Entitlement Management Enhancements
The following enhancements to entitlement management were added in the 2024 R1 release:
| • | New Merge Tag for Entitlement Creation Date in Email Templates |
| • | New Merge Tags for Customer Address in Email Templates |
| • | Automatic Renewal of Entitlement Line Items |
| • | Displaying Version Date for FlexNet Embedded Line Items |
| • | New Configuration Option Allowing Entitlement Emails To Be Sent Only For Deployed Entitlements |
| • | Feature Count Aggregation Support |
| • | Mapping Expired Activation IDs to Devices |
| • | Feature Bundle Changes Updated to Cloud Licensing Service Instance |
| • | Ability to Edit Custom Attributes |
| • | New Option to Control Inclusion of Entitlement Certificate in Emails |
| • | New Configuration Option for Sorting Items on List Entitlements by Order Page |
| • | New Configuration Option to Control Line Items Displayed on the “Support Licenses and Maintenance” Page for Renewal Case |
| • | Entitlement Line Item State and Partner Available as Substitution Variables for Vendor String |
New Merge Tag for Entitlement Creation Date in Email Templates
A new merge tag [[EntitlementCreationDate]] has been added to the Entitlement, Entitlement Certificate, and License templates. This tag enables producers to insert the entitlement’s creation date into the relevant email.
Note:Do not confuse the merge tags [[StartDate]] and [[EntitlementCreationDate]]. While [[EntitlementCreationDate]] indicates the entitlement creation date, [[StartDate]] indicates the start date of the line item (activation ID), which may or may not be the same date as the entitlement creation date.
New Merge Tags for Customer Address in Email Templates
The following set of merge tags has been added to a number of email templates, to enable producers to include the customer’s complete address in the email:
| • | [[AcctAddress1]]—Account address line 1 |
| • | [[AcctAddress2]]—Account address line 2 |
| • | [[AcctCity]]—Account city |
| • | [[AcctState]]—Account state |
| • | [[AcctZipCode]]—Account zip code |
| • | [[AcctRegion]]—Account region or state |
The above merge tags are available in the following email templates:
| • | Entitlement template |
| • | Entitlement Certificate template |
| • | License template |
Automatic Renewal of Entitlement Line Items
This release introduces new functionality that enables producers to automatically renew line items using a job called Line Item Auto Renewal. The job gathers all line items that are marked for renewal and extends their expiration dates according to the renewal expiration date or duration that you set.
Producers can configure selected entitlement line items that can be automatically extended for an additional period. Entitlement line items can be configured for renewal based on a specific renewal cycle (for example, the number of years) or a specific duration.
The automatic renewal of entitlement line items can be controlled via the Producer Portal (see Setting a line item’s renewal date using the Producer Portal UI) or the EntitlementOrderService web service, version 7 (see the FlexNet Operations SOAP Web Services Guide).
Considerations
| • | A line item’s expiration date is updated only if the item’s Auto Renew check box is selected and the Line Item Auto Renewal job is active (see Setting a line item’s renewal date using the Producer Portal UI and Configuring the Line Item Auto Renewal job, respectively). |
| • | Permanent entitlement line items and permanent maintenance line items will not be automatically renewed. |
| • | The Line Item Auto Renewal job renews line items that have already expired, line items that will expire on the same day and line items that expire on the next day that the job runs. |
| • | A line item cannot have a renewal date that is earlier than its expiration date. |
| • | The Line Item Auto Renewal job only renews deployed line items. Line items with any other status are not renewed. |
To use the new functionality, you need to select the Auto Renew check box and set the line item’s renewal date, and activate the Line Item Auto Renewal job. Both steps are described below.
Setting a line item’s renewal date using the Producer Portal UI
The Configure Line Item wizard now includes a new Auto Renew check box (on the Configure Product page). Select the check box to indicate that the line item should be automatically renewed. The Renewal Expiration field is displayed, where you select one of the following options:
| • | Specify Expiration Date—Use the date picker or type the date when the line item should expire after it’s been renewed. |
| • | Specify Duration—Set the duration after which the line item expires after it’s been renewed. |
The renewal expiration date is calculated based on the line item’s expiration date. For example, if the line item is set to expire on May 20, 2025, and the renewal expiration is set to a duration of 1 month, the line item’s expiration will be extended by 1 month, with a renewal expiration date of June 20, 2025.
Configuring the Line Item Auto Renewal job
By default, the Line Item Auto Renewal job is set to Inactive.
You configure the Line Item Auto Renewal job on its Configure Alert/Job Schedule page (click Administer > Configure Alerts/Jobs, navigate to the Line Item Auto Renewal job and click Configure). Set the job status to Active and schedule the interval when the job should run (default: run daily). The job runs on the schedule until it is set to Inactive.
