Licensing & Support FAQs

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Support & Updates FAQ's

How has the licensing model changed for Valence 3.0?

There are two main differences. First, with Valence 3.0 we are introducing the Valence Enterprise Edition. This fits between the Professional and OEM Editions. Now there are four editions--Community, Professional, Enterprise and OEM. The Valence Store has a good table that compares the features of each edition. The Community and Professional editions are licensed on a per-developer basis and the Enterprise edition is licensed on a per-IBM i basis for an unlimited number of developers. The OEM Edition is intended for commercial software developers who want to create apps with Valence and embed Valence with their products when deploying to customers. Second, all licenses now include 1 year of maintenance (support and updates) as a standard feature.

Why did you add the Valence Enterprise Edition?

While the Community and Professional licenses were well received by individual developers, most IT departments with multiple developers were telling us they would rather license the product for a specific IBM i machine and not deal with per-developer licenses. Also, the Enterprise edition has a license key mechanism that links to the IBM i serial number. This allows CNX to key-control valuable additional features to the Enterprise edition. As of Valence 3.0 the Valence Nitro Editor and Valence Instance Manager are Enterprise-only features that are activated with the Enterprise license key. There will be additional Enterprise-only features in the future.

What is a typical licensing scenario for Valence?

The most typical Valence licensing scenario would be to start with the free Community Developer License. Use the full features of Valence at no cost to prototype your applications and learn. When you're ready to deploy your first application to your end users, you can then either continue under the Community Developer License and contribute your apps to the Valence community or upgrade to a Professional Developer License to keep your apps private. You can also choose to license the Valence Enterprise Edition if you want to continue using Valence Nitro and Instance Manager beyond the 90 day trial period, or if you need to license more than a few developers.

Is there a difference between the Valence software obtained with the Community, Professional, Enterprise and OEM licenses?

The Valence software downloaded with each license is identical (this may change in the future). The only difference is the terms of license and which features require a key for full activation. The Community Developer License is free, but requires you to make your code available to the Valence community when deploying it to end users under the "quid pro quo" principle. Under the terms of the Professional and Enterprise Licenses, you can create and deploy your custom applications and keep them private. With the Enterprise edition you get the additional features of Valence Nitro and Valence Instance Manger. The OEM Developer License further grants the right to deploy your applications in commercial software or to host your applications as a service to outside customers. You should read the license to understand the full differences in licensing terms between each version.

How do I make the applications developed with the Valence Community Developer License available to the Valence Community?

Once you deploy an application to your end users under the Community Developer License, go to the CNX Forum and post your code in the Valence Community Developer forum. If you would like to keep your code private, please visit the Valence Store to obtain a Valence Professional or higher license.

If I can obtain the Valence Community Developer License for free, why should I upgrade to the Valence Professional or Enterprise Edition?

The Valence Community Developer License is primarily intended to allow developers an opportunity to prototype applications and learn Valence at no cost. If you are able to contribute your application back to the Valence community then no license fees are due to CNX and you can continue to develop application with Valence under the Community Developer License. Purchasing a Professional or Enterprise license gives you the right to keep your code private, which is more appropriate in most scenarios. The purchase of a Professional or Enterprise license also gives you automatic access to a year of Valence maintenance, which includes updates and support. Also, purchasing a Valence Enterprise license gives you access to valuable additional features not available in lower versions of the product.

I downloaded the Valence Community Edition and am creating some prototype applications to show my boss, or potential customers. Do I need to post this work on the Valence Community Developer forum?

When working under the Valence Community Developer License, you only need to post code that has actually been deployed to end users in a "live" production scenario. You may create any prototype applications you need under the Community Developer License without the need to post the code until such time as the code is deployed for use by end users. You may also continue to keep the code private even after being deployed to end users if you purchase a Valence Professional, Enterprise or OEM license from the Valence Store prior to your application being deployed.

I am an independent developer with several clients. Do my customers need to license Valence?

