Managing a perpetual license

This topic answers 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, C#, and PHP, 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 get a new activation key from Four Js to reinstall your license.