Auto PHP Licenser 2.4 Drops Legacy Server Responses

Auto PHP Licenser 2.4 completes transition to invisible server responses, enables users to auto-update their licenses, and brings extra protection for licenses with disabled IP verifications.

Back in 2018, we released version 2.0 of PHP license manager software, which brought new, invisible server responses for even harder reverse engineering. At the same time, we announced that legacy (v1.x) licenses will be deprecated in 2019, giving developers more than 6 months of time to upgrade their scripts. As a result, v2.4 and higher will only communicate with protected scripts that use v2.x licenses.

Removed: legacy server responses for 1.x versions;

But what does it mean for you and what steps (if any) should you take? If you run Auto PHP Licenser 2.0 or higher and your scripts have user module (that one from /SCRIPT directory inside installation package) from v2.x integrated, there’s absolutely nothing you have to do. Auto-update your installation using Software Updates section as usually and enjoy all the new features of latest release. But what if you ignored our previous recommendations and didn’t update licensing engine in your scripts? You still have 2 options:

Do not install Auto PHP Licenser 2.4 yet. Instead, update licensing engine (user module) in your scripts first. If you are not sure how to do it, our support team will help you. Then, deliver updated scripts to your clients (consider using PHP Auto Update Script for automatic updates in background). As soon as your clients run the latest versions of your scripts, update your installation using Software Updates section in administration dashboard as usually.
If for some reason you don’t want to take benefits of new features and improved protection, do nothing. As a result, your old installation and protected scripts will continue to work, but you will not be able to upgrade to future versions of PHP license manager. Of course, you will always have an option to perform a new installation from scratch.

This is it. Now, let’s continue to other exciting features of current release.

Auto PHP Licenser 2.4 users can automatically update their own licenses inside protected script without contacting author.

In order to offer the most effective protection, licensing server locks each installation to a specific IP address. Hence, if user copies protected script to another system, licensing module blocks it. But what if user transfers his website to new server and his IP changes? He has 2 options here: 1) contact author and ask him to update licensed IP, or 2) login to client area on author’s website and update IP address himself. The second option is only available if author has client area and uses Auto PHP Licenser API, which enables to auto-update existing installations. However, a big majority of authors don’t have client areas on their websites, and they choose to update licensed IPs manually. Until now…

Added: aplUpdateLicense function for user to update his own license inside protected script;

Version 2.4 introduces a new feature which enables licensed users to update their IPs with a single click of mouse inside protected scripts. All author has to do is call aplUpdateLicense() function in his script. The function doesn’t require any arguments and is fully automated; it connects to author’s server and performs all the verifications first. If license is valid and installation is authorized, it captures new IP of user’s server and updates license data accordingly. All the verifications and updates are performed on author’s servers, making it impossible for user to fake any data or avoid license verification. Sounds good? See the updated documentation and bundled demo scripts for more details and real-life code examples.

Extra protection for licenses with disabled IP verifications.

According to some requests, we introduced option to disable IP verifications for individual licenses. The latest release allows to disable IP verifications per individual installation instead of license.

Changed: IP verifications can now be disabled per individual installation instead of license;

In other words, if some client has multiple licenses for the same product, authors can now disable IP verifications for each individual installation(s), forcing remaining installations to perform IP verification for greater protection. If you use this option (even if we don’t recommend doing so), be sure to review existing installations and enable this option for individual installation(s) after upgrade.

As always, new release brings many more new features and improvements which you can find in Changelog section. Happy New Year and stay tuned; PHP Auto Update Script 1.5.1 with tons of updates is on the way!

Important! If you have Envato Purchase Verification Plugin for Auto PHP Licenser installed, don’t forget to update plugin to ensure that Envato purchase reports are properly generated in new version.