Your customers only need to obtain Valence licenses if they have internal developers also developing with Valence, or if you want to use features that are only part of the Valence Enterprise edition. When installing Valence at your customer sites the customer will need to agree to the Valence Run-Time License, which is normally free. If a customer does not have any internal programmers developing or maintaining Valence applications then the customer does not need to obtain Valence developer licenses. It is important to note that this scenario only applies if you are an independent software developer creating custom applications to the specifications of your customer. If you are creating a software package that will be sold or licensed to multiple customers as a canned package or provided as a service running from your systems, you must obtain a Valence OEM license.

Can I use Valence as the basis for creating an application framework with even more or different features?

You may extend and alter the framework however you like for your own internal purposes, but you may not create a competing framework or an alternate "flavor" of Valence and market it as a competing product to Valence. This scenario is expressly prohibited by all Valence licenses.

Do I need a license key to use Valence?

As of Valence 3.0, Community and Professional licenses do not require a key. Valence Enterprise requires a key to activate Enterprise-specific features. When you use Valence, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are complying with the terms of the appropriate development and run-time licenses.

Is source code included with Valence?

As of Valence 3.0, all Valence downloads are distributed with source code for everything except Valence Nitro and Valence Instance Manager, which are key-controlled Enterprise-only features.

Support & Updates FAQ's

Does CNX provide support for Valence?

If you have recently purchased a Valence Professional, Enterprise or OEM license you will have maintenance for one year from date of purchase. Maintenance includes both updates and support. At the end of the first year you will be invoiced by CNX automatically for another year.

How can I obtain updates and bug fixes for Valence?

When purchasing a new license you will create an account at the Valence Store. It is through this account that you will obtain updates. If you obtain a Professional Developer license or higher you will automatically have maintenance, with access to updates within your account for a period of one year from date of license purchase. After the first year you will receive an invoice from CNX to optionally renew maintenance for another year.

I have a free Community Developer license, can I still get updates and bug fixes for Valence?

You can only obtain updates for Valence if you have a Professional, Enterprise or OEM license and are current on maintenance. Updates are obtained through your account at the Valence Store. Community Developers may download and install new full versions of Valence and migrate data and apps to the new version manually. Updates and critical fixes are released first to Professional, Enterprise and OEM licensees with paid maintenance. The full download of Valence available to Community developers may not always contain the latest Valence updates and bug fixes.

What kind of support can I expect for Valence and my Valence applications?

The Valence system, as installed in its base form, is fully supported by CNX for all customers current with paid maintenance. In contrast, the code that you write for your applications cannot be supported to the same level as the base Valence system by CNX, but we may be able to offer some level of assistance with your development. In general, support does not include CNX actually writing your applications for you or writing parts of your code for you. It is expected that you will write your own programs and only come to CNX support after you have reviewed the appropriate documentation and have hit a point where you can not continue until someone helps you along, or if you have an error scenario that you have been unable to resolve on your own. Most of the time CNX will offer suggestions or point to similar code or provide an example if available. If you identify a bug in the base Valence system, the CNX team will do whatever necessary to provide a fix as quickly as possible.

What's the best way to obtain support?

Customers on maintenance who require support are encouraged to use the CNX forum to post questions. This is so that others experiencing the same issue can learn from your support experience. Your profile on the forum is tagged with your licensing and maintenance level so that the CNX staff can see what level of support you should receive. Entries on the forum are handled in this order: OEM, Enterprise, Professional and Community. In the case of Community, CNX may not be able to respond to a support request at all, instead relying on the community of users on the forum to help. Customers with support may also submit emails to support@cnxcorp.com if the support request contains information of a private nature that should not be on the forum. Customers with support may also call the CNX technical support line at (312) 477-7450, option 1. Generally speaking however, it is better so submit your request on the forum or via email and let someone from CNX call you back if necessary.

How has support and updates changed with Valence 3.0?

Prior to Valence 3.0, maintenance (support and updates) was purchased separately from licensing in number of hours, usually in “support packs” of 4 or 16 hours. Customers found this confusing because they had to decide what level of licensing and what level of support they wanted at time of purchase, without really knowing what level of support they needed. Also, purchasing support in terms of number of hours was hard for customers to understand and difficult for CNX to administer. Therefore CNX decided with the release of Valence 3.0 to include a year of support with new paid licenses and eliminate the need for tracking support hours used. This new model is more typical in the IBM i community and therefore much easier to understand and administer.