There are two steps to using the SoftwareShield Web-Activator in conjunction with a payment processing merchant (or your own merchant account) to activate your software. This section describes an example of step 2. (Step 1 is covered in Example Web-Activator Front-End HTML) A diagram at the bottom of this page illustrates the flow of control. As mentioned, if you process your own payments, then your payment processing system must perform this step.

In the "samples\HTML" directory (normally under <program files>\SoftwareShield\samples\HTML) you will find the sample file "CallingGetACodeFromMerchant.htm". This is a working code sample. The HTML contains valuable additional information. Note also that the working code actually links to the SoftwareShield Live Web-Activator Test Server

The sample HTML shows the flow between steps 3 and 5 below:

1. Your user initiating a purchase at your web-site (diagram step 1)

2. A merchant services provider or your own payment processing system processing the transaction. (diagram step 1)

3. The Web-Activator receiving a request for an Activation Code.  (diagram step 2)

4. The Web-Activator remitting an Activation Code back to you or your merchant.  (diagram step 3)

5. The final Activation Code delivered to the user. (diagram step 4)

CallingGetACodeFromMerchant.htm shows a step that is actually performed by the payment processing merchant (or your site if you process your own payments).

The payment processing merchant completes the transaction and when successful, does a HTTP GET to your Web-Activator URL sending along the parameter string you prepared on the page in step 1. The response from the GET will be the Activation Code. The merchant must then place this response (the Activation Code) into an email (for example) and send it to the user (probably with the receipt). This page demonstrates this second step only.

The example shows just one possible way to assemble the GenCode parameter. It could easily be done using ASP or ASP.NET or other server side code. For simplicity, the sample illustrates how you might assemble the parameter using javascript. This allows you to test the example even if you are not actively running a web-server on your localhost.