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POHow do I implement license management for on-site installation of webapps (preferably cross-platform)?
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  1. POHow do I implement license management for on-site installation of webapps (preferably cross-platform)?
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    copied!<p>I have a web application running on a Gentoo-based LAMP stack. My customers buy the software as a service and I host everything. However, there is some demand for on-site deployment inside the clients' own networks.</p> <p>Currently, because I host the system, there is no built-in license management in the app. I bill based on user accounts and data capacity (it's a processing and analysis app for metering data) and I just set up whatever the client pays for and the client can't setup those things himself. Even without on-site installation, that should be changed for better scalability anyway.</p> <p>I am looking for a license managment framework and/or typical approaches that you have implemented yourselves or have seen to work well elsewhere. My requirements are:</p> <ul> <li>"safe enough" rather than "military grade"</li> <li>very much non-obtrusive</li> <li>prevent the owner of a license from running the system in multiple plants when he has only licensed one</li> <li>make the number of user accounts and the data capacity both reasonably tamper-proof and easy to up- / downgrade</li> <li>work without an Internet connection (having a completely self-contained system would be the main point of opting for the on-site solution), though it might be acceptable if there has to be a temporary connection during installation</li> </ul> <p>For some of the on-site scenarios, there would be a requirement for some particular OS, typically some version of Windows Server, but various Linux distros are getting more popular as well, especially in the public sector.</p> <p>From a user's point of view, I am quite satisfied with the license management in FogBugz, it seems Joel Spolsky is satisfied with it from a vendor's point of view, and it is cross-platform, so it would make a great reference of what I'm aiming at.</p>
 

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