Any changes to a rule set affect all of the products that use the rule set.
Activation rule sets are managed from the Filter Activation Rule Sets page. To display the page:
The Filter Activation Rule Sets page displays the current list of rule sets.
To edit a rule set, click the Edit link for that rule set.
The Activation Rule Set Maintenance page displays.
In the Rule Set Identification section:
| Pub ID | In the Pub ID field, type the publisher's identifier for the rule set. |
| Activation rule set name | In the Activation rule set name field, type the name of the activation rule set. |
| Activation rule set description | In the Activation rule set description field, type a more detailed description of the activation rule set. |
From the Activation method dropdown, select the method used to activate entitlements for products that use this activation rule set. The available options are:
| Regular activation | Entitlements are activated from the Poetic UI or from a RegisterPoeticEntitlement request.
The activation is to a machine, and users provide activation information such as locking IDs. Regular activation results in a machine certificate. |
| Activate automatically to a new hidden machine for the transaction | When a new entitlement is assigned to an end customer, it is activated automatically to a new machine created by Poetic.
Poetic creates one machine per entitlement creation transaction. For example, for a SetPoeticEntitlement request, Poetic creates one machine for all of the entitlements that are activated automatically to a hidden machine. The machine status is hidden - only users with the security CAN_VIEW_HIDDEN_MACHINES are able to find the machines on certificate search pages. |
| Activate automatically to a new active machine for the transaction | When an entitlement is assigned to an end customer, the entire quantity is activated automatically to a new machine created by Poetic.
Poetic creates one machine per entitlement creation transaction. For example, for a SetPoeticEntitlement request, Poetic creates one machine for all of the entitlements that are activated automatically to a transaction-based machine. |
| Activate automatically to a hidden machine for the activation rule set | When a new entitlement is assigned to an end customer, it is activated automatically to a hidden machine for the activation rule set.
Poetic first looks for an existing hidden machine with products installed that use the activation rule set. If it finds a machine with a number of activated items less than the value of the Registry MAX_DETAILS_BEFORE_CREATING_NEW_AUTO_ACTIVATE_ARS_MACHINE, then Poetic activates the entitlement to that machine. If there is no applicable existing hidden machine, Poetic creates a new machine. Only users with the security CAN_VIEW_HIDDEN_MACHINES are able to find the machines on certificate search pages. |
| Activate automatically to an active machine for the activation rule set | When an entitlement is assigned to an end customer, the entire quantity is activated automatically to a machine for the activation rule set.
Poetic first looks for an existing active machine for the selected company that has products installed that use the same activation rule set. If it finds a machine with a number of activated items that is less than the value of the Registry MAX_DETAILS_BEFORE_CREATING_NEW_AUTO_ACTIVATE_ARS_MACHINE, then Poetic activates the entitlement to that machine. If there is no applicable existing machine, Poetic creates a new machine. |
| Registration activation/Install key | Registration activation is used for products that only need to be registered to a user. A key may be generated, but there is no additional technical or locking information.
Registration activation can occur from the UI or a RegisterPoeticEntitlement request. Registration activation generates a registration certificate. Poetic generates a separate registration certificate for each activation rule set associated with the activation process. When you select this option, Poetic displays the Prompt for activation details check box. If this check box is checked, then the activation process includes the Activate page, and you can prompt the user to provide locking IDs, survey question answers, and other activation parameters. If the check box is not checked, then the Activate page does not display. There is no additional technical or locking information. |
When you select an automatic activation option, Poetic hides most of the remaining fields on the page. For automatic activation:
When you select registration activation without activation details, if you choose not to prompt the user for activation details. Poetic hides most of the remaining fields on the page. For registration activation without activation details:
For registration activation with activation details, Poetic creates the registration certificates in the same way. However, you can configure additional activation details.
The Quantity dropdown displays if you selected regular or registration activation as the activation method. For automatic activation, Poetic always activates the entire available quantity.
From the Quantity dropdown
For regular and registration activation, you can configure whether to include the Register and Confirm pages in the activation process.
The Register page is used to prompt the user to select a group and registered user for the activated items. If the Register page is skipped:
From the Register page dropdown:
This setting only applies if the Register page is included in the specific activation process. Whether to include the Register page for each type of activation process determined by the Registry DISPLAY_ACTIVATION_REGISTRATION_IN_PROCESS.
This setting is ignored for users who have the security CAN_ALWAYS_SEE_REGISTRATION_DETAILS enabled.Those users always see the Register page, even if the rule set is configured to not display it.
The Confirm page allows users to provide notes for the activation, and also allows users to configure whether to send the certificates for the activation. If the Confirm page is skipped:
From the Confirm page dropdown:
| Machine name | From the Machine name dropdown, select the option for providing a machine name.
