This section is a brief introduction to the SoftwareShield Web-Activator. For comprehensive help on the Web-Activator, and all of its functions, you should instead see the section: SoftwareShield Web Activator.

First, some terminology. SoftwareShield uses the words "Activation Code" generally to refer to the 16 digit code that you send to your customer to activate (or somehow control) their software. The words "Authorization Definition" refer to the code, and all its details, you set up inside the license file that will eventually be requested by your customer. The customer will send you an "Authorization Request Code", which is again a 16 digit code that has encoded information that requests a specific action (such as releasing copy protection, or adding more trial days). Alternatively the customer will send you both an Authorization Request Code and a "Serial Number" which is a token of ownership to some aspect of your software (used with the CheckPoint License Server).

These items are central concepts to the SoftwareShield System and must be understood thoroughly. More detail about these important items can be found in the Feature Guide under Activation Codes, Authorization Definitions, Authorization Request Codes and Serial Numbers.

Your customer will use your software, when they wish to unlock it or some specific feature of it, or perform any other SoftwareShield controlled function, your program will query the ClientProtector component and the license you created for an Authorization Definition. The ClientProtector will then respond with an Authorization Request Code (which you should provide to the user). The user will then contact you (in this case through your web-site) to make the purchase and along with payment, provide their Authorization Request Code. Once your site process their payment successfully - it will link to the Web-Activator, passing along a set of parameters (including Authorization Request Code) to get a new Activation Code. (A more thorough scenario is detailed in Understanding The SoftwareShield System. )

There are four different methods for creating Activation Codes: Manually, Automated with the Web-Activator, Automated with the CheckPoint License Server (which also performs authentication) and Programmatically using the COM-Activator.

Regardless of which method of creating Activation Codes you choose, the basic principle is the same. The customer pays you, also providing you with an Authorization Request Code from your software. You input that code to the Activation Code Generator (automatically over the web using the Web-Activator, or manually using the Manual-Activator) and you give the created code to the user, which will unlock the specific Authorization Definition you designed into the license.

The following diagram explains the basic flow when using the Web-Activator.