Lesson 5: License Service API (LSAPI)

The Licensing Solution

The License Service Application Programming Interface was developed to automate software licensing and to reduce the burden of implementing custom licensing systems. This API provides a simple and standard interface to licensing systems, while hiding the complexities of licensing from the software developer.

License Service Providers

Under the Microsoft Windows environment, each license system service provider is implemented as a DLL. Applications access the License Service API through the license manager DLL (Lsapi.dll). This DLL connects to installed license service providers, collects responses from service providers, and presents the results to client applications.

Figure 11.5 How application access license service providers using LSAPI

Platform Independence

With the License Service API, an application is not dependent on the type of network in use, the types of computers in the enterprise, or the types of license policies available in order to provide seamless access to a licensing mechanism. As a result, even if the network, computers, or license policies change, the desktop application does not need to be rewritten. In other words, the License Service API enables applications to connect to the licensing services they need across multiple computing environments in a platform-independent manner.