How to share PxPlus Activation file

[PxPlus]

PxPlus allows you to share a common license file (ACTIVATE.PVX) between different instances and versions of PxPlus.  Sharing the license file allows you to distribute the user counts between either different systems or to enable PxPlus version testing of your application.

Prerequisites

In order to share the license file, all installations must be of the same operating system and the same PxPlus machine class, an example would be Microsoft Windows (machine class 001), X86 Linux platforms (all 32 or all 64 bit), etc.

Each individual installation must have access to the PxPlus activation file and the directory it resides in. This can be either direct access (both on the same computer), a shared mapped drive or the UNC name such as "//mainserver/pxplus/PxpKeys/ACTIVATE.PVX".

Methods to share license file

While there are many ways to share the license file, the following are the most common approaches:

• For Windows and current UNIX/Linux environments the application INI (pxplus.ini) file can be used by including an ActivationKey setting as shown below.
  
  [Config]
  ActivationKey=C:\PVX Plus Technologies\PxpKeys
  
  The ActivationKey entry in the Config section of the pxplus.ini must point to the common activation file.
  
  Reference:   PxPlus INI file
  
  
• For Windows and UNIX/Linux environments back to and including ProvideX v9 you can include a  –K: command line activation parameter when launching PxPlus:
  
  pxplus.exe –k:"//MyMainServer/lib/KEYS"
  
  Reference:  PxPlus Command Line Activation Parameters
  
  
• For Windows and UNIX/Linux environments back to and including PxPlus (v8) the PVXKEY environment variable can set to the directory where the ACTIVATE.PVX file is found.
  
  PVXKEY=//MyMainServer/lib/KEYS
  
  

The best method to use would depend on your intended use and the environment you are working in such as Production vs Test/Development and Windows vs Linux.

Special Linux/UNIX sharing option

While all the above will work on Linux/Unix systems, the simplest approach on these systems would be to use a Linux/Unix file system link between the multiple installations. 
For example if you had two versions of PxPlus installed, one in /usr/pxplusv11 and another in /usr/pxplusv12, you could first register and activate the software in /usr/pxplusv11 then issue the following Linux command to share the ACTIVATE.PVX:

ln /usr/pxplusv11/lib/ACTIVATE.PVX /usr/pxplusv12/lib/ACTIVATE.PVX

You can use either a hard link or symbolic link (ln -s) should the two installations be on different systems.