I have a plugin I’ve been developing and would like to be able to distribute it using a Zoo License. What I’m imagining is that I will send the rhp file to the user and also provide them some kind of activation key that I generate, or something like that. Is LAN Zoo the right thing for this?
I’ve come across two guides for getting started (1, 2). They seem to be explaining how to do the same thing, but have different steps. Which should I be trying to follow? Or is there a more detailed guide?
I’m not understanding the distinction between used by the LAN Zoo versus uses the LAN Zoo. Could you please elaborate? And which would you suggest for someone looking to distribute a plugin with licensing protection?
Well, no. The sample is just a sample. Your Zoo plug-in should be able to decode a string, input by the user, and validate it as a valid license of yours. The sample, obviously, cannot to that.
Hi Dale, is there any way you could add that into the sample? I imagine there are and will be other first time rhino plugin developers out there that could use the same zoo plugin (different license codes of course), and it would be a huge help in making the leap from having to developed a rhino plugin to being able to distribute it.
Yeah sorry, no. We’re not going to be responsible for licensing and protecting your intellectual property.
With the Zoo, you are responsible for key generation, payment, key delivery and customer management. Once your customer has added the license to the Zoo, it will handle the rest with a licensing mechanism that’s familiar to Rhino users.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest I was hoping for any kind of responsibility or accountability for protecting the plugin. I fully understand the risks are mine alone. I’m just not understanding on a technical level how to complete the zoo plugin.
I see that clicking the green plus in Zoo brings up an add license form with a drop down for various product types. If I understand correctly, once my Zoo plugin is signed and its dll is in the zoo plugins folder, my Zoo plugin will show up in the product type list on that same form, correct? If so, once the user enters the license and clicks add, is there a function that gets called I have access to where I can validate the license code?
If I understand correctly, the only thing I need to do to the SampleVBZoo project to just get it working is to put in a check in the ValidateProductKey function to see if the key was not valid and if it isn’t then return something other than 0, such as below. Is this correct?
Dim ValidLicenses As New List(Of String)
ValidLicenses.Add(“TEST-1111-1111-1111-1111-1111”)
If Not ValidLicenses.Contains(productKey) Then Return 1
Can the same signed digital certificate be used multiple times or is it a single use kind of a thing?
For the user, as I understand it they will have both Rhino and the Zoo installed, and I will provide them both the Rhino plugin rhp file and the Zoo plugin dll file, and they will put these in the rhino and zoo plugin folders, correct?
The rhp file will be obfuscated to decrease the risk of piracy. I suppose the zoo plugin dll should be obfuscated too, given someone could just go in and change the acceptable license key list. Is this the generally practiced method or is there another more common approach? (I understand this question is going outside your scope, but perhaps you could just point me in the generally direction…)
Yes, the Zoo will be installed one some server and Rhino on one or more workstations.
Your Zoo plug-in will need to be installed into the Zoo’s plug-in’s folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Zoo 7\Plugins
Your Rhino plug-in should not be installed into Rhino’s plug-in folder. Choose some other appropriate location (e.g. Program Files, the user’s roaming profile, etc.).
You might consider distributing your plug-in via our Package Manager, as it will install the RHP into a worthy location.
How you protect your plug-in assemblies is up to you. I know some chose obfuscation. Some chose to put their licensing code in an unmanaged DLL. Others choose to validate licenses from a remote server. What you are comfortable with.
Add the OpenSSL installation folder to your Windows path: set path=C:\OpenSSL-Win32\bin;%path%
My OpenSSL got installed in a different spot so I instead did: set path=C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64\bin;%path%
But set path doesn’t seem to work for me in Windows 10 command prompt (run as administrator). So I instead get to the bin directory via CD. And then when I get there I type: CreateRequest.bat
and get the error “The syntax of the command is incorrect”. And if I do the same command without <> then I get the error "‘CreateRequest.bat’ is not recognized as an internal or external command…
I see there is a CreateRequest.bat file in mcneelcodesigning, so I try to run it from there, but I get the error 'OpenSSL is not recognized…
Any idea what I’m missing in order to complete steps 4 and 5?
The next section says to email the .csr file along with the certificate request. I have the .csr file now, but where do I find the certificate request?
Hey Brian, my name is so-and-so, and I work for so-and-so, and my plug-in is so-and-so, and we’d like to suppor the Zoo. So we’d like to request a signed digital certificate for both our Zoo and Rhino plug-ins?
