1. From the Start menu, go to the All Programs > GrapeCity > License Manager.
2. In the GrapeCity License Manager window that appears, under Action click Activate.
3. On the Activate [Active Reports 9] screen that appears, click the Next button.
4. In the Enter a Product Key screen that appears next, enter the following information:
   • User Name: Enter your name here.
   • Organization: Enter your company name here.
   • Email: Enter your e-mail address here.
   • Product Key: Enter the product key exactly as you received it from GrapeCity, including any capital letters. When you enter the product key, a green check mark appears next to this field to indicate a valid key.
5. Click the Next and then the Finish button to complete the licensing process.

1. At the time of installation, on the last screen a check box that states Run license manager appears. Select this checkbox and click the Close button to complete the installation.
2. In the GrapeCity License Manager window that appears, under the Action field, click Activate.
3. On the Activate [Active Reports 9] screen that appears, click the Next button.
4. In the Enter a Product Key screen that appears next, enter the following information:
   • User Name: Enter your name here.
   • Organization: Enter your company name here.
   • Email: Enter your e-mail address here.
   • Product Key: Enter the product key exactly as you received it from GrapeCity, including any capital letters. When you enter the product key, a green check mark appears next to this field to indicate a valid key.
5. Click the Next button to authenticate the license.
6. If your machine does not have an internet connection, select the Use a browser on another machine with Internet connectivity option from the following screen and click the Next button.
   
7. From the Activate using the GrapeCity web site screen that appears, copy the Product Key and Authentication Number.
   
8. On another machine with an internet connection, go to https://sas.grapecity.com/activation. Remember to not close the activation dialog on your original machine till the activation process is complete.
9. Enter the Product Key and Authentication Number you copied in step 7 on this website.
10. Click the Send Request button to generate a license key.
11. Copy the license key from the web page that looks like the following image and in the Activate using GrapeCity web site dialog under step 3, enter the key.
    
12. Click the Next and then the Finish button to complete the licensing process.

A single developer license key for ActiveReports can only be used on three machines. If all the license activations have been used and you wish to license a fourth machine, you will need to deactivate the license from any of the three machines where the license is currently activated. After you have deactivated the license from the machine, you can use the same license key to activate ActiveReports on another machine. For more information, see How To: Deactivate an ActiveReports license.

These steps assume that you already have an ActiveReports licensed edition installed on your system.

1. Open the project in Microsoft Visual Studio.
2. Go to the Visual Studio Build menu and select Rebuild Solution. The executable application is now licensed, and no nag screens or evaluation banners appear when you run it. You can distribute the application to unlicensed machines and no nag screens or evaluation banners appear.

These steps assume that you already have an ActiveReports licensed edition installed on your system.

1. Open the project in Microsoft Visual Studio.
2. Open the Visual Studio Build menu and select Rebuild Solution.

   Note: For licensing Web Site applications, open the Visual Studio Build menu and select Build Runtime Licenses to create the App_Licenses.dll file.

3. The web application is now licensed, no evaluation banners appear when you run it. You can distribute the Web application to unlicensed machines and no evaluation banners appear.

If you want to change your ActiveReports license type you need to do one of the following:

Upgrade from a Standard to a Professional License:

1. From the Start menu, go to the All Programs > GrapeCity > License Manager.
2. In the GrapeCity License Manager window that appears, under Upgrade/Downgrade click Upgrade to Professional License.
3. Follow the activation steps from step 3 of To license an ActiveReports Trial without reinstalling to upgrade.

Downgrade from a Professional to a Standard License:

1. From the Start menu, go to the All Programs > GrapeCity > License Manager.
2. In the GrapeCity License Manager window that appears, under Upgrade/Downgrade click Downgrade to Standard License.
3. In the Deactivate the Product Key screen that appears select the Next button.
4. Confirm the Product screen appears. Confirm that the correct product is getting downgraded and click the Next button.
5. Deactivation Successful screen appears with the Product Name as ActiveReports 9 and the Current Status as Standard License.

The licenses.licx file must contain the following references to the ActiveReports version and the reference to the Viewer control:

Standard Edition:

Professional Edition:

For your medium trust and Windows Azure projects with ActiveReports, you may need to generate a Web Key by using the Web Key Generator utility on a machine with licensed ActiveReports.

1. Run the WebKeyGenerator.exe from the ...\Common Files\GrapeCity\ActiveReports 9 folder.
2. In the dialog that appears, copy the Web Key by clicking Copy. We recommend that you use the second Copy button to copy the Web Key together with the corresponding web.config section.
   
3. Paste the Web Key into the web.config file of your project between the opening and closing <configuration> tags to remove the licensing message. The web.config key looks like the following.

   XML code. Paste INSIDE the Web.config file	Copy Code
   <configuration> <appSettings> <add key=" ActiveReports 9 License" value="Generated Web Key" /> </appSettings> </configuration>

Follow these steps after you license ActiveReports on your machine.

1. Open the project for the root-level calling application, that is, the executable that calls your class library, in Visual Studio.

   Note: If you do not have access to this project, see "To license ActiveReports when you cannot compile the calling application."

2. From the Project menu, select Add New Item, and the select an ActiveReports report. (You can delete it later. This is only to add the references to the project.)
3. Open the Visual Studio Build menu and select Rebuild Solution.
4. Check the licenses.licx file and verify that ActiveReports licensing is added for all of the features used in your project.

When you are not able to compile the calling application in .NET, whether because you don't have access to build a third-party project, or because the calling application is COM, you can still license ActiveReports using the Application License Generator utility.

Definition: A calling application is the root-level application that the user initiates to eventually access your compiled assembly. This could be an executable, a web page, a COM executable, etc.

Follow these steps after you license ActiveReports on your machine.

1. From the ...\Common Files\GrapeCity\ActiveReports 9 folder, run the ApplicationLicenseGenerator.exe. If you are using a Windows 7 or higher machine, right click the executable file and select Run As Administrator.

   

2. Click the Browse button and select the compiled dll that requires licensing.
3. In the Assembly description field, enter the description for the assembly that you are licensing. You can later view this description by right-clicking the licensed assembly.
4. Click the Generate button.
5. Distribute the generated file <AssemblyName>.GrapeCity.Licenses.dll along with the application.
   

If your license key is invalid or corrupt, you may get an invalid license message.

To remove the message, do any one of the following:

• Run the setup to re-install and authenticate the license.
• Open the GrapeCity License Manager utility by clicking Run the License Manger (activate/deactivate) link in this error message and click Activate.

Follow the licensing steps from To license an ActiveReports Trial without reinstalling to license your product and remove the error message.

You can deactivate your ActiveReports license and go back to a Trial License.

1. From the Start menu, go to the All Programs > GrapeCity > License Manager.
2. In the GrapeCity License Manager window that appears, under Action click Deactivate.
3. In the Deactivate [ActiveReports 9] screen that appears select the Next button.
4. Confirm the Product screen appears. Confirm that the correct product is getting downgraded and click the Next button.
5. Deactivation Successful screen appears with the Product Name as ActiveReports 9 and the Current Status as Trial License (number of days left).