This section lists some, but far from all, ways of providing your potential customers with demo versions of your software. Depending on the level of security you need, you can choose a method that you may want to employ; in some cases you may want to use a single method, whereas sometimes combining multiple methods will provide the best possible protection for your application.
| Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Trial Licenses | Trial licenses let end users use an application without requiring a license. You can limit the use of trial licenses by:
By default, trial licenses are not allowed on virtual machines, as described in Licensing for virtual machines and cloud computing. However, you can allow trial licenses to run on a virtual machine using LMX_OPT_TRIAL_VIRTUAL_MACHINE, described in LMX_SetOption. Note: You can use LM-X API functions to gather useful feedback information for the trial licenses you are using. For example, LMX_GetExpireTime provides you with expiration information that you can use to remind the end user to fully license your product. |
| Restricted Usage | LM-X makes it easy to restrict application functionality for trial use. Simply omit some or all features from the license file that you distribute. Since the feature is not specified in the license file, the corresponding module in your application will be unavailable to the user. |
| Visual Reminders | You might wish to encourage full licensing of your software by having your program show a popup periodically or when the license is a few days from expiration.You can also implement such means as switching the position of a button users must press to continue opening the demo version. |
| Watermarks | You may not want your prospective customers to use a demo version of your application for distribution or publication purposes. To discourage such use, you can add watermarks to printed output; for example, by superimposing “EVALUATION” in large text on printed pages. |