Licensing

MT Showcase clients must have an up-to-date license. The license defines the scope of your deployment. For example, it specifies the maximum screen size, whether Codice support is enabled, and the license expiry date.

If you installed a new version of MT Showcase, you must obtain an activation key from your MultiTaction representative. You use this key to request a license.
If you have an existing version of MT Showcase but your license has expired, or will soon expire, you must request a new activation key from MultiTaction.

In both cases, you must launch the license wizard and enter your activation key. MultiTaction uses this key to generate your MT Showcase license.

Grace period after expiry

MT Showcase does not stop the moment a license expires. There is a grace period of 14 days after the expiry date, during which MT Showcase continues to run. Renew your license within that period to avoid any interruption; see the renewal section below.

Request an Activation Key

Your MultiTaction representative will provide you with a 16-character activation key for your MT Showcase license. After receiving your activation key, you can:

Activate your license. Choose this option if your application computer is currently connected to the internet; see activate-wizard below.
Request a license. Choose this option if your application computer is not connected to the internet; see request-offline below.

Activate Your License Using the Wizard

Applicable to both Ubuntu and Windows application computers. Your application computer must be connected to the internet to use this method.

The license wizard is the recommended way to activate MT Showcase. Use it unless you cannot -- for example, on a headless application computer, or during an unattended or scripted deployment. In those cases, see activate-cli below.

Suppressing the wizard

On a headless or unattended machine, you can start MT Showcase with the --disable-license-wizard option. MT Showcase then does not open the wizard when it finds no valid license: it reports that no valid license was found and exits, instead of waiting for someone to complete a dialog that nobody is there to see. Activate the license from the command line first; see below.

You can use the license wizard to automatically request, receive and activate a license for the current computer. Follow these steps:

Start the MT Showcase client directly; see start-stop.

Important

Do not use MT Launcher to start an unlicensed MT Showcase client or a client with a license that has expired.

If MT Showcase is not yet licensed (or the current license has expired), the license wizard launches.
From the drop-down list, choose Online: Use activation key to register online. Then click Next.

License wizard, welcome screen. 1 Task options.
When prompted, enter your MT Showcase activation key. Then click Next.
Wait while your MT Showcase license downloads. Then click Finish. Your MT Showcase installation is now licensed and activated.
MT Showcase now starts automatically.

Activate Your License From the Command Line

Use this method only if the license wizard is not available to you. Your application computer must be connected to the internet to use this method.

The MT Showcase binary accepts an --activate option, which requests, receives and activates a license for the current computer in a single step. No product argument is required.

Note

Earlier releases of this guide described activating with a separate LicenseTool command. Activation is now performed by the MT Showcase binary itself, as shown below.

Ubuntu Application Computers

Follow these steps:

Right-click the desktop and launch a terminal emulator.
Run the following command:
```
$ mt-showcase --activate <key>
```
Where <key> is your 16-character license activation key. When you enter the key, include hyphens between each four-character group. For example:
```
$ mt-showcase --activate ABCD-AC2D-HGF6-HVD2
```

Note

mt-showcase is on the PATH: /usr/bin/mt-showcase is a symbolic link, managed by the system alternatives mechanism, to the binary in the installed version folder -- for example /opt/mt-showcase-26.09.5/bin/showcase. If the command is not found, use /opt/mt-showcase/bin/showcase instead, which always points at the installed version.

Start the MT Showcase client; see start-stop.

Windows Application Computers

Follow these steps:

Open a command prompt.
Run the following command:
```
"C:\Program Files\MT Showcase\bin\showcase.exe" --activate <key>
```
Where <key> is your 16-character license activation key. When you enter the key, include hyphens between each four-character group. For example:
```
"C:\Program Files\MT Showcase\bin\showcase.exe" --activate ABCD-AC2D-HGF6-HVD2
```
Start the MT Showcase client; see start-stop.

Request a License While Offline

Applicable to both Ubuntu and Windows application computers.

If your application computer cannot connect to the internet, you can generate a license request file and send this file to MultiTaction Support for processing. Follow these steps:

Tip

If the license wizard is not available to you, the MT Showcase binary can create the request file directly: mt-showcase --create-license-request <key>. The request file is written to your home folder (Documents on Windows) as MT-Showcase-offline-request.html.

The request file expires

A license request file is only valid for seven days after it is created. If more than a week passes before MultiTaction Support process it, create a new request file and send that instead.

Start the MT Showcase client; see start-stop.
If MT Showcase is not yet licensed (or the current license has expired), the license wizard launches.
From the drop-down list, choose Offline: Create license request.
When prompted, enter your 16-character license activation key. Then click Next.
Save your MT Showcase license request file. The request file is an HTML file, for example MT-Showcase-offline-request.html. You can save this file on the local computer or, for example, on a USB device.
Send your license request file to support@multitaction.com.
After MultiTaction Support have processed your license request, they will send you a license file. For example, MT-Showcase.cslicense.
When you receive your license file, save it onto your application computer. You can save this file to any folder; the license wizard will move it to the correct location when you activate your license.

You now need to activate your license; continue to the next section.

Activate Your License While Offline

Applicable to both Ubuntu and Windows application computers. Applies only if you received a license file from MultiTaction in the previous section.

Now activate the license that you received from MultiTaction. Follow these steps:

Start the MT Showcase client; see start-stop.
If MT Showcase is not yet licensed (or the current license has expired), the license wizard launches.
From the drop-down list, choose Offline: Activate license. Then click Next.
In the next wizard screen, select the license file that you received from MultiTaction. Then click Next.
Wait while your MT Showcase license is activated. Then click Finish. Your MT Showcase installation is now licensed and activated.
MT Showcase now starts automatically.

Renew Your License Before It Expires

Note

The license renewal procedure described below will require you to temporarily rename your existing license.

Your MT Showcase license is valid until midnight on the expiry date. However, if your MT Showcase license will shortly expire, you can renew the license now.

Follow these steps:

Check the expiry date for your license. The license expiry date is written to the log file when MT Showcase starts; for details about where to find the log file, see start-stop.
If you need to renew your license, obtain a new license activation key; see the activation key section above.
Temporarily rename your current MT Showcase license.

Note

This step is necessary to allow the license wizard to launch in step 4.

a. Locate your current license. It will be in the home folder (Ubuntu) or user profile (Windows) of the user who was logged on when the license was first activated; see file-locations. b. Change the extension of your license file. For example, change MT-Showcase.cslicense to MT-Showcase.cslicense.TMP.

Start the MT Showcase client; see start-stop. Because MT Showcase is now effectively unlicensed, the license wizard launches.
Create a license request and activate your new license. Do one of the following:
- If your application computer is not connected to the internet, follow steps 6 through 11.
- If your application computer is connected to the internet, you can create and activate a new license automatically. Follow the instructions in the wizard section above. Then go directly to step 11.
Manually create a license request file; see the offline request section above.
Send your license request file to support@multitaction.com. After MultiTaction Support have processed your license request, they will send you a license file. For example, MT-Showcase.cslicense.
(Optional) If you want to continue using MT Showcase while you wait for your new license file, you must temporarily change your license file back to its original name. That is, undo the file name change in step 3.
When you receive your new license file, if you reverted your license file back to its original name in the previous step, you must now change its extension for the final time. That is, you must repeat step 3.

Note

This step is necessary to allow the license wizard to launch in step 10.

Activate the new license; see the offline activation section above. Your MT Showcase installation is now re-licensed.
MT Showcase now starts automatically.

License Folders

The installed license location depends on the application computer\'s operating system. For details, see file-locations.