Using a license

After purchasing a license, you may have questions about its functionality. Review the following topics to find answers.

Note:

For specific license details, see your license agreement or contact your local Four Js sales office.

Recognizing a license number

The license number for the product is delivered via email, along with details about the license. By examining the license number, you can identify the product it licenses.

Four Js provides a license number and license key with the product package. For a perpetual license, you will get a maintenance key with your maintenance contract. For a subscription license, you will get a subscription key.

Locate your email message that contains the following:
  • product license string
    Note:

    A license string is an encoding of your license number, license key, maintenance/subscription key, and customer code. It is easier to use in license installation and upgrading.

  • product license key
  • product license number
  • product maintenance/subscription key
  • your customer code
If you do not have this email, contact your local Four Js sales office.

Genero Business Development Language (BDL)

Genero Business Development Language (BDL) license numbers start with the letter T. For example:
  • License number: TAB#X35006TG
  • License key: RFAL8FS73XDT
  • Maintenance/subscription key: M9A3R5UCLMGH

Genero Report Engine (GRE)

The Genero Report Engine exists in two products: Genero Enterprise and the Genero Report Writer. Both products use the Genero Report Engine (GRE); it is the GRE that is licensed.

With Genero Enterprise, license numbers for the Genero Report Engine start with the letter R. For example:
  • License number: R4Z#X34006TG
  • License number key: GFAS9FD78XDT
  • Maintenance/subscription key: M0ST5VXLMFHO
With Genero Report Writer, license numbers for the Genero Report Engine start with the letter P. For example:
  • License number: P7Z#C00459GL
  • License key: TEBLE8RS31SE
  • Maintenance/subscription key: OZ8K2ACHHROW

Managing a subscription license

This section addresses frequently asked questions about subscription licenses.

Note:

For specific license details, see your license agreement or contact your local Four Js sales office.

What is a subscription key?

A subscription key is required for a product with a subscription license. The subscription key determines the date that the license expires. When you are licensing a product, you will be prompted for the subscription key during the licensing process.

When you renew a subscription license, a new subscription key must be installed. To install your new key, you do not need to reinstall your license. There is also no need to uninstall the expired subscription key.

What happens when my subscription license expires?

A subscription license expires when the end of the subscription date is reached. If you see the following message in the DVM output, then your subscription key has expired. 
WARNING! Your subscription key has expired. Please contact your vendor.

You can continue to use your Genero product after the expiration of the subscription key for a grace period, see My subscription license has expired, can I still use the installed versions of Genero?. You have options to renew your subscription within the grace period. Once the grace period ends, you can no longer use your Genero product.

The date when the subscription license expires is shown when you run the license controller command fglWrt -a info license. 

C:\Program Files\FourJs\Genero_Studio_4_00_03\fgl\bin>fglWrt.exe -a info license
License      : TDY#XXXXXXXX
License key  : KKKKKKKKKKKK
Product      : Four Js Universal Compiler
Type         : Development version
Users        : 5
Extension(s) :
        - Open Database Interface
End of subscription date: 2021/12/31 (Year/Month/Day).

My subscription license has expired, can I still use the installed versions of Genero?

Genero products have a grace period, allowing you to continue to use the product after the expiration of the subscription license.

For most products, the grace period is 60 days. Once the grace period ends, you can no longer use your Genero product.

The sole exception are older versions of Genero Report Writer for Java and C# – versions 3.20 and earlier – where there is no grace period; once the license expires, you can no longer use it.

Managing a perpetual license

This section addresses frequently asked questions about perpetual licenses.

Note:

For specific license details, see your license agreement or contact your local Four Js sales office.

What is a maintenance key?

An active maintenance contract is required for a product with a perpetual license. A maintenance key is provided with your maintenance contract. The maintenance key allows you to use any version of your licensed Genero product built before the maintenance date. The maintenance key also determines 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.

When you purchase a new maintenance contract, a new maintenance key must be installed. To install your new key, you do not need to reinstall your license. There is also no need to uninstall the expired maintenance key.

What happens when my perpetual license expires?

A perpetual license does not expire; however, a maintenance contract can expire. The date when the maintenance contract expires is shown when you run the license controller command fglWrt -a info license. You have options to renew your maintenance contract within a grace period, see the section What happens when my maintenance contract expires?.

If 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_4_00_03\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! 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 key; however, you won't receive software updates, nor will you be able to upgrade the software to the newest version. It will also have an impact on how you can use your Genero product, such as installing updates or patches, adding users, and reinstalling the 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 provided by Four Js.

If your maintenance contract has expired, you can still use the installed versions of Genero for a period after that is known as the grace period. The grace period is typically for 60 days after the expiration date; this means you can continue to use your product while the build date is less than (the expiration date of the maintenance contract + 60). The grace period may vary slightly in how it is implemented depending on the product.
Genero BDL
For Genero Business Development Language (BDL) product licensing, there is a grace period of 60 days. You can use any version of the product with a build date no greater than 60 days after the expiration date of the maintenance contract. (In other words, the expiration date of the maintenance contract + a grace period of 60 days)
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 60 days, after which they enter degraded mode. In degraded mode, 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 continues to work in degraded mode for an additional 30 days, after which it stops functioning.
Genero Report Engine (GRE) not under DVM maintenance
For Genero Report Engine (GRE) product licensing not under DVM maintenance with your Genero BDL installation, there is a grace period of 60 days. You can use any version of the product with a build date no greater than 60 days after the expiration date of the maintenance contract. (In other words, the expiration date of the maintenance contract + a grace period of 60 days)
Note:

If you have installed Genero Report Writer for Java and C#, the GRE will not be limited under the DVM maintenance, as there is no DVM executing the report, but instead will function under a Genero Report Engine license.

My maintenance contract has expired, can I still install a new update or patch?

You can continue to use your Genero product after the expiration of the maintenance contract, but you cannot install any new update or patch where the Genero product build date is later than the expiration date of the maintenance key. If you try to run a product version built after the expiration of your maintenance contract, you will get an error message similar to 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.

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

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 reinstall your Genero product. You will need to go through the New Activation Key Request procedure of filling out a form to get an activation key to reinstall your license.

Temporary licenses

A temporary license is the state of a license after it has been installed, but before it is activated with Four Js.

With a temporary license, you have full use of the product for 30 days. To continue using the product beyond 30 days, simply activate the license.

In most cases, you activate your license immediately after installing the license; however, there are times when you might run with a temporary license.
  • Temporary licensing can be used in an emergency; if anything ever happens to your system and you need to get a Genero system up and running, you can use your existing license on a temporary basis on a new server.
  • Temporary licensing can help to avoid down time when migrating Genero products to a new machine.
  • Temporary licensing can be used when the server does not have internet connection and the license needs to be activated on the Four Js website from another machine.

What hardware or software changes affect licensing?

Some hardware changes affect licensing.

Note:

For specific license details, see your license agreement or contact your local Four Js sales office.

If 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 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 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 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 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, contact your local Four Js support center.