After you have set the behavior of the job, you can set up email subscriptions for the corresponding alert type.
Changed SOAP Web Services Files
To control this new functionality using web services, this release introduces version 7 of the EntitlementOrderService SOAP web service.
Displaying Version Date for FlexNet Embedded Line Items
When a publisher creates and activates a FlexNet Embedded line item with the field Version date when choice populated using the option Use Activation Date to compute Version Date, the Line Item Details pane in the Producer Portal and the End-User Portal now display the Version Date (computed using the entered duration and the activation date).
New Configuration Option Allowing Entitlement Emails To Be Sent Only For Deployed Entitlements
A new configuration option Send entitlement email only for deployed entitlements (under System > Configure > FlexNet Operations > General Options) has been introduced which enables producers to specify that entitlement emails are only sent if the entitlement and its line item(s) are in a Deployed state. If a deployed entitlement has line items in any other state (Inactive, Draft, Obsolete, or Test), only the deployed line items are included in the entitlement email.
By default, the new configuration option is disabled, preserving the existing functionality.
Feature Count Aggregation Support
This release introduces an enhancement which enables producers to aggregate feature counts to support various business models.
The aggregation types SUM and MAX are supported:
| • | SUM—The sum of all feature counts captured over the aggregation interval. |
| • | MAX—The largest feature count captured over the aggregation interval. |
Use Case Example for Feature Count Aggregation
Assume that a producer offers the following product packages:
|
Product Package |
Features |
||||||
|
Premium |
|
||||||
|
Volume |
|
Customers can purchase the Premium package and later add a Volume package. The resulting feature counts differ depending on the selected aggregation type:
|
Feature |
Aggregation Type |
Feature Count |
|
FeatureA |
SUM |
201,000 |
|
MAX |
200,000 |
|
|
FeatureB |
SUM |
6,000 |
|
MAX |
5,000 |
Prerequisites for Feature Count Aggregation
The configuration option Enable feature count aggregation must be selected and features to be aggregated must have an aggregation type set.
FlexNet Operations aggregates feature counts only if the following conditions are met:
| • | All license model attributes are identical |
| • | All of the following entities have identical values: |
| • | Name |
| • | Version |
| • | Vendor String |
| • | Notice |
| • | Serial Number |
| • | Expiration Date |
| • | Issuer |
| • | Version Date |
Activating Feature Count Aggregation
The feature aggregation functionality can be enabled and disabled using the new configuration option Enable feature count aggregation (under System > Configure > FlexNet Operations > Embedded Device Settings). By default, the configuration option is unselected.
If the functionality is enabled, producers define the feature aggregation type when they add a new feature on the Package Products | Create a Feature page (under Products > Feature > Add new Feature) by setting the Aggregation Type field. Available values are NONE, SUM, and MAX.
SOAP Support for Feature Count Aggregation
The ProductPackagingService web service, version 2, includes a new optional parameter AggregationType for the createFeatureRequest operation. Producers can use this parameter to specify a feature count aggregation type. Valid values are NONE, SUM, and MAX.
Important Note about Disabling Feature Count Aggregation
The configuration option Enable feature count aggregation merely shows or hides the Aggregation Type field. It does not enable or disable the feature count aggregation functionality itself.
Therefore, if you specified aggregation types for certain features but then decide not to use the feature count aggregation functionality, you must set the Aggregation Type field to NONE for each feature. If the Aggregation Type field remains set to SUM or MAX, FlexNet Operations will continue to aggregate feature counts, even if you disable the configuration option Enable feature count aggregation.
Feature Count Aggregation Vs. License Consolidation
Publishers are advised not to enable the configuration options Consolidate Licenses (under System > Configure > Embedded Devices > Host Options) and Enable feature count aggregation at the same time. Consolidate Licenses only applies to standalone devices and local license servers, whereas the feature count aggregation functionality is available for standalone devices, local license servers and Cloud License Server instances. Enabling Consolidate Licenses and Enable feature count aggregation may result in unexpected behavior.
Known Issue
A known issue exists in relation to this functionality. For details, see SWM-19052: Feature Count Aggregation Not Working As Expected.
Mapping Expired Activation IDs to Devices
Two new configuration options have been introduced which allow producers to map expired activation IDs to devices. The facility to map expired activation IDs to devices enables customers to quickly identify which activation IDs have expired and require renewal.
