Altova Developer Tool Licensing FAQs

There are three different license models available for Altova Developer Tool software products:

• Installed
• Concurrent
• Named

See Desktop Developer Tools section of the License Models page for a description of each license model.

Prior to version 2018 in order to use our desktop products in a virtual environment it was necessary to purchase a license of the “Concurrent” license model variation. As of version 2018 it is possible to purchase a license of the Installed, Concurrent, or Named User License model variation as long as an Altova LicenseServer is used to meter the license usage of the product in the virtual environment, with certain restrictions. Please refer to the License Models page for complete details.

Prior to version 2017 of our Developer Tool products there were two methods to activate the software:

Both of these methods activate the software so that the built-in license metering module (included with the software) is used to monitor license usage. Both methods result in the creation of a “[product].lic” file e.g."xmlspy.lic” saved locally on your machine:

Method 1. Manually enter the license details into the Software Activation dialog (HELP | Software Activation | Enter a New Key Code )

Method 2. Double click on the “Licenses.altova_licenses” file (this file was sent to you via email as an attachment when you requested an evaluation / purchased a license from Altova). After saving the “Licenses.altova_licenses” file to your hard drive, double clicking on it will open the Altova License Wizard which is used to apply the license to the software on your machine.

Version 2017 and newer of our Developer Tool products introduced an additional method to activate the software. This method does not use the built-in license metering module to monitor license usage. Instead a license is obtained from an Altova License Server in your network.

Method 3. This method activates the software by obtaining an available license from an Altova License Server installed in your network. In this scenario a license “.lic” file is NOT stored on the local machine but is centrally administered via the License Server.

Press the “Use Altova License Server” button in the Software Activation dialog (HELP | Software Activation) and select a License Server from which an available license for the product can be obtained.

This method is necessary for Concurrent and Named User Licenses as these must now be administered via an Altova License Server installed in your network

Version 2020 and newer of our Developer Tool products changes two things with regards to activating the software using the built-in license metering module:

It will no longer be possible to manually enter the license details via the “HELP | Software Activation | Enter a New Key Code” method (Method “1” above).

Save the Licenses.altova_licenses file attached to your license email to your hard drive and then either:

• Upload the license via the “HELP | Software Activation | Upload License” button
• Double click on the saved Licenses.altova_licenses file to activate the license via the License Activation Wizard

When using the built-in license metering module the license key is stored in a file on the user’s machine, whereas when using the Altova LicenseServer the license is stored centrally on the License Server.

The built-in license metering module is useful for scenarios in which:

• Only a small number of license keys for a small amount of users are being monitored (for which an Altova LicenseServer may be considered too much overhead).
• The users using a particular license are all in the same subnet.

The Altova LicenseServer is useful for scenarios in which:

• several license keys / a significant number of users are being monitored.
• the users being monitored may be in different subnets.
• centrally administered licenses are preferable to reduce internal license related support calls.
• centrally administered licenses are preferable to have a better overview of current license usage as well as future capacity planning.

As of version 2018 Altova LicenseServer will be necessary if you want to monitor a 2018 or higher version of our desktop products:

• several license keys / a significant number of users are being monitored.
• the users being monitored may be in different subnets.
• centrally administered licenses are preferable to reduce internal license related support calls.
• centrally administered licenses are preferable to have a better overview of current license usage as well as future capacity planning.

The license information (company name, license key-code and username) is case sensitive and must be entered exactly as specified in the registration email which you received from Altova. It is recommended to COPY AND PASTE the license information from the email into the Software Activation dialog (as opposed to typing it in). If no username is specified in the registration email any value can be entered into the “Name” field (but this field must never be left empty).

Note: this error is only applicable to versions prior to 2020. With Version 2020 and later, the license file itself must be uploaded into the Software Activation window.

