Use a license in your app

Production licenses can be applied in one of two ways:

• Using a license string.
• Using a user authentication workflow.

The option you choose will depend on the nature of your app and whether your app's users will sign in to your app using an ArcGIS account.

License string

A license string is a text string provided by Esri that is used to enable a production license.

Your app must include code to apply the license string. See how to use a license string in your app for more details.

Your free Lite level license string is obtained from the ArcGIS Developer site (sign in required). Basic, Standard, and Advanced license strings are purchased as ArcGIS Runtime license deployment packs. See get a license for more information.

A Lite license string includes unlimited production deployments.

For Basic, Standard, and Advanced license strings, the ArcGIS Runtime license deployment pack defines how many production deployments are permitted (a deployment is counted per app, install, and user).

User authentication

user authentication, previously known as ArcGIS identity authentication, is an authentication method where a user signs in to your app with an ArcGIS account in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise. The ArcGIS account of the user can be assigned a production license.

Your app should allow a user to sign in using their ArcGIS account, and must include code to read and apply the production license associated with their signed-in account. See how to use named user login in your app for more information.

The administrator of the ArcGIS organization to which your app user belongs must assign a suitable ArcGIS Runtime license to your app user's ArcGIS account. See get a license for more information.

The production license obtained from user authentication travels with the user, not the app, allowing a user to license many apps.

How to use a license string in your app

You can get your Lite license string for free by signing into your ArcGIS Developer account.

Using a license string involves adding code to set the license level at compile time so that the license string is built into the application.

1. Find a location in your code that runs before any SDK functionality is used.
2. Call the setLicense() method on the ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment singleton object to license the app with a license string and any extension licenses.

The following licensing code must run before any other ArcGIS Maps SDK functionality is used in your app.

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// add the following to the main.cpp before the application is loaded
LicenseResult result = ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment::setLicense("your_license_string");

Your app is now licensed for production use.

How to use named user login in your app

Use of a named user through user authentication involves adding code to enable sign-in with an ArcGIS organizational account. At runtime, a user must successfully sign in to return their license information, which is used by the app to set the license level. Follow these steps to license your app using the named user's account:

1. Find a location in your code that runs before any SDK functionality is used.
2. Allow the app user to authenticate with an ArcGIS organizational account. Upon loading the Portal obtain the LicenseInfo and use this to license the app. As part of the process, save the license information in preparation for the app being used in an offline environment for up to 30 days.

The following example shows how to get a license for an ArcGIS Online named user.

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Credential* cred = new Credential(userName, pwd, this);
Portal* portal = new Portal(QUrl(url), cred, this);

connect(portal, &Portal::fetchLicenseInfoCompleted, this, [this](QUuid, const LicenseInfo& licenseInfo)
{
  m_licenseInfo = licenseInfo;
  LicenseResult result = ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment::setLicense(m_licenseInfo);
});
portal->fetchLicenseInfo();

Save the JSON containing the license information for use again later.

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QString json = m_licenseInfo.toJson();
QFile file(QDir::tempPath() + "/licenseFile.txt");
file.open(QIODevice::WriteOnly);
file.write(json.toUtf8());
file.close();

Your app is now licensed for production use.

If you saved the license information on local storage, your app can be started and licensed in an offline environment using the saved license information. Retrieve the license from storage and license your app.

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QFile file(filePath);
if (file.exists())
{
  file.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly);
  m_licenseInfo = LicenseInfo::fromJson(file.readAll());
  LicenseResult result = ArcGISRuntimeEnvironment::setLicense(m_licenseInfo);
//...