Spread Windows Forms Product Documentation

Activating the Product

You can activate Spread for Winforms using online and offline methods listed below:

Online Activation
- Using MESCIUS License Manager
- Using Visual Studio
- Using Command Line Interface
Offline Activation
- Using MESCIUS License Manager
- Using Command Line Interface

Note: Contact sales at “us.sales@mescius.com” to inquire about special license options for Azure DevOps or other similar build pipelines.

Online Activation

Using MESCIUS License Manager

After installation, navigate to C:\ProgramData\SA3\Desktop on your machine, double click sa3client-ui.exe, and click Activate Serial Key.
Enter the license key and click Activate.
Click OK.
Use MESCIUS License Manager to deactivate the license before moving the license to another machine. Click sa3client-ui.exe located in C:\ProgramData\SA3\Desktop and click Deactivate.

Using Visual Studio

If you are trying to activate the product package installed from the NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio, follow the steps mentioned below:

Create a project in Visual Studio.
Open NuGet Package Manager and install the product package from nuget.org.
Build the project in Visual Studio. You will see a popup window during build.
Click on Run the License Manager in the popup window to launch the License Manager.
Click the Activate Serial Key for the product in the window, and enter your serial key.
After clicking the Activate button, License Manager will connect to our website. If successful, you will see the result:
After closing the License Manager window, Visual Studio will continue the build.

Using Command Line Interface

You can activate the product using the command line interface if the graphics UI of the License Manager does not work normally. This is useful, especially for a build machine.

After installation, open the command prompt.
Use the following commands to activate, deactivate, or refresh the license.

The following command line options are available for MESCIUS License Manager:

Command Option	Description
sa3client ( a \| activate ) <serial-key>	Activate license for the product. The `<serial-key>` should be in format “`Prefix-0000-0000-0000-0000-000`”. Different product has the different prefix and hyphens are not required.
sa3client ( d \| deactivate ) <serial-key-prefix>	Deactivate license for the product. Use <serial-key-prefix> to indicate the license to deactivate. If you have only 1 license starts with a product code, it could be the product code; if you have several keys starts with a same product code, please use the product code and following 8 digits, e.g. `CDP-1234-5678`.
sa3client ( r \| refresh ) <serial-key-prefix>	Refresh license for the product. Refresh command is used to get the latest license of a serial key. If the refresh failed, you can activate the license with your serial key to fix it. Use <serial-key-prefix> to indicate the license to refresh. If you have only 1 license starts with a product code, it could be the product code; if you have several keys starts with a same product code, please use the product code and following 8 digits, e.g. `CDP-1234-5678`.

Command Option

Description

sa3client ( a | activate ) <serial-key>

Activate license for the product.

The <serial-key> should be in format “Prefix-0000-0000-0000-0000-000”. Different product has the different prefix and hyphens are not required.

sa3client ( d | deactivate ) <serial-key-prefix>

Deactivate license for the product.

Use <serial-key-prefix> to indicate the license to deactivate. If you have only 1 license starts with a product code, it could be the product code; if you have several keys starts with a same product code, please use the product code and following 8 digits, e.g. CDP-1234-5678.

sa3client ( r | refresh ) <serial-key-prefix>

Refresh license for the product.

Refresh command is used to get the latest license of a serial key. If the refresh failed, you can activate the license with your serial key to fix it.
Use <serial-key-prefix> to indicate the license to refresh. If you have only 1 license starts with a product code, it could be the product code; if you have several keys starts with a same product code, please use the product code and following 8 digits, e.g. CDP-1234-5678.

Offline Activation

Suppose the target machine cannot access the internet, but there is another machine that can access the SA3 website via web browser. In that case, you can activate a normal developer license in offline mode.

Using MESCIUS License Manager

Run the sa3client-ui.exe from C:\ProgramData\SA3\Desktop and try to activate a serial key without network access. Our tool will display the following error on the window.
Click the icon at the top right to open the Settings page, and set the connection mode to Offline, then click Back.
Click the Activate Serial Key button and enter your serial key. An Offline Activation Request dialog will appear, save the content to a local file.
Copy the Offline Activation File to another machine which could access the SA3 website.
On that machine, access SA3 website and click Activate.
Paste the Request Code and click Activate button to generate the license data.
Save the license data and copy it back to the original machine.
In the License Manager, click Import Offline License, paste the license data, and click Activate. The License is activated.

Using Command Line Interface

Open the command prompt.
Use the following commands to activate or deactivate the license.

The following command line options are available for MESCIUS License Manager:

Command Option	Description
sa3client ( a \| activate ) <serial-key> [( -o \| --output ) <offline-file-path>]	Activate license for the product. Use `--output` to perform an offline activation. You need to submit the generated offline activation file (located at the specified path) to the SA3 site or send it to our support team. Next, use `sa3client import` to import the license file returned from the SA3 site or support team.
sa3client ( i \| import ) <offline-file-path>	Import the license file from the SA3 site or support team..
sa3client ( d \| deactivate ) <serial-key-prefix> [( -o \| --output ) <offline-file-path>]	Deactivae license for the product. Use `<serial-key-prefix>` to indicate the license to deactivate. If you have only 1 license starts with a product code, it could be the product code; if you have several keys starts with a same product code, please use the product code and following 8 digits, e.g. `CDP-1234-5678`. Use `--output` to perform an offline deactivation. You need submit the generated offline-deactivation-file at the specified path to SA3 site, or send it to support team.

Command Option

Description

sa3client ( a | activate ) <serial-key> [( -o | --output ) <offline-file-path>]

Activate license for the product.

Use --output to perform an offline activation. You need to submit the generated offline activation file (located at the specified path) to the SA3 site or send it to our support team. Next, use sa3client import to import the license file returned from the SA3 site or support team.

sa3client ( i | import ) <offline-file-path>

Import the license file from the SA3 site or support team..

sa3client ( d | deactivate ) <serial-key-prefix> [( -o | --output ) <offline-file-path>]

Deactivae license for the product.

Use <serial-key-prefix> to indicate the license to deactivate. If you have only 1 license starts with a product code, it could be the product code; if you have several keys starts with a same product code, please use the product code and following 8 digits, e.g. CDP-1234-5678.
Use --output to perform an offline deactivation. You need submit the generated offline-deactivation-file at the specified path to SA3 site, or send it to support team.

Note: For both offline methods, the deactivation steps are similar to activation. So, you need to copy the Offline Deactivation File to the SA3 site to release the usage of the activation key.