If you use a different license server than one of those currently supported by License Statistics (see Supported license servers), you can customize License Statistics to run with your specific license server. To run License Statistics with your license server, your parser must write an XML file that License Statistics can read and understand. In this way, virtually any licensing system can communicate with License Statistics' graphing engine.
See Adding and editing license servers for information about adding a custom license server to License Statistics.
License Statistics will read your XML file at each update interval. You should generate the XML files on a regular, scheduled basis. You can schedule the XML file generation using Windows scheduler for Windows or crontab for Linux. Note that the custom parser is a realtime parser that contains the current state of the license server. When regenerating the XML, replace (do not append to) the previous XML file.
The specifications for the XML file are as follows:
- CUSTOM_STAT, VENDOR, FEATURE and CHECKOUT_TIME specifications are required.
- Only one VENDOR name can be used.
- The VENDOR name must start with "custom_".
- USED_LICENSES reports the total of number of licenses currently in use (including borrowed licenses).
- All dates and times must be in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD [HH:MM].
- EXPIRES accepts only a date.
- CHECKOUT_TIME and BORROW_EXPIRE_TIME require both a date and time.
- BORROW_EXPIRE_TIME is required only if licenses are borrowed.
- USERNAME and/or HOSTNAME can be omitted.
- SHARE is for informational purposes, to specify which type of license sharing is in use.
Important: CHECKOUT_TIME indicates the time that the license started to be in continuous use, not necessarily the initial start of license use.
An example of the content for a custom parser XML file is given below.
<CUSTOM_STAT VENDOR="custom_testdev">
<USAGE FEATURE="App1" USED_LICENSES="2" TOTAL_LICENSES="100" BORROWED_LICENSES="1" SHARE="TEST" EXPIRES="2012-11-20">
<USER USERNAME="user1" HOSTNAME="host1" USED_LICENSES="1" CHECKOUT_TIME="2012-05-07 08:41"/>
<USER USERNAME="user2" HOSTNAME="host2" USED_LICENSES="1" BORROW_EXPIRE_TIME="2012-05-07 08:43" CHECKOUT_TIME="2012-05-07 08:41"/>
</USAGE>
<USAGE FEATURE="App2" USED_LICENSES="3" TOTAL_LICENSES="100">
<USER USERNAME="user1" HOSTNAME="host1" USED_LICENSES="1" CHECKOUT_TIME="2012-05-07 08:41"/>
<USER USERNAME="user2" HOSTNAME="host2" USED_LICENSES="1" CHECKOUT_TIME="2012-05-07 08:43"/>
<USER USERNAME="user3" HOSTNAME="host2" USED_LICENSES="1" CHECKOUT_TIME="2012-05-07 08:42"/>
</USAGE>
</CUSTOM_STAT>