There are three possible reasons (or combinations thereof):

• Your license key is for a different PRODUCT than the one that you are attempting to activate e.g. attempting to activate StyleVision Enterprise Edition 2022 with an XMLSpy Enterprise Edition 2022 license key.
• Your license key is for a different EDITION of the product than the one that you are attempting to activate e.g. attempting to activate XMLSpy Professional Edition 2022 with an XMLSpy Enterprise Edition 2022 license key.
• Your license key will not activate the VERSION of the product and edition that you are attempting to activate e.g. attempting to activate MapForce Enterprise Edition 2022 with a license key that will only unlock MapForce Enterprise Edition 2021. The actual versions of the software which your license key can unlock will depend on when the license key was purchased and whether the key was purchased with an SMP (Support and Maintenance Package) or not.

This message appears when the license key code last used to activate the software has been applied towards an upgrade or transferred to another party. In the case of an upgrade, and if thirty days have not yet passed, you may be able to access the Software Activation window via the Help menu to upload the new license key code for your upgraded license.

After thirty days have passed, then your old license has now become obsolete and the software will no longer launch until you apply the new license key code for your upgraded license. There are two ways you can do this.

1.    Your upgraded license e-mail has a file attached to it ending with “.altova_licenses”. Save this file to your disk, then double-click it to launch the Altova License Wizard which is installed along with the product. You may then overwrite the old license key with the new one to the “major version” selected in the License Wizard

2.    Manually delete the old license key file, “C:\ProgramData\Altova\[product][version]\[product].lic” (e.g., “C:\ProgramData\Altova\XMLSpy2022\XMLSpy.licbin”, and note the first folder is the hidden-by-default “C:\ProgramData”, not “C:\Program Files”), then launch the product once again to upload the new license file. The documentation for your product describes that process in more detail under “Menu Reference / Help Menu / Software Activation”.

In general, this situation can be avoided by re-activating the product with the new license key code upon receipt. In case you are registered with your organization’s Altova LicenseServer installation, please contact your LicenseServer administrator to resolve any issues of this type.

Sometimes when trying to save the license key details in the Software Activation Dialog, you may get an error message similar to this: "Cannot save license data in C:\ProgramData\Altova\XMLSpy2022\xmlspy.lic".

To solve this issue, in Windows Explorer please ensure that you have “write” permissions to the file and folder mentioned in the error message, and then try to save the license data again.

NOTE: In Windows Explorer the directory / file mentioned in the error message may be HIDDEN. In this case it will be necessary to enable the “Show hidden files and folders” option to find it.

No, Altova only provides evaluation license keys for the latest version of the software.

If your license key was purchased with an SMP (Support and Maintenance Package) it can also be used to unlock previous versions of the software.

When using the built-in license metering module the software will start displaying the SMP expiration warning message 90 days before the SMP expires. When using the Altova LicenseServer the software will start displaying the message 30 days before SMP expiration. The only way to prevent the SMP warning message from being shown altogether is to renew the SMP and register the new license key. If the SMP is not renewed the message will no longer be displayed once the SMP has expired.

Altova Server software products are licensed on a per core per year basis.

See Server Software Products section for a description of this license model.

No, Altova Server products must use an Altova LicenseServer to administer and monitor Server product usage.

Yes, Altova LicenseServer must be connected to the internet.

If the status of a new Server license uploaded to Altova LicenseServer is set to “Blocked” it is likely that a) the validity of this license begins on a future date, and b) you are using an older version of Altova LicenseServer. In this case, install the latest version of Altova LicenseServer. Once you have installed the latest version of Altova LicenseServer you will notice that the status of the license changes from “Blocked” to “Pending". The “Pending” status of a license will automatically change to “Active” on the start date of the new license.

If the status of a new Server license received from Altova is set to “Pending” it is because the validity period of that license starts at a future date.The license status will automatically change to “Active” on the start date for that license.

If you only wish to purchase a 1 core license for a Server product there are two options:

• You can install a virtual machine on your physical machine and then set the number of cores allocated to this virtual machine to 1. Next, install the Server Product on the virtual machine and register the Server Product with Altova LicenseServer.
• Alternatively, if you do not want to set up a virtual machine, you can check the “Limit to single thread execution” option for the license in question in the “Client Management” tab of the Altova LicenseServer web interface.