Merging License Files¶

Since the default licenses are stored in a single file named license.cxl located in the user's home directory, it is sometimes necessary to merge several license files into a single one.

Let's see a typical example: The user has an Annual license file, and starts evaluating another product. In this case the user receives another license file containing the evaluation licenses.

In this case the user simply installs the new license file, and it is automatically merged with the existing license file.

However. if this user uses the products on a server or is a reseller, the Desktop installation is not suitable.

Merging the license files with a command line tool¶

License files can be merged with the license command line script. The script is available as part of JChem or Marvin .zip downloads

Usage:

 license -m  *source_license_file1.cxl*  *source_license_file2.cxl*  **result_license_file.cxl**

Manual merging of the license files¶

Warning: Manual merging of the license files can result in a corrupted file content, be cautious with this method, and always create a backup first!

The reason of this warning is due to potential encoding problems, which can be caused by some text editors (inserting hidden characters automatically). The license files are distributed in UTF-8 encoding, and this is specified in the license file itself. Some of the text editors are unable to save the license file with UTF-8 encoding, but they use a different encoding, e.g. UTF-16. However, they do not change the UTF-8 specification in the license file itself.

For manual merging, Notepad, or other UTF-8 compliant text editor is suggested.

Encoding problems were experienced with WordPad.

Manual editing of the license file is otherwise straightforward, if you are familiar with XML files.

Structure of a license file:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <!--PLEASE DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE AND BE AWARE THAT THE FILE CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.-->
    <ChemAxon>
        <License>
        </License>
        <License>
        </License>
    </ChemAxon>

Copy whole <License> blocks from one license file, and paste them in another license file, inside the <ChemAxon> block.