Getting Started > For Beginners > Setting a Runtime License

Setting a Runtime License

In order to legally use LEADTOOLS and unlock support for the features that you have purchased, you must provide a runtime license in your application. If you do not provide a runtime license, your application will display a "nag" message at runtime. You can develop your application without providing a runtime license, but you cannot redistribute your application to your end-users.

The LEADTOOLS runtime license consists of a LICENSE file and a developer key. Both of these are unique to each customer. The runtime license identifies which LEADTOOLS products and features you are allowed to use. To obtain a runtime license and developer key, contact sales@leadtools.com.

After you have obtained a runtime license and developer key, use the following functions to set the license in your application:

LSettings::SetLicenseFile - sets a runtime license for LEADTOOLS from a file on disk.
LSettings::SetLicenseBuffer - sets a runtime license for LEADTOOLS from a memory buffer that contains the license.

Notes:

1. To detect whether or not the LEADTOOLS kernel evaluation period has expired, use the LBase::KernelHasExpired function.
2. Server applications require a server license, and may require license activation. For more information see Activating License Server.