This post is article 30 from the 30 Articles App series for SharePoint

In this article, I will discuss about Licensing your SharePoint app on office store.

When you upload your app on the Office Store for publication, you can choose the terms of the license you want to offer, like offering your app for free, trial, or for purchase. Or your app can be acquired on a per-user or site basis.

SharePoint provides a licensing framework that lets you include code logic in your app to enforce whatever licensing restrictions you choose. For example, you can include code logic in your app that enables users to access certain app features if they have a paid license, but not if they have a trial license.

A user with a license for an app can use that app on any site for that particular SharePoint deployment. In general, for the purpose of app licenses, deployment is defined as the SharePoint farm for on-premises SharePoint installations, and the tenancy for SharePoint Online in Office 365. The app’s purchaser can manage the app license, assign those app licenses to other users within their deployment, and enable other users to manage the licenses. A user who is assigned an app license can access and use the app.

For apps for SharePoint that have a per-user license, each app license can be assigned to the specified number of SharePoint users. The app license applies only to the specified SharePoint deployment and the specified users.
For apps with a site license, that license is assigned to all users on that deployment automatically. You cannot programmatically assign app licenses.

App license query and validation process :
1. The user launches the app from within SharePoint.
2. This launches the app code in the cloud.
3. When the app needs to verify a user’s app license, it uses server-side code to query SharePoint, via the client object model, for the app license token.
4. It then passes that token to the Office Store verification service.
5. The verification service returns whether the license token is valid, and if it is, also returns the license properties.
6. The app can then take action, based on the validity of the license and its properties

 

 

Finally, after you finish testing your app and are ready to move it to production, you need to add code to the license checks in your app so that the app no longer accepts test licenses.

Let’s validate app’s Validate the app license token in code:

Retrieving app license tokens using GetAppLicenseInformation :

productId = new Guid();
using(ClientContext ctx = new ClientContext(webUrl))
{
    ClientResult licensecollection = Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Utilities.Utility.GetAppLicenseInformation(ctx, productId);
    ctx.ExecuteQuery();
}

Validating the app license token
After you retrieve the appropriate app license token, pass that token to the Office Store verification web service for validation. The verification service is located at the following URL: https://verificationservice.officeapps.live.com/ova/verificationagent.svc

The Office Store license verification web service also supports verifying app license tokens using REST calls. To verify an app license by using REST, use the following syntax:

https://verificationservice.officeapps.live.com/ova/verificationagent.svc/rest/verify?token=token

Where {token} is the app license token

For test app licenses, the IsTest property returns true and the IsValid property returns false.
This sample requires a reference to Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Utilities, and a web service reference to the Office Store verification service.

retrieving app license tokens : GetAppLicenseInformation

//Get the license token XML from SharePoint.
this.rawToken = GetLicenseTokenFromSP(this.productId, this.clientcontext);

//Call the Office Store verification service.
VerifyLicenseToken(this.rawToken);

private string GetLicenseTokenFromSP(Guid productId, ClientContext clientContext)
{
    //Get the license from SharePoint.
    ClientResult licenseCollection = Utility.GetAppLicenseInformation(clientContext, productId);
    clientContext.Load(clientContext.Web);
    clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

    foreach (AppLicense license in licenseCollection.Value)
    {
        //Just get the first license token for now.
        rawLicenseToken = license.RawXMLLicenseToken;
        break;
    }
    return (rawLicenseToken);
}

private void VerifyLicenseToken(string rawLicenseToken)
{    
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(rawLicenseToken))
    {
        licVerifyEndPoint.Text = "There is no valid license for this user in SharePoint (OR) license cannot be obtained due to some error - check ULS.";
        return;
    }

