User license management

In NX PCB Exchange Connect, named user license management is done through an administrative command-line interface (CLI) executable, which lets you view current license assignments, and assign or remove a user license.

When a user attempts to access the application, NX PCB Exchange Connect checks the local database for the user's assigned license.

  • If a license is assigned, the app checks it out to the user, and allows access to the application.
  • If no license is assigned and the number of assigned licenses is less than the total number of licenses, the app assigns a new license to the user, checks it out, and allows access to the application.
  • If no license is assigned and the number of assigned licenses is equal to or greater than the total number of licenses, the user is denied access. The user needs to contact the administrator to acquire more licenses or have a license reassigned to them.

When the user exits the application, NX PCB Exchange Connect checks the license back in and it remains assigned to the user.

NX PCB Exchange Connect handles automatically the license check-in and check-out processes. It stores the license assignment information in an encrypted local database using the advanced encryption standard (AES) encryption with a strong, securely-stored key. The database path is defined in the PcbApi_ConnectionStrings__PcbxConnectDatabase environment variable.

Note:
User license removal takes effect on the 1st day of the next month. A removal can be reverted back by re-assigning a user license to an existing user. During the delay, the user retains their existing license assignment, allowing them to finish the work before losing access.

CLI executable for managing licenses

The CLI executable, called NxPcbxConnectUserLicenseCLI.exe is available in the services package under the admin/UserLicenseCLI/<platform> folder. In a command prompt, use the following format:

NxPcbxConnectUserLicenseCLI.exe [command] [command-options]

The following table lists all available commands, their options, and description.

Command Command option Description
assign -u or --user Assigns a user license to a specific user identified by a unique identifier.

Example: NxPcbxConnectUserLicenseCLI.exe assign -u jane.doe@pcb.com
assign --help Displays help for assigning user licenses.
remove -u or --user Removes a user license to a specific user identified by a unique identifier.

Example: NxPcbxConnectUserLicenseCLI.exe remove --user john.doe@pcb.com
remove -a or --all Removes all user license assignments.

Example: NxPcbxConnectUserLicenseCLI.exe remove --all
remove --help Displays help for removing user licenses.
list Displays current user license assignments.
list --help Displays help for viewing user license assignments.
help Displays help for the CLI executable.

The list and help commands do not require a command option.