To require that the user to provide a machine name, and not allow a generated name from Poetic, select Required. To require a machine name, but allow the user to get a generated name from Poetic, select Required, but allow suggestion. To pre-populate the machine name for a new machine with a generated name from Poetic, select Automatically create. To allow the user to select a factory activated machine during activation, select Auto searching factory activated machine. |
| Can activate on machine with existing licenses | To allow entitlements to be activated on a machine that already has activated items for the same product line, check the Can activate on machine with existing licenses check box. |
Each rule set can be set up with a set of locking IDs to prompt for during activation. The locking ID list can include both primary servers and backup servers.
For each locking ID:
For example, if the locking ID needs to be an IP address, select IP Address from the dropdown. The validation type list is kept in the HOST_ID_TYPE list.
To not validate the locking ID, select None.
If you want users to be able to always change the locking ID during any subsequent activation process, then select Editable as the usage type.
Otherwise, if the locking ID is the main application server, select Application Server. These locking IDs can only be changed during key regeneration, and only if the user has the security CAN_CHANGE_LOCKING_ID_ON_REGEN.
If it is a redundant server, select Redundant License Server These locking IDs can only be changed during key regeneration, and only if the user has the security CAN_CHANGE_REDUNDANT_LOCKING_ID_ON_REGEN.
If you want to require that the locking ID is linked to a target tag, and validate the target tag against the locking ID during activation, then select Target Tag – Required to enter and validate.
If you want to link the locking ID to a target tag, and automatically populate the target tag value into the locking ID as a read-only value, then select Target Tag – Auto populated.
If you want the locking ID to be exclusive for a group of products, then select Part of exclusive ID group. You must configure at least two locking IDs with the exclusive locking ID usage type. If you select this option, then during activation, on the Activation details page, the configured exclusive locking IDs display in a dropdown, along with a text field for entering the locking ID value. The exclusive locking IDs displayed in the dropdown are not controlled by display sequence, so they will be the last items in the dropdown. When activating products on a machine, the machine can have only one exclusive locking ID. In other words, exclusive locking ID usage means mutually exclusive usage.
The validation type option Regular Expression allows you to specify a validation pattern for the locking ID. For example, a validation pattern for 12 HEX digists is "^[0-9a-fA-F]$".
Enter the validation pattern in the Validation Expression column. During activation, Poetic validates the locking ID against the pattern specified.
The Validation Expression column is only enabled if you select the Regular Expression validation type. If you change the validation type to another option, the previously entered validation pattern still displays.
When editing the list values for the HOST_ID_TERM list, the Custom 2 field is used to determine the uniqueness requirements for each type of locking ID. The available uniqueness values are:
| NONE | Indicates that the locking ID can be used with any machine for any company multiple times. |
| COMPANY | Indicates that the locking ID must be unique within a company. However, it can be used by different companies. For example, the locking ID 123.456.789 can only be used by one machine owned by Superco. However, it could also be used by one machine belonging to MyNet, Inc. |
| INSTANCE | Indicates that the locking ID must be unique within the entire instance. No two machines from any company can have the same locking ID. |
If a uniqueness value is not specified for a HOST_ID_TERM list value, then the uniqueness defaults to INSTANCE.
The Custom 3 field for HOST_ID_TERM list values is used to determine:
The format of the setting is fieldSize:maximumLength, where:
| fieldSize | The size of the field to display. The allowed values are:
The value can also be a specific number. It is recommended to not use numbers larger than around 80 characters. |
| maximumLength | The maximum length allowed for the locking ID.
The absolute maximum length is 255, which represents the maximum length of the machine name. |
For example:
| SMALL:10 | Displays a small field; allows a maximum of 10 characters for the locking ID |
| MEDIUM:50 | Displays a medium field; allows a maximum of 50 characters for the locking ID |
| LONG:200 | Displays a long field; allows a maximum of 200 characters for the locking ID. |
| 80:80 | Displays a field 80 characters long; allows a maximum of 80 characters for the locking ID. |
If a value is not specified, or an invalid value is specified, the default is MEDIUM:50.
| Expiration date | To prompt users for an expiration date when they activate, check the Ask for check box.
The expiration date is only prompted for during regular activation. Users cannot change the expiration date when rehosting or regenerating keys. Click the Find link next to the Term for field to search for and select the word or phrase to use in place of "expire date" on the activation pages. The available terms are created and localized using the EXPIRE_DATE_TERM list. Click Clear to clear the field. |
| Deployment | To prompt users to specify whether the entitlement is being installed in a standalone or network configuration, check the Ask for check box.
Click the Find link next to the Term for field to search for and select the word or phrase to use in place of "deployment" on the activation pages. The available terms are created and localized using the DEPLOYMENT_TERM list. Click Clear to clear the field. |
| Platform | To prompt users to select the platform, check the Ask for check box.
