Generating Activation Codes for paying customers can be completely automated.

Automatic generation of Activation Codes may be performed two ways:

1. By the SoftwareShield Web-Activator.  The SoftwareShield Web-Activator is a CGI executable that you deploy on a Windows web-server.  The Web-Activator is intended for use when you have an intermediate authentication layer in your processing.  This is because the web-activator will always generate an Activation Code for any valid request - no database (except for simple log-files) is involved.  Your authentication layer will decide wether or not to link to the Web-Activator and deliver the resulting Activation Code to the customer.  The most common authentication layer is a payment processing gateway or merchant services provider.  When the payment is successfully processed, the user is "authenticated" and has the right to receive exactly one Activation Code.

2. By the SoftwareShield CheckPoint License Server. The SoftwareShield CheckPoint License Server is an ISAPI module and database that you deploy on a Windows web-server.  Unlike the Web-Activator, the CheckPoint server performs authentication and determines from the passed Serial Number (the token of ownership) if the user has the right to receive and Activation Code.  

You should have already read Introduction To the SoftwareShield Web Activator and Introduction to the CheckPoint License Server to gain a basic understanding of how these modules work.

You must correctly construct the parameters the Web-Activator requires and pass them with the request. Normally this step is performed by either your site alone if you process your own payments, or in a cooperative effort between your site and your payment processing merchant services provider if not (the authentication layer). More detail can be found in the SoftwareShield Web-Activator Reference.

Two sub-sections briefly describe the following features available using the Web-Activator:

1. Log Web Activator Activity

2. Configure Web Activator Requests and Responses

For more information on generating Activation Codes using the CheckPoint License Server, see the section dedicated to its features: CheckPoint Central Server Controlled Licensing and sub-sections:

1. CheckPoint Administrators

2. CheckPoint Automated Activation

More Information

For help on actually generating Activation Codes using the Web-Activator, see the SoftwareShield Web-Activator Reference.