    VerificationServiceClient service = null;
    VerifyEntitlementTokenResponse result = null;
    VerifyEntitlementTokenRequest request = new VerifyEntitlementTokenRequest();
    request.RawToken = rawLicenseToken;
    lblSPLicenseText.Text = System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(request.RawToken);   

    try
    {
        service = new VerificationServiceClient();
        result = service.VerifyEntitlementToken(request);
    }
    catch (EndpointNotFoundException)
    {
        licVerifyEndPoint.Text = "Cannot access verification service endpoint";
    }
    catch (FaultException)
    {
        licVerifyEndPoint.Text = "Error: entitlement verification service is unavailable.";
    }
    catch (FaultException internalFault)
    {
        licVerifyEndPoint.Text = "Error: entitlement verification service failed. Details: " + internalFault.Detail.Message;
    }
    catch (Exception exception)
    {
        licVerifyEndPoint.Text = "Error: entitlement verification service failed. Details: " + exception;
    }

    if (result != null && result.AssetId !=null)
    {
        string licenseDetails = string.Format("Asset Id: {0}; Product Id: {1}; License Type: {2}; Is Valid: {3}; License Acquisition Date: {4}; License Expiry Date: {5}; IsExpired: {6}; IsTest: {7}; IsSiteLicense: {8}; Seats: {9}; TokenExpiryDate: {10}",
                result.AssetId, result.ProductId, result.EntitlementType, result.IsValid, result.EntitlementAcquisitionDate, result.EntitlementExpiryDate, result.IsExpired, result.IsTest, result.IsSiteLicense, result.Seats, result.TokenExpiryDate);

        if (result.EntitlementType.ToUpper() == "FREE")
        {
          //Allow basic functionality
        }
        else if (result.EntitlementType.ToUpper() == "PAID")
        {
          //Allow all functionality
        }
        else //trial
        {
          //Allow limited functionality
        }
    }
            else
    {
        licVerifyEndPoint.Text = "Verification service didn't return any results";
    }
}

Hope you have enjoyed this series !!

This post is article 29 from the 30 Articles App series for SharePoint

Future of Auto-hosted apps :

A few blogs from SPC14  say about AutoHosted Apps are being deprecated, This could be a rumor as Microsoft has not yet confirmed anything officially on this. If they are not being deprecated in near future, for how long they will be supported or when they may go from preview to fully supported is still not clear. As they are still in Preview, they should be avoided for Production design and recommended for only prototyping .

Some new Infographics for Apps:

These infographics can be downloaded from here . They give good and quick understanding on Why to build SharePoint apps?, App Concepts, App – hosting options, Data storage/access options etc.

New Office Web Widgets:

These experimental UI widgets were announced at SPC14 and are intended to help building apps for Office and SharePoint. The first release includes People Picker and the List View widgets. As per the Office dev team, these widgets are “experimental” and its primary goal is to collect feedback. They plan to release these controls for production use soon. Download it from NuGet Manager (search for Office Widgets) . Try it and send your feedback on UserVoice using the Office Web Widgets category.

New Office 365 SDK for Android Preview:

Finally Microsoft is thinking openly ;). this sdk is built by  MS Open Tech and provides access to:

• Microsoft SharePoint Lists

• Microsoft SharePoint Files

• Microsoft Exchange Calendar

• Microsoft Exchange Contacts

• Microsoft Exchange Mail

The SDK is composed of three independent packages, so that you can import only the SDK that you need in your project.

• office365-files-sdk [depends on office365-base-sdk]
• office365-lists-sdk [depends on office365-base-sdk]
• office365-mail-calendar-contact-sdk

For more info on this refer to http://msopentech.com/blog/2014/03/03/new-open-source-sdk-for-android-brings-office-365-apps-to-life/

 

External links to SPC14 Summary articles from SharePoint Community folks:

• CHRIS O’BRIEN’s an-implementers-summary – http://www.sharepointnutsandbolts.com/2014/03/an-implementers-summary-of-SPC14.html
• Jeremy Thake’s top 5 takeaways – http://www.jeremythake.com/2014/03/my-top-5-takeaways-from-the-sharepoint-conference-2014-spc14/
• Sahil Malik’s what you need to know – http://blah.winsmarts.com/2014-3-SharePoint_Conference_-SPC14_What_you_need_to_know.aspx
• Nik Patel’s future of InfoPath – http://nikpatel.net/2014/03/08/future-of-infopath-spc14-notes-from-office-and-sharepoint-forms-roadmap-update/