This topic provides technical details on licensing of .NET Standard (.NET Core) projects, using dotConnect for PostgreSQL. For licensing on Full .NET Framework see the Licensing topic.

Unlike on full .NET Framework, on dotConnect for PostgreSQL uses license keys on .NET Core. For registered version, the dotConnect for PostgreSQL license key is specified at runtime, in the License Key connection string parameter. For trial version, license key files are used instead. They are generated by the product installer and placed to the C:\ProgramData\Devart\dotConnect\License\ folder.

Here is an example of specifying a license key parameter in a connection string:

    var conn = new Devart.Data.PostgreSql.PgSqlConnection();
    conn.ConnectionString = "host=server;database=test;user id=postgres;License Key=YOUR_ACTIVATION_KEY;";
    conn.Open();

    Dim conn = New Devart.Data.PostgreSql.PgSqlConnection()
    conn.ConnectionString = "host=server;database=test;user id=postgres;License Key=YOUR_ACTIVATION_KEY;"
    conn.Open()

dotConnect for PostgreSQL Trial Licensing on Windows

Trial license key files are automatically generated when installing dotConnect for PostgreSQL on the computer. This means that even though .NET Standard compatible assemblies are obtained via NuGet packages, you still need to download and install dotConnect for PostgreSQL trial from Devart website to generate the trial license keys.

dotConnect for PostgreSQL Trial checks license as a file in the C:\ProgramData\Devart\dotConnect\License\ folder. dotConnect for PostgreSQL Trial installation automatically adds the license files to this folder. When deploying your project to another computer, you need to deploy the correspondung license key file to this folder.

The license key file of the trial version is named Devart.Data.PostgreSql.key.

dotConnect for PostgreSQL Trial Licensing on Linux

On Linux, there is no C:\ProgramData\ folder. You can copy the trial license key to another folder (for example, to the folder of the application itself) and specify its path in the License Key connection string parameter in the following way:

license key=trial:/home/test/Devart.Data.PostgreSql.key

Please note that on Linux the path to the key file is case sensitive and must be specified exactly in the same case as it is in your file system.

Purchased dotConnect for PostgreSQL Licensing

After you purchased dotConnect for PostgreSQL, you will get an email with the activation key. You can also view your key in the Devart Account, where you download your licensed product installers.

You must specify this activation key in the License Key connection string parameter.

You don't need to specify your license key in every connection string. Once a connection with a valid License Key is successfully opened, there will be no further license check in a current application domain. So, you can load your license key from somewhere (from embedded resource, etc.), open a test connection, and after this your application can work with connection strings without License Key.

Licensing Projects Using LinqConnect

The Professional edition of dotConnect for PostgreSQL includes LinqConnect functionality. Thus, you don't need any additional actions and can use LinqConnect features with the dotConnect for PostgreSQL key as described above. The same is applicable to the dotConnect for PostgreSQL trial.

However, if you have dotConnect for PostgreSQL Standard Edition and a separate LinqConnect product, and want to use feaures of both of them in your project, you will need to use both your LinqConnect key and your dotConnect for PostgreSQL key. You can specify both license keys, separating them by comma, in the License Key connection string parameter.

Key Loading Priority

Keys, specified in the connection string has priority over the key files, placed to the C:\ProgramData\Devart\dotConnect\License\ folder.

Licensed keys has priority over trial keys.

If you use a key for the Standard edition of dotConnect for PostgreSQL, a key file for LinqConnect trial will be searched and checked, and if a valid one is found, LinqConnect features will be available.

License information is loaded once and has effect over all of the provider instances in the application domain. However, if a key is loaded from file from the C:\ProgramData\Devart\dotConnect\License\ folder is loaded first, the first opening of a connection with the License Key connection string parameter overrides the license information, loaded from the file.