Yes, the Modular Merchant shopping cart can automatically distribute license keys to customers when they buy specified products. This is a common question, and can be done fairly easily. The Product Editor in your store's administration area includes built-in options to upload a text file containing licenses. When the customer purchases the product, the next available code is given to them. Following is a tutorial on using the shopping cart's license key distribution system.
Prerequisites:
This tutorial assumes the reader has the following:
- A basic understanding of using the Modular Merchant store's administration area; specifically the Product Editor screen.
- The ability to create and save a text file on your computer.
- The store's built-in product registration code tool is a "one-size-fits-most" feature. If your license key system is super-crazy-complex, it may require the development of a custom solution by Modular Merchant programmers.
A tutorial on these prerequisites is outside the scope of this guide. However, if you require instruction on these items, many free resources and tutorials are available on the Internet, and a variety of books are available in the computer section of your local bookstore.
What are the steps to adding a list of License Keys to a product?1. Create a text file with one product license key/registration code per line.
2. Open the selected product in the Product Editor in your store's administration area.
3. Use the License Key upload tool to upload the codes to your store database.
4. The customer automatically receives a key code for each unit of the product they purchase.
5. Track the distribution of the keys assigned to the product as sales are made.
If the steps listed above sound overwhelming, don't worry! Each step is discussed in detail below:
Part 1: Create a text file with one product license key/registration code per line.First, create a text file containing a single product code per line. This text file can be either a plain text file or a spreadsheet. The important thing is that each registration code is on a separate line. (See Figure 1.)
Figure 1: A text document containing a single license code per line.
Each code can be up to 250 characters long, and can contain any combination of letters, numbers, spaces and punctuation. After you have created your list of codes, save the file on your computer. The file can have any name you like, and it can have either a ".txt" or ".csv" file extension. For example: "license keys.txt" is a perfectly fine file name.
Part 2. Open the selected product in the Product Editor in your store's administration area.
In your store's administration area, select the product you would like to add license keys to. Select the product on the Search Products page. (See Figure 2.) . 
Figure 2: Edit a product at: [Navigation Menu > Products > Search Products]
On the Search Products page, locate the desired product, and click the "edit" button to open the product in the Product Editor. The Product Editor screen has several tabs. Select the Advanced Tags tab to load the screen that includes the License Key options. (See Figure 3.)
Figure 3: The Advanced Tags tab includes the key code management tools.
Part 3. Use the License Key upload tool to upload the codes to your store database. On the Advanced Tags screen is a set of tools for reviewing the License Keys that have been assigned to this product (if any), and for adding new keys to the product. (See Figure 4.)
Figure 4: View the registration codes assigned to the product, and upload new ones.
The first time you load this screen, the message "No License Keys found for this product" will be displayed. To add the fist wave of keys to the product, the text file full of keys will need to be uploaded. To start the upload process, click the Browse button in the "Upload new license keys..." table. This button will open a file browser on your computer. (See Figure 5.)
Figure 5: Use the Browse button to locate the text file on your computer containing the License Keys you will distribute with this product.
After you have located the license file, click the Open button in the file browser window. This will close the file browser window and enter the path to the license file in the Browse field on the previous screen. Next, click the Upload button on the Product Editor screen to import the licenses into your store. After the licenses have been imported, the Product Editor screen will reload, and all of the license codes from the text file will be listed.
Note, brand new licenses will have "None." listed in the Sale Date and Order ID columns. That's fine. These two fields are populated when a license is distributed to a customer. We'll come back to this in a moment...
Part 4. The customer automatically receives a key code for each unit of the product they purchase. Now you're all set. When a customer purchases this product, they will receive a license code for each unit of the product they buy. For example, if the customer buys 3 units of this product, they will receive 3 key codes.
When a product with key code assigned to it is purchased, the following happens:
A) The next available License Key(s) for the purchased product(s) are used. The listings for each key in the store database is updated with the date and the ID number of the customer's order.
B) The key is recorded in the order's notes, which are available on the Order Details page in your store's administration area.
C) The key is listed on the customer's receipt web page, printable receipt, receipt email, and in the Order History section of the customer's account area. (Whether all of these are used will depend on how you have designed your store. For example, it's possible to hide the key from the customer's receipt web page.)
Part 5. Track the distribution of the keys assigned to the product as sales are made. After a key has been used, it is not distributed to any more customers. (Each key is distributed once and only once.) However, the key is still listed in the product's editor page until you delete it. (See Figure 6.) This allows you to easily track the distribution of your License Keys.
Figure 6: Track the sale of the product's key codes in the Advanced Tags section of the Product Editor screen.
This table includes the following information:
SID: This is the System ID number of the License Key. The SID number is automatically assigned by the store. It is used for internal tracking purposes.
License Key: The code from the imported text file. This is the code that is distributed to the customer when they purchase this product.
Sale Date: The date the order that included this License Key was placed.
Order ID: The ID number of the order that received this key. Click this link to view the details page for that order.
Checkmark: Clean house by selecting old keys have been distributed and are no longer needed and then clicking the Deleted Selected Keys button. Deleting keys will not remove the key from the notes of the order that purchased it. You will still be able find the key in that order's Order Notes, even if the key is deleted. Also, deleting a key will have no affect on the key's usability, since that is controlled by the application that the key is being used with, and not the shopping cart itself.
The final results:
You can now assign a list of License Keys, Registration Codes, or Super-Secret-Decoder-Ring-Codes to any product in your store. Every time that product is purchased, the store will automatically give the customer the next available code number. As each code number is used, the date and Order ID number will be recorded for your tracking purposes.
If you have any questions, problems or suggestions for further enhancements to the license key distribution system, let us know! Modular Merchant is continually adding new features and improvements to our shopping cart, and we welcome any feedback! Enjoy!
FAQ:
Can License Keys only be assigned to digital products?
Keys can be assigned to any type of product — digital, shipped, service or hybrid products. If it's a product in your store, it can have codes assigned to it.
If I assign codes to a subscription product, will the customer get a new code every time their monthly subscription is billed?
Potentially, yes. Any time a product with keys assigned to it is purchased — whether in an order placed by a customer, an administrator, or by the automated subscription billing system — the next available key will be pulled from the list and used. If this doesn't fit into your plans, a simple solution is to use the Subscription & Membership Product module's options to daisy-chain two products together. That way, the customer will initially purchase product A, which has license codes assigned to it, and all subsequent orders will be billed as product B, which is identical to product A, except that product B has no codes assigned to it.
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