Managing activation validation sets

About activation validation sets

Sophisticated software products may be sold as part of a larger “software solution”. These products may have complex relationships and interdependencies. For example, a product may require that other products are installed, or may need to be activated with a specific quantity relative to another product.

Activation validation sets allow you to set up these types of relationships, to ensure that users activate a valid set of products and quantities.

The validation is applied both to the products being activated and to the products installed on the machine.

Elements of an activation validation set

Domain

Each activation validation set is assigned a domain. The domain is a list of product lines for which the activation validation set applies.

Requirements

An activation validation set is a collection of requirements. Each requirement consists of:

The products that trigger the requirement. The trigger products must belong to the validation set domain.
The type of requirement
The requirement rule. The rule may be a simple list of products or a more complex expression.
The custom error to display if the rule is violated

Types of requirements

Activation validation requirements

Activation validation requirements are used to validate that a product is compatible with other installed products, that dependencies are met, and that the quantity is a valid value.

Examples of validation requirements include:

Product A and Product B can be activated with Product C and Product D.
Product A must be activated with Product B.
Products A or B must be activated with either Product C or Product D.
The quantity of Products A or B must be equal to 15.
The quantity of Product A must be equal to the quantity of Product B plus the quantity of Product C.
The quantity of Product A must be a multiple of 5.
The quantity of product A must be between 10 and 50.

The activation validation requirement types are:

Compatibility

Compatibility requirements determine what products within the validation set domain are compatible with the trigger products.

Dependency

Dependency requirements determine what products are required by the trigger products. Dependency requirements can use fairly complex expressions.

Quantity

Quantity requirements determine the allowed quantity for the trigger products. Quantity validation requirements can use fairly complex expressions. Types of quantity requirements include:

Quantity of the triggered products must be equal to a value. The value may be a specific number, or a formula that includes the quantity of other products.
Quantity must be an increment of a specific number, with a minimum value
Quantity must be within a range of minimum and maximum values

Quantity calculation requirements

Quantity calculation requirements are used to help calculate the quantity to activate for the trigger products.The quantity calculation requirement types are:

Quantity calculation – required products

Provides rules for calculating the quantity to activate. Indicates that the trigger product is a required product.

If the trigger product is not part of the activation and is not installed on the machine, then Poetic returns an error. If a requirement has multiple trigger products, only one of the products needs to be present.

Poetic also calculates the quantity for any installed trigger products that are not part of the activation. If the installed quantity is less than the calculated quantity:

On the Quantity Calculator UI, Poetic returns an error.
For XML requests, Poetic adds the product to the XML and tries to activate the additional required quantity.

Quantity calculation – optional products

Provides rules for calculating the quantity to activate. Indicates that the product is an optional product. During the quantity calculation, the user can remove the product from the calculation.

Poetic also calculates the quantity for any installed trigger products that are not part of the activation. If the installed quantity is less than the calculated quantity:

On the Quantity Calculator UI, Poetic returns an error.
For XML requests, Poetic adds the product to the XML and tries to activate the additional required quantity.

Displaying the Search Activation Validation Sets page

Activation validation sets are managed from the Search Activation Validation Sets page. To display the page:

On the Administration menu, select Products.

On the Product Configuration menu, click Validation sets.

Searching for validation sets

When the Search Activation Validation Sets page first displays, it includes the entire list of active activation validation sets. To filter the list, you can use the following criteria:

Set name	The name of the activation validation set. To search for an activation validation set with a specific name, type the name into the field. The field supports partial criteria using the wildcard character (%). For example, to search for all activation validation sets with names that start with the letter A, type “A%” into the field.
Set ID	The pub ID of the activation validation set. To search for an activation validation set with a specific ID, type the ID into the field.
Product line	The name of a product line included in the validation set domain. To search for an activation validation set that includes a specific product line in its domain, select the product line from the combo box. Combo boxes allow you to filter the list of values by typing the value you want. As you type the value into the combo box field, the list is filtered to include only those values that match the text you type.
Status	The status of the activation validation set. By default, the status criterion is set to Active. To search for inactive validation sets, select Inactive from the dropdown. To see both active and inactive validation sets, select the blank option from the dropdown.

After providing the criteria, to filter the list of validation sets, click Search Sets.

For each validation set, the list can include:

Set ID	The validation set ID.
Set Name	The validation set name.
Domain	The list of product lines that make up the validation set domain.
Status	The current status of the validation set.
Updated On	The date the validation set was last updated.
Updated By	The full name of the user who last updated the validation set.

Creating and editing activation validation sets

To create a new validation set, click Add set.

To edit an existing set, click its Edit link.

The Activation Validation Set Maintenance page displays.

Setting the validation set ID and name

Set ID Required. In the Set ID field, type the pub ID of the activation validation set. The pub ID must be unique.

Set name Required. In the Set name field, type the name of the activation validation set.

Configuring the validation set domain

Each validation set has a domain. The domain is a list of product lines that apply to the validation set.

All requirement trigger products must belong to the domain. The domain also is used to evaluate compatibility requirements.

To set the validation set domain:

Click Add/Edit Domain. The Domain Maintenance form displays.

To add a product line to the domain, select the product line from the combo box, then click Add to Domain.

To remove a product line from the domain, click its Remove link.

When you have finished updating the domain, click Save. The domain changes are not saved to the database until you save the validation set.

Saving a new activation validation set

When you create a new validation set, after you have provided the ID, name, and domain, to save the new validation set, click Add.

When you click Add :

The Add button is changed to Save.

The Requirements section displays, to allow you to begin configuring the requirements.

Changing the status of an activation validation set

On the Activation Validation Set Maintenance page for an existing validation set, the Active check box determines whether to include this validation set during activation.

If the check box is unchecked, then the validation set is ignored.

Setting up the list of requirements

The Requirements section contains the list of requirements for the validation set. For details on configuring requirements for a validation set, see Managing requirements for an activation validation set.

Note that requirements are saved when the user clicks Save on the requirement maintenance form.

Saving the validation set

To save a new validation set, or to save the changes to the validation set ID, name, or status, click Save.

Note that requirements are saved when the user clicks Save on the requirement maintenance form.

Viewing Transactions

The Transactions tab lists details on changes that occurred to an activation validation set

Exporting the filtered list of activation validation sets

To export the activation validation sets that are in the filter results from the Filter Activation Validation Sets page, click Export Results.

The Export Validation Sets page displays, listing the event ID created for the download. Click the event ID to view the event details.

Note that:

Only the active sets in the current list of results are exported. If you provided filter criteria, the validation sets that did not match the criteria are not exported.

The export process only exports the validation set information. It does not export any of the products or product lines referred to by the validation sets.

The validation sets are exported by the PROCESS_ACTIVATION_VALIDATION_SET_EXPORT_EVENT background job to a flat file on the File Share.

To use the exported file to create the exported validation sets on another instance:

On the instance where you exported the validation sets, download the exported file from the File Share. See Downloading files from the File Share.

On the instance where you want to create the validation sets, upload the file to that instance’s File Share. See Uploading files to the File Share.