Tag: usage-based licensing

Analytics of feature usage

Cryptolens offers different ways to analyse usage data. The standard analytics portal uses information generated when licenses are verified, which allows you to get insights where your users are located, when they use the application, etc.

There also an option to send in more data, which will give better insights about how different modules are used. We will cover this in this post.

Sending in data

To register an event, you can call the RegisterEvent method. Most of the parameters are optional, but it’s useful to at least supply a FeatureName and either Key or MachineCode. If you just have one product, ProductId is not necessary, but it’s useful if you have multiple products.

Cryptolens always needs to be able to link usage data to a unique user to give better results. The code snippet below can be used to register event, in our case that the user started YearReportGenerator module.

AI.RegisterEvent("access token with RegisterEvent permission", 
    new RegisterEventModel { EventName = "start", FeatureName = "YearReportGenerator", Key= "AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD", MachineCode = Helpers.GetMachineCode(), ProductId = 3 });

If you are using any other environment, the same can be accomplished with with a GET request as follows:

https://app.cryptolens.io/api/ai/RegisterEvent?token=<access token with RegisterEvent permission>&Value=30&Currency=USD&ProductId=3&MachineCode=<machine code>

More details about what information can be sent is available here.

Retrieving data

If you would like to analyse the data yourself, you can use GetEvents method to retrieve it. However, it’s also possible to get visual representation on the this page. The GUI is continuously improved, so if you have any feedback, you are more than welcome to get in touch. Below are several screenshots. The first image shows the summary of all the features:

The second image below shows event distribution:

Usage-based (pay per use) software licensing in .NET

Many software vendors nowadays move away from one-time payments to other licensing models. One such example is the usage-based model. By doing so helps lowering the barrier of entry for new customers, as they no longer need to commit to the product long term, which is usually the case with one-time payments. If you already have a subscription model, supporting usage-based payments can help you to monetise a group of users who would otherwise not buy the product.

You can read the entire tutorial here.

Getting started

In Cryptolens, usage-based licensing can be implemented using data objects, aka custom variables. We can use these variables to record how often features are used and keep track of any usage credits that a customer has purchased. There are two ways of billing customers:

  • Upfront payment: customers need to purchase usage credits in advance.
  • Based on actual usage: customers pay for the actual usage in the end of the billing period.

Charging based on actual usage

If you choose to charge your customers based on actual usage, we can simply use the code below:

var auth = "Access token with AddDataObject, ListDataObject and IncrementIntValue permission. Please also set KeyLock value to '-1'";
var licenseKey = "LZKZU-MPJEW-TARNP-UHDBQ";

var result = Data.ListDataObjects(auth, new ListDataObjectsToKeyModel 
{
    Contains = "usagecount",
    Key = licenseKey,
    ProductId = 3349 
});

var obj = result.DataObjects.Get("usagecount");

if (obj == null)
{
    // make sure to create it in case it does not exist.
    Data.AddDataObject(auth, new AddDataObjectToKeyModel { Key = licenseKey, ProductId = 3349, Name = "usagecount", IntValue = 1 });

    if(res == null || res.Result == ResultType.Error)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Could not create new data object. Terminate." + res.Message);
    }
}
else
{
    var res = obj.IncrementIntValue(auth, 1, licenseKey: new LicenseKey { Key = licenseKey, ProductId = 3349 });

    if (res == false) 
    {
        Console.WriteLine("We could not update the data object. Terminate.");
    }
}

Upfront payments

If you instead want to charge your users upfront, we need to create the data objects when creating the license. If you are using payment forms, we can set up two requests, one creating a new license and another creating a new data object (inspired by this tutorial), as the result from key creation will be “piped” into data object creation request. You can then have another payment form that allows users to refill their credits, in which case the custom field can be used.

You can use the code below to verify if the limit was reached inside your application:

var auth = "Access token with AddDataObject, ListDataObject and IncrementIntValue permission. Please also set KeyLock value to '-1'";
var licenseKey = "LZKZU-MPJEW-TARNP-UHDBQ";

var result = Data.ListDataObjects(auth, new ListDataObjectsToKeyModel { Contains = "usagecount", Key = licenseKey, ProductId = 3349 });
var obj = result.DataObjects.Get("usagecount");

var res = obj.DecrementIntValue(auth, decrementValue: 1, enableBound:true, lowerBound: 0, licenseKey: new LicenseKey { Key = licenseKey, ProductId = 3349 });

if (!res)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Could not decrement the data object. The limit was reached.");
}