If the entitlement is only available on a single platform, then you do not need to prompt users for it. If this box is checked, the dropdown contains the platforms checked under Platforms allowed. Click the Find link next to the Term for field to search for and select the word or phrase to use in place of "platform" on the activation pages. The available terms are created and localized using the PLATFORM_TERM list. Click Clear to clear the field. Under Platforms allowed, check the check box next to each platform users can select. |
| Can activate remotely | To allow an external system to generate a key using the Poetic RegisterPoeticEntitlement web service, check the Can activate remotely check box. |
| Key generator is incremental; keep old keys (additive) | If the key generator supports incremental keys, check the Key generator is incremental; keep old keys (additive) check box.
You cannot check this check box if Can activate on host with existing licenses is not checked. Adding incremental keys first requires that users are able to activate additional entitlements on a machine. |
| Cross product line validation is required | For each activation, Poetic sends a separate key generation request for each activation group. An activation group represents a unique combination of activation rule set, locking technology, and (depending on configuration) product line.
If this check box is checked, then key generation requests for this activation rule set contain a If this check box is unchecked, then This check box is unchecked by default. |
| Automatically send notifications on key modification | To automatically send a notification to the registered owner when keys are generated or modified, check the Automatically send notifications on key modification check box.
This allows companies to monitor the movement of activated items and to ensure they are following the rules of their license agreements. |
| Key sending method | From the Key sending method dropdown, select the method to use to include keys when sending an individual activation certificate using the Activation Certificate notification.
Note that this setting does not apply when sending multiple certificates simultaneously using the Batch Activation Certificate notification. In that case, keys are always sent as attachments. The options are to:
If a key is a separate binary key file, it will never display in the email. There is also a 200-character limit for displaying keys in the email. If a key contains more than 200 characters, it will be replaced by a note that the key is too large to display. When sending a certificate manually by clicking the Email link on the View Certificate page, if the user checks the Zip all keys check box, it overrides any setting to send the keys in the body of the email. The keys are attached in a single .zip file. |
| Certificate view display | From the Certificate view display dropdown, select whether to display non-binary keys when users view certificates.
Whether to display non-binary keys depends on your security procedures. The text of a binary key is never displayed. |
| Certificate print display | From the Certificate print display dropdown, select whether to display keys when users print certificates.
Whether to print the keys depends on your security procedures. Binary key files will never display in the printed certificate. There is also a 200-character limit for displaying keys in the printed certificate. If a key contains more than 200 characters, it will be replaced by a note that the key is too large to display. |
The Activation Survey Questions section allows you to select the survey questions you would like asked during a regular activation process. Batch activation processes do not support survey questions. These are in addition to the activation survey questions assigned to the entitlement product.
The available questions are based on the settings from the survey question maintenance function. See Adding and editing survey questions.
Note that if any of the dropdown survey questions you selected are configured to display other questions when the user selects an answer, then you must add those child questions to the list.
Even though it is in the list of survey questions, a child question is displayed only if the user selects the associated answer for the parent question. If you do not include the child question, then it will not be displayed when the user selects the answer from the parent question.
To search for and select a survey question, click Find. To clear a line, click Clear.
For each survey question:
| Ask on Activation/Upgrade | To ask the survey question when users activate an entitlement or perform upgrade activation, check the Ask on Activation/Upgrade check box. |
| Ask on Renewal | To ask the survey question when users activate a renewal entitlement, check the Ask on Renewal check box. |
| Ask on Rehost/Regen Keys | To ask the survey question when users rehost activated items or regenerate keys, check the Ask on Rehost/Regen Keys check box. |
| Ask on Return | To ask the survey question when users return activated items, check the Ask on Return check box. |
| Show Previous Answers | If the question has been asked before, then to show the previous answer, check the Show Previous Answers check box. |
| Regenerate Upon Changes | To regenerate any keys that used this question if the answer changes from the previous answer, check the Regenerate when Answer Changes check box. |
| Display Row | You can organize the survey questions into columns and rows. This may be especially important if the survey questions are used to obtain technical information about an installation.
In the Display Row column, type the row number of the row in which to display the survey question. For example, if the question must display on the second row of questions, type 2 in the column. |
| Display Sequence | In the Display Sequence column, type the order in which to display the survey question within its row.
For example, to display the question in the third position on the second row, type 2 in the Display Row column, and 3 in the Display Sequence column. |
When users enter locking IDs or answer survey questions during the activation process, it may be important that the information be in the correct format.
To help users to provide the correct format or value, you can provide helper text to display next to the locking ID or survey question field.
To do this, you add resource tags to your customized and localized versions of ApplicationResources.properties.
The tag name for locking ID helper text is:
sample.lockingID.lockingIDTermCode
Where lockingIDTermCode is the list value code from the HOSTID_TERM list.
For example:
sample.lockingID.SERVER=(ex. 11-22-33-44-22)
The tag name for survey question helper text is:
sample.survey.surveyQuestionPubID
Where surveyQuestionPubID is the survey question ID.
For example:
sample.survey.PRODUCTSERIAL=(Found on the label)
The Transactions tab lists details on changes that occurred to an activation rule set.Viewing transactions