Document Reader SDK Licensing Models
- Overview
- Online Licensing Service
- Obtain or Renew License
- ML: Mobile Licensing
- OL: Online Licensing
- SL: Software Licensing
- HL: Hardware Licensing
Overview
This page covers Regula licensing models: Mobile, Online, Software, and Hardware.
MLxxxxx—the Mobile License that works offline with the Document Reader Mobile SDK on mobile operating systems.OLxxxxx—the Online License works online and supports the Document Reader Mobile SDK and the Document Reader Web Service API on all supported platforms. It includes domain name licensing that applies to web components and gets bound to domain names.SLxxxxx—the Software License works offline with the Document Reader Web Service API on Windows only.HLxxxxx—the Hardware License works offline with Regula and third-party hardware devices.
The following table compares the supported platforms, renewal methods, and usage models for each license type:
| ML | OL | SL | HL | |
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| Works offline |  |
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| Works online | |
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| Mobile OS | |
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| Application ID-based (each app is licensed) | |
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| Web components (domain name licensing) | |
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| Desktop and Web Service | |
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| Windows | |
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| Containerized solutions and Linux | |
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| Instance-based | |
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| Transaction-based | |
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| Client only (one workstation is licensed) | |
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| Online automatic renewal | |
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| Offline manual renewal | |
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Online Licensing Service
The Regula licensing service checks whether an online license is valid. It is available over the internet through an encrypted HTTPS connection on port 443.
| Domain name | IP address | Description |
|---|---|---|
lic.regulaforensics.com |
3.33.212.2415.197.254.180 |
main service |
lic2.regulaforensics.com |
34.96.77.73 |
backup service, used if the main one is temporarily unavailable |
Obtain or Renew License
Trial license
You can get an online demo license for all Regula products. The license is valid for 30 days and 2000 transactions. Go to the Regula Client Portal, create an account, navigate to the My Licenses section, and download your free trial license.
If your trial license has expired, click the Contact sales button in the Client Portal or create an inquiry.
Online renewal
The license is renewed automatically when the app contacts the licensing service. You do not need to recompile or republish the app.
Online renewal is available for the following license types:
MLxxxxx, if configuredOLxxxxx, including domain name licensing
Offline renewal
When the license period is about to expire, you receive a notification from us and an offer to get a new file and renew the license.
Offline renewal is available for the following license types:
MLxxxxxSLxxxxxHLxxxxx
ML: Mobile Licensing
- For mobile applications only
- Linked to the application ID or bundle ID and mobile platform
- Works locally on a device without an internet connection
- Works for both native OS apps and cross-platform frameworks
How it works
An offline license file contains information about:
- licensed platform for use (iOS, Android, can be both in one license)
- licensed functionality
- licensed application ID or bundle ID (can be multiple in one license)
- licensed period (with specific expiration date)
The license file must be provided when the product is launched. If the license matches the environment, the Document Reader SDK works until the license expires.
If you have different app IDs for development and production environments, the license can cover them both.
OL: Online Licensing
- Mobile applications, web services, web components
- iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, containerized solutions, browsers
- For mobile applications, it is linked to the application ID or bundle ID and mobile platform
- For web components, it is linked to a domain name
- Connection to Regula licensing service is mandatory
- Instance-based or transaction-based licensing
- Works online, an internet connection is required
Instance-based license
This license type includes active and passive instances. Transactions are performed from active instances. You can configure passive instances as backups. Load balancers must not send requests to passive instances until active instances become unavailable. Otherwise, passive instances will be counted as active.
Each worker counts as an instance. So, a setup of 3 machines with 2 workers on each requires a license for 6 instances.
Transaction-based license
You can use as many active instances as you need to maintain the load. The number of workers is not limited. The billing system counts processed transactions.
How it works
On the start of an instance worker process, the licensing service is contacted, and a registration request is sent. Each worker process works in a single-threaded model. The number of workers is limited by available hardware resources.
For example, you have 1 web service deployed with 4 workers configured. If 4 requests come at the same time, they are processed in parallel, and the number of active instances as 4.
On Windows, there can be only one worker running.
In case the online license is transaction-based, each time the functionality is used, every /api/process call, the web service contacts the licensing service with a POST request. If the license is valid for this kind of request, the request gets logged, the OK response is provided, and the SDK returns the processing results.
In case the online license is instance-based or worker-based, heartbeats are monitored instead. Every hour, the web service sends a heartbeat request to the licensing service and provides the following information: license ID, session ID, IP address, product type and version used, and the timestamp. If the license is valid and the response is OK, the web service continues to operate. If the response is FAIL, the service stops returning processing results. Heartbeats continue, and as soon as the license becomes valid again, the web service resumes operation automatically. If there is no internet connection when the request is sent, the result is TIMEOUT.
If internet connection is lost, an instance-based license works 72 hours after that and then stops returning results. A transaction-based license without internet connection stops returning results immediately.
Development version token
With an online license for the production version of your app, you can get a development version token for development and testing. The development version token works almost the same way as the transaction-based one, but there is a difference. Every image submitted for processing is counted by calculating and storing its hash. There is a certain limit of images that can be processed with the development version license.
As such licenses are usually used for automatic tests on the same specific dataset of images, the same images can be processed an unlimited number of times while there is a limit to the number of unique images.
Domain name licensing
- Online license linked to a domain name
- For web components running on web pages in browsers
- Transaction-based
- Renewed online
Web pages are running on specific domain names. Each domain name on which web components are used should be licensed. You can add a wildcard, such as *.customer-domain.com, for domain names up to 29 levels deep.
When processing is performed, the web component sends a licensing request from inside the browser providing the Origin of the current domain. The licensing service verifies in our records that this domain is eligible.
SL: Software Licensing
- Works offline
- For Desktop and the Document Reader Web Service on Windows only
- Not available for Docker
How it works
Each worker counts as an instance. Only one worker is supported per instance. So, a setup of 3 machines with 1 worker on each requires 3 licenses.
A license key is an encrypted file that you place in a specific folder for the Document Reader SDK to work. The license key is generated based on the .sysinfo file that contains a set of system and hardware identifiers. If the target machine does not contain the relevant information (the identifier is missing or was modified), the Document Reader SDK does not start, and an error message appears.
To get a license, reach our sales team and send the .sysinfo file generated by the Regula Licensing application. To get the .sysinfo file, follow this guide.
HL: Hardware Licensing
- For Regula and third-party hardware devices
- Works offline
How it works
The license is bound to the unique identification number (UID) of the device. Information on all active licenses in encrypted form is stored in the database. When starting, the SDK reads the UID, checks its eligibility in the database, and enables the licensed functionality.
The devices.dat file is installed as part of the Document Reader SDK package. This file is common to all Regula and third-party hardware.
You can download the latest version of the devices.dat database file from the Regula licensing database download page.
To update the license, follow the License Update Guide.
For more information about functionality and pricing, see Regula SDK Licensing Models.