To allow expired activation IDs to be mapped to devices, the following configuration options must be selected:
| • | Allow mapping of expired entitlements (under System > Configure > FlexNet Operations > Embedded Device Settings)—Select this option to allow expired activation IDs to pass the validation so that they can be sent to the License Fulfillment Service for mapping. |
Default: Unselected.
| • | Allow expired line items to be mapped to devices or servers (under System > Configure > Embedded Devices > Host Options)—Select this option to allow the activation ID to be mapped in the License Fulfillment Service. |
Default: Unselected.
Feature Bundle Changes Updated to Cloud Licensing Service Instance
A new configuration option Allow feature bundle changes to be published to a License Server has been added, which enables publishers to control whether changes to feature bundles are reflected on the relevant instance of the FlexNet Cloud Licensing Service.
The configuration option is located under System > Configure > FlexNet Operations > Embedded Device Settings. By default, the option is unselected, that is, feature bundle changes are not automatically fed through to the Cloud Licensing Service instance.
Feature bundle changes are updated to the Cloud Licensing Service instance whenever one of the following events happen through the UI or via a SOAP request:
| • | A feature is added to the feature bundle |
| • | A feature is removed from the feature bundle |
| • | The quantity of one or more features in a bundle changes. |
Ability to Edit Custom Attributes
Users can now edit custom attributes. Specifically, users can add and remove values for text types Single select and Multi-valued text.
In addition, the behavior that occurs after creating a custom attribute has now been made consistent with that of similar pages. After the user clicks Save on the Create Custom Attribute page, the user stays on the Create Custom Attribute page, and a suitable message is displayed (for example, confirming that the custom attribute was successfully added). Previously, clicking Save returned the user to the Custom Attributes page (which shows a list of all custom attributes). Now, to leave the page and to return to the Custom Attributes page, the user clicks Cancel.
New Option to Control Inclusion of Entitlement Certificate in Emails
A new option for the email template type Entitlement has been introduced which allows producers to selectively include or exclude an entitlement certificate when sending out an entitlement email to customers.
The new option, called Attach Entitlement Certificate, is located on the Edit Email Template Definition page (available when clicking a template ID under Administer > Templates and selecting Edit > Edit Definition on the View Email Template page).
Producers who want to use the new option Attach Entitlement Certificate must ensure that the system configuration setting Always Attach Entitlement Certificate in Email be unselected (under System > Configure > FlexNet Operations > General Options). This is because the system configuration setting takes precedence. If it is selected, the option Attach Entitlement Certificate is ignored.
For each template of type Entitlement, producers can set the option Attach Entitlement Certificate to Yes or No:
| • | Yes: An Entitlement Certificate will be attached to emails that are based on the Entitlement template. |
| • | No: No Entitlement Certificate will be attached to emails that are based on the Entitlement template. |
By default, Attach Entitlement Certificate is set to No.
New Configuration Option for Sorting Items on List Entitlements by Order Page
This release introduces a new configuration option Sort items on List Entitlements by Order page by creation date (under System > Configure > FlexNet Operations > General Options). The new option enables producers to change the sort order of items displayed on the List Entitlements by Order page.
If selected, the items on the List Entitlements by Order landing page are sorted by the date they were created. Producers who want items on the List Entitlements by Order landing page to be sorted by their last modified date (the default behavior) should leave the option unselected.
The configuration option does not affect the way items are sorted when clicking a column header (Entitlement or State) on the List Entitlements by Order page.
New Configuration Option to Control Line Items Displayed on the “Support Licenses and Maintenance” Page for Renewal Case
A new configuration option entitled Show Renew Line Items Related to the License has been added to enable producers to control which line items are displayed on the Support Licenses and Maintenance page in the FlexNet Operations Producer Portal and End-User Portal. The option is located under System > Configure > FlexNet Operations > General Options.
The behavior is as follows:
| • | Unselected—(Default) During a renewal operation, the Support Licenses And Maintenance page lists all renewal line items that belong to a specified activation ID. This is the default behavior. |
| • | Selected—During a renewal operation, only child line items that are related to the activation ID that is being renewed are displayed on the Support Licenses And Maintenance page in the Producer Portal and End-User Portal. |
Entitlement Line Item State and Partner Available as Substitution Variables for Vendor String
The following new substitution variables are available for the vendor string:
| • | EntitlementLineItem.status—The status of the entitlement line item |
| • | ChannelPartner.name—The channel partner account ID |
| • | ChannelPartner.displayName—The channel partner account name. |
Note:The variables ChannelPartner.name and ChannelPartner.displayName refer to a channel partner of type Distributor.
This enhancement enables producers to include entitlement information in their licenses and thus reduce the number of API calls to retrieve such information from FlexNet Operations.