An Authorization Definition Shelf-Life defines a period of days for which an Activation Code that is generated for a particular definition will be valid.

Only some definitions have the option of using a shelf-life, (see: Authorization Definition Types)

Any generated Activation Code that uses a shelf-life must be input by the user within the number of days indicated, or it will expire and cease to work. The shelf-life is a period of days. However, during generation, the absolute UTC date that corresponds to the last day of the valid shelf-life is computed and it is this date that is embedded inside the Activation Code. Therefore, it is important that the date and time is set correctly on the machine on which you generate the Activation Codes. This is important whether you generate the codes manually with the Manual-Activator or automatically on a web-server using the Web-Activator. Note that because the actual stored shelf-life value is in Universal Time Coordinated [UTC], any time zone differences are negated. Also, since the shelf-life begins to expire as soon as the code is generated, it is important that you send the Activation Code which uses a brief shelf-life immediately to your customer.

By default, on definitions which support it, the shelf-life period is 10 days. At design-time you can change this period to any amount of days you wish, or turn off the shelf-life completely. However, you are not limited to the period you set at design-time, since you can override the defined shelf-life when you generate an Activation Code with the Manual-Activator - or decide to turn it off completely. This is unlike the Single-Use feature, which you can not override. Note you cannot override the shelf-life defined in the license using the Web-Activator, only the Manual-Activator can do this.

Codes not used within their shelf-life are expired and will not work on any system whatsoever. If you choose to not use a shelf-life, the code will never expire and will be valid forever.

Shelf-lives can be particularly useful if you have defined a license that is not machine locked. In such a case, an Activation Code would work for any to whom it was given. This presents a problem if you anticipate users illegally distributing a valid Activation Code. If a shelf-life prevents the Activation Code from being used past a certain date, the risk in that scenario is minimized since the code itself will simply expire.

More Information

For help in understanding the override Shelf-Life feature, see Override Shelf-Life in this Feature Guide.

For help in defining the initial Shelf-Life of your Authorization Definitions, see Setting An Authorization Definitions Shelf-Life in the SoftwareShield License Manager Reference.

For help in overriding the Shelf-Life of an Authorization Definition at run-time using the Manual-Activator, see Overriding A Shelf-Life in the SoftwareShield Manual-Activator Reference.