To deploy the SoftwareShield Web-Activator (on the web), you must have a Windows (IIS) web server to host the component. There is no requirement that this must be the same server as your storefront page or merchant services page resides.

To deploy the Web-Activator, follow these steps:

1. Create a sub-directory on a server where you allow only executable permissions.

2. Copy the application (CGIACodeGen.exe) from the SoftwareShield directory on your machine to that web-directory. Place a copy of the license project that you wish to generate Activation Codes for in that directory as well. (This is the ".LPJ" License Project File, not the distributed license file).

3. If you are using IIS6, you may also have to add the "allow unknown extensions to execute" to the web-sites permissions.  This is because in IIS6, Microsoft has decided that if it is not .NET - it is "unknown".

4. You should now test that the Web-Activator has sufficient permissions to execute on your server properly.  To perform this test, simply call the Web-Activator directly through a web browser.  For example, if you have deployed your Web-Activator to a sub-directory on your site called "scripts", open a web browser and input the URL: "http://www.mysite.com/scripts/cgiacodegen.exe".  When called like this the Web-Activator should respond immediately with a message that it is online. If you do not get this message, check your permission settings on the server and try again.  The message will appear as in the following image:
   
   

5. Set up your web-page where your customer purchases your product with a required field for their Authorization Request Code. Program the page such that they must provide this code (along with purchase information) to proceed. Also program your page so that when they enter purchase information you know exactly what license (product) they are purchasing for and what (if any) parameter will be required for the Activation Code Generator. The next steps depend on your particular situation:

   1. If you process your own credit card payments - do so immediately. When the payment is successfully processed, assemble a "GenCode" string for the Web-Activator (discussed in Web-Interface URL Format) and call the web-application now. Remit the output from the Web-Activator to the customer along with their receipt or proof of payment.

   2. If you instead use a third party merchant to process payments who then calls your Web-Activator for you, first assemble the full URL string (or just the parameter portion of the URL string - depending on the merchant requirements) and pass it to the merchant along with any other necessary information. Almost all merchants have some mechanism allowing you to pass strings of information to them for processing Key (Activation Code) Generator requests. Check with your merchant for details. Your merchant will then process the payment and if successful, will call the Web-Activator, and puts its response in the receipt or proof of purchase which they then directly remit to your customer

Input:

The format of the URL used to call the Web-Activator is discussed in Web-Interface URL Format.

Output:

The output of the Web-Activator is discussed in Return Values From The Web-Activator.

Note: The SoftwareShield Web-Activator only comes with the Internet and Server Editions of the SoftwareShield System.