License basics

Here you can find answers to some common questions you may have about how to manage licenses and keep your products up to date.

Note: For specific license details, see your license agreement, or contact your nearest Four Js sales office.

Recognizing a license key by product, what to look for

Four Js provides a license number and license key with the product package, as well as a maintenance key with your maintenance contract.

Before you begin Genero product licensing, locate your email message that contains the following:
  • product license key
  • product license number
  • product maintenance key
  • your customer code
If you do not have this email, contact your local Four Js sales office.
Genero Business Development Language (BDL) license numbers may start with the letter T. For example:
  • License number: TAB#X35006TG
  • License key: RFAL8FS73XDT
  • Maintenance key: M9A3R5UCLMGH
Genero Mobile license numbers may start with the letter M. For example:
  • License number : MAC#AAP00014
  • License key : QYBW9RXAQ0DF
  • Maintenance key: WAGQRSYFL8S7
Genero Report Writer license numbers may start with the letter R. For example:
  • License number: R4Z#X34006TG
  • License number key: GFAS9FD78XDT
  • Maintenance key: M0ST5VXLMFH

How to install licenses

You can install your license as a local license using a graphical user interface application (see What is Genero Licenser?) or a command line tool known as the license controller (see What is the License Controller?). These tools are included with your Genero product.

You can also use the Four Js License Manager (FLM) (See What is the Four Js License Manager (FLM)?) to install licenses for multiple Genero products installed on machines across your network.

Maintenance key

An active maintenance contract is required to license a product. A maintenance key (also known as a subscription key depending on your contract) is provided with your maintenance contract. The maintenance key determines which version of the Genero product you are authorized to use with your license, and the date that the maintenance contract expires. When you are licensing a product, you will be prompted for the maintenance key during the licensing process.

What happens when my license expires?

Licenses apply to the version or build of the product you have installed. If, for example, you have an evaluation license, it is date-limited. The date when the license expires is shown when you run the license controller command, fglWrt -a info license. 
C:\Program Files\FourJs\Genero_Studio_3_00_22\fgl\bin>fglWrt.exe -a info license
License      : THM#XXXXXXXX
License key  : KKKKKKKKKKKK
Product      : Four Js Universal Compiler
Type         : Development version
Users        : 5
Extension(s) :
        - Open Database Interface
        - Enhanced license key format
This license is date limited and expires the 2016/03/31 (Year/Month/Day).
Warning! This is a temporary license, installation number is 'NNNNNNNNNNNN'.
This temporary installation will expire in 28 day(s).
WARNING! Your maintenance key has expired. Please contact your vendor.
End of maintenance date: 2016/03/03 (Year/Month/Day).

What happens when my maintenance contract expires?

If you see the following message in the DVM output, then your maintenance key has expired. 
WARNING! Your maintenance key has expired. Please contact your vendor.

You can continue to use your Genero product after the expiration of the maintenance contract but this will have an impact on how you can use your Genero product.

Contact your local sales office to purchase a new maintenance contract. With a valid maintenance contract, you have full use of the product and can continue to install any new product update or patch that is provided by Four Js.

My maintenance contract has expired, can I still use the installed versions of Genero?

You can continue to use your Genero product after the expiration of the maintenance contract but you can not install any new update or patch where the Genero product build date is later than the expiration date of the maintenance key, without installing a new maintenance key. If you try to run a product version built after the expiration of your maintenance contract, for example:
 C:\fjs\fgl\2.20-9999\demo>fglrun demo.42r
You will get an error message like the following when you run applications:
Program stopped at 'demo.4gl', line number 20.
FORMS statement error number -6144.
The DVM build date is greater than the maintenance key expiration date.
Contact your nearest FourJ's sales representative to update the maintenance key.
Genero BDL
For Genero Business Development Language (BDL) product licensing, you are allowed continued use of the product as follows:
  • You can continue to run the product version built prior to the expiration date of the maintenance key.
  • You can continue to run applications that you have already packaged and deployed before the maintenance contract expired, these will remain valid and will continue to work.
  • You can continue to run your applications with all the versions of the Genero product that were built before the end of maintenance date.
Genero Report Engine (GRE) under DVM Maintenance
For Genero Report Engine licensing under DVM maintenance with your Genero BDL installation, applications will continue to work for a grace period of two months after the end of the maintenance contract.
At the beginning of the third month the following notice will be printed on the first page of each report the GRE generates.
ERROR(-33015) : Please contact your sales office regarding licensing.
The GRE stops functioning at the end of the third month and you will need to purchase a maintenance contract.
Note: If you have a Genero Report Writer installed, the GRE will not be limited under the DVM maintenance but instead will function under the Genero Report Writer installation maintenance.
Genero Report Writer
For Genero Report Writer product licensing, your are allowed continued use of the product as follows:
  • You can continue to run the product version built prior to the expiration date of the maintenance key.
  • You can continue to run applications that you have already packaged and deployed before the maintenance contract expired, these will remain valid and will continue to work.
  • You can continue to run your applications with all the versions of the Genero product that were built before the end of maintenance date.

My maintenance contract has expired, can I still add users to installed versions of Genero?

Even if your license is not under maintenance, you can still add users up to the number of users allowed by the original version of the license.

My maintenance contract has expired, can I reinstall my Genero product?

After the expiration of the maintenance contract, you can only reinstall your Genero product on the same hardware and operating system as originally installed. Exceptions to this may be allowed. For more information, please see the Order Processing Procedures document on the About Licensing page of http://www.4js.com/.

What hardware or software changes affect licensing?

Some hardware changes affect licensing. If, for example, a network card is used for license locking to a server and you have to change your network card on the machine where the license was installed, you have to reapply your Four Js product license. Network cards are used if found because they allow a license to be restored to the same location and on the same hardware when you need to do a restore from backup.

On devices or systems that have no network card, license locking may rely on inodes in Linux®/UNIX™, device-id (MAC address), or file indexes used in Windows® NTFS file system. If, for example, a directory change is required, such as an inode structure change, this may impact the license.

The path where the license has been installed should not change, even though latest versions of the licensing software take symbolic links into account, but older versions may not. If, for example, you have to move your Genero runtime FGL directory, it requires you to reapply the license. To reapply the license:
  1. Delete the existing license: run the license controller command, for example fglWrt -d, to uninstall the existing license.
  2. Apply the license: run the command, fglWrt -l to install the license.
Note: If you are unsure of what impact a server hardware or software change may have on licensing, please contact your local Four Js support center.