Licensing a Project

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Tips:

• To deploy using XCOPY, you must include the DLLs for all of your ActiveReports references in your bin/debug folder. To do this, in the Visual Studio Solution Explorer, select each reference, and in the Properties window, set Copy Local to True and rebuild your solution.

• To avoid having to change the version number each time you install an ActiveReports service pack. You need to select each reference in the Visual Studio Solution Explorer, and in the Properties window, set Specific Version to False.

License Windows Forms projects made on the trial version

These steps assume that you have an ActiveReports licensed edition installed on your system.

1. Open the project in Microsoft Visual Studio.

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   Note: If another application calls the one containing ActiveReports features, you must license the calling application to avoid evaluation banners after deployment.

2. In Visual Studio, go to the Build menu and select Rebuild Solution.
3. To verify that the application is licensed, open the licenses.licx file and compare it to the Required references section below.

The executable application is now licensed, and no nag screens or evaluation banners will appear when you run it. You can also distribute the application to the unlicensed machines without facing any nag screens or evaluation banners.

Required references in the licenses.licx file (for Standard and Professional Editions)

The licenses.licx file must contain the following references to ActiveReports if you are using both the Section and Page reports, and both the Windows and WPF viewers. See the table for the references to the ActiveReports version and the reference to the Viewer control.

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Note: The Version, Culture, and PublicKeyToken information is added automatically, but they can be removed, and are preferred to be removed, if the version is wrong.

GrapeCity.ActiveReports.SectionReport, MESCIUS.ActiveReports
GrapeCity.ActiveReports.PageReport, MESCIUS.ActiveReports
GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Viewer.Win.Viewer, MESCIUS.ActiveReports.Viewer.Win
GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Viewer.Wpf.Viewer, MESCIUS.ActiveReports.Viewer.Wpf

The below table lists all the license strings that you may need:

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Note: When using the PDF export filter in your project, make sure you check the licenses.licx file for reference to the PDF Export Assembly.

License Web Forms projects made on the trial version

Follow these steps after you have licensed ActiveReports on your machine:

1. Open the Web Forms project in Microsoft Visual Studio.
2. In Visual Studio, go to the Build menu and select Rebuild Solution.
3. The web site application is now licensed. You can distribute the web site application to unlicensed machines and no evaluation banners will appear.

License Legacy Web Site applications

Follow these steps after you have licensed ActiveReports on your machine.

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Note: These steps help you license application made using the legacy Visual Studio template 'Web Site Application'.

1. License ActiveReports on your machine.
2. Open the project in Visual Studio.
3. In the Solution Explorer, right-click the licenses.licx file and select Build Runtime Licenses to create the App_Licenses.dll file.
4. The web site application is now licensed. You can distribute the web site application to unlicensed machines without facing any evaluation banners.
   

License a class library project

Follow these steps after you have licensed ActiveReports on your machine.

1. Open the project for the root-level calling application, that is, the executable that calls your class library, in Visual Studio.
2. From the Project menu, select Add New Item, and select an ActiveReports report. (You can delete it later. This is only to add the references to the project.)
3. In Visual Studio, go to the Build menu and select Rebuild Solution.
4. Check the licenses.licx file and verify that ActiveReports licensing is added for all of the features used in your project.

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Note:

• If you use some other features of ActiveReports in your class library that are still showing an evaluation banner, for example, features exclusive to the Professional Edition, you can add those references manually and rebuild the solution.
• The Web Key Generator and Application License Generator utilities have been removed in ActiveReports 15. You should use above steps to license the project.

License a project that use WebDesigner and JSViewer nuget packages

The WebDesigner and JSViewer nuget packages do not include a licenses.licx file, so the file needs to be added and configured manually in your project. Follow these steps to add license file in your Web Application in Visual Studio:

1. Go to Project menu and select Add New Item.

2. Select a new text file and rename it to licenses.licx.

3. Open the blank licenses.licx file and populate the file with the following entries:

   GrapeCity.ActiveReports.SectionReport, MESCIUS.ActiveReports
   GrapeCity.ActiveReports.PageReport, MESCIUS.ActiveReports
   GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.Section.PdfExport, MESCIUS.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf
   

4. Run the project.
   You should not face any licensing errors, assuming that you have a licensed ActiveReports Professional Edition.

See Also

Licensing a Developer Machine