Introduction

This document describes the workflow and the protocol for retrieving and
managing license keys for ISV applications used with Plesk.

The document uses the following terminology:

• Independent Software Vendor (ISV) - an organization specializing
  in making and selling software designed for mass or niche markets.

• Key Administrator (KA) - the system for inventory and management
  of Plesk and third-party software licenses.

• Plesk instance - an individual installation of Plesk.

• License key (or simply license) - a unique key that certifies
  that a particular user is permitted to use a service or a program
  with a specific set of pre-defined options. Each third-party license
  is stored as a record in the Key Administrator system with the
  following attributes:

  • license number and activation code

  • license creation and expiration dates

  • license owner

  • licensed product

  • license body

    Note: The exact format of a license body should be defined by ISV
    (can be binary or any kind of textual data). An ISV application
    should be able to recognize this body as a valid key to unlock
    certain functionality for the end user. Typically, license body
    contains information about (but not limited to) the edition of
    the product, the limitations by number of domains or mailboxes,
    additional features, etc.

• License number - a unique identifier of a license key in Key
  Administrator. Can be recorded as prefix.number.version (example:
  EXT.12345678.0001), where only the unique number part has sense.

• License key file (or license file) - representation of a
  license as a file. A license file can be obtained by exporting a
  license from Key Administrator. A license file contains a signed XML
  document, that holds the information about the licensed product and
  the license dates. Also a license file contains the license body
  wrapped in BASE64. A license file can be installed to Plesk by
  uploading it at Tools & Settings > License Management in the
  Plesk user interface. You can find an example of a license file in
  License File Structure.

• License activation code (or shortly activation code) - a
  human-readable string consisting of 34 characters that can be used as
  a handy reference for a particular license. Can include the hyphen
  “-“, digits, and capital English alphabet letters. Example:
  AXQW00…