License Guide for ThinkGeo 15¶

ThinkGeo 15 licenses developers, not machines. Each developer keeps a small personal key file. Every build checks it and embeds a signed token in the assembly it builds, and the built application needs nothing else to run, anywhere.

For developers¶

How it works¶

1. You keep a license key file in your user profile folder.
2. When you build (dotnet build or Visual Studio), a build step inside the ThinkGeo.Core package checks the key.
3. A valid license key lets the build pass and stamps a signed license token into your assembly.
4. At run time, ThinkGeo reads that token from your assemblies. Nothing has to be installed or activated on the machines you deploy to.

A license key covers one or more product families:

The build checks the key against the ThinkGeo packages your project references. A project that uses ThinkGeo.UI.Wpf needs a Desktop key. A project that uses ThinkGeo.Core alone builds with a key of any family.

Try ThinkGeo: the 30-day trial¶

No sign-up is needed to try ThinkGeo. The first build on a machine without a key starts a 30-day trial on that machine:

• For 30 days the build succeeds. Warning TG0001 says on which date the trial ends and how many days are left. Maps show a Not Licensed for Runtime watermark.
• From day 30 the build fails with error TG0002 until a key is in place.
• Applications you built during the trial keep running, with the watermark.

To evaluate for longer than 30 days, contact sales@thinkgeo.com.

Get your license key¶

1. Sign in at helpdesk.thinkgeo.com and open ThinkGeo 15 License Keys.
2. The page lists the product families your company owns. Press Get my Desktop key (or Web, Mobile) for each family you work with.

3. Save the files, with their names unchanged, in your profile folder:

   	Folder
   Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\ThinkGeo\ (for example C:\Users\you\AppData\Local\ThinkGeo\)
   macOS / Linux	~/.thinkgeo/

4. Build. A build with no TG line in its output means the key is in place. There is nothing to activate and nothing to restart, including Visual Studio.

Every .thinkgeokey file in the folder is read, so keep desktop.thinkgeokey and web.thinkgeokey side by side if you work on both. When a project uses several families, the build stamps one token per key.

The key belongs to you, not to the machine: use the same files on your laptop, your desktop and your virtual machines. Do not share a key file or commit one to a repository. Downloading a key again returns the same key. Revoke on the page replaces it with a new one.

If the page says No seat assigned to you, ask the person it names (your company's administrator) or sales@thinkgeo.com.

Non-map license key¶

If you build a solution that uses ThinkGeo but never work on its maps (a back-end service, or a colleague's UI you only compile), get a non-map key from the same page. Under it every ThinkGeo project builds, and maps render blank. Anyone in a company with a current subscription can get one, and it takes no seat.

Your license key's date and renewals¶

Your key carries a date: the end of your subscription, or your Software Assurance date for perpetual licenses. Every ThinkGeo package released before that date builds with your key, permanently. A package released after it fails with TG0003 until you renew and download your key again. Applications you already built are not affected.

What the build tells you¶

These lines appear in the dotnet build output and in the Visual Studio Error List, together with the project name. The check runs before compilation and takes well under a second.

Deploying your application¶

An application built with your key behaves the same on your own machine and on every machine you deploy it to: the license travels inside the assembly. There is nothing to install, copy or activate on servers, desktops or devices, and trimming, single-file publishing and ReadyToRun keep it.

• MAUI (Android, iOS, MacCatalyst, Windows): the key is used on the machine that builds the app; the device needs nothing.
• Blazor WebAssembly: the build is checked like any other project; the browser itself does not check the token.

Build servers, CI and containers¶

Only the machine that compiles needs a key. Build agents usually have no profile folder, so the key is passed in one environment variable:

The variable is read before the profile folder. A project that references a UI package needs a line of that family, as on a developer machine.

Which license key to use. Use the license key of a developer who holds a seat, or create a build account in your company and give it a seat. Store the key as a secret in your CI system. When that person leaves, their key is revoked with their seat, so replace the secret.

Without a license key, every fresh build agent or container starts on day 0 of a trial and the build passes with warning TG0001. An application with a watermark can then leave the pipeline unnoticed. Add -warnaserror:TG0001 to the build command to turn that into a failure.

GitHub Actions:

- name: Build
  run: dotnet build -c Release -warnaserror:TG0001
  env:
    THINKGEO_LICENSE: ${{ secrets.THINKGEO_LICENSE }}

GitLab CI (define THINKGEO_LICENSE as a masked variable under Settings > CI/CD > Variables; for two families, paste both lines):

build:
  script:
    - dotnet build -c Release -warnaserror:TG0001

Azure Pipelines (secret variables are not passed to scripts automatically, so map it):

- script: dotnet build -c Release -warnaserror:TG0001
  env:
    THINKGEO_LICENSE: $(ThinkGeoLicense)

Docker, with a BuildKit secret: the key is mounted only for the build step and never written into an image layer. Here the variable holds the path of the mounted file:

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0 AS build
WORKDIR /src
COPY . .
RUN --mount=type=secret,id=thinkgeo \
    THINKGEO_LICENSE=/run/secrets/thinkgeo dotnet publish -c Release -o /app

docker build --secret id=thinkgeo,src=$HOME/.thinkgeo/desktop.thinkgeokey -t myapp .

A shell on a build server:

export THINKGEO_LICENSE="$(cat ~/.thinkgeo/web.thinkgeokey)"   # or the path of the file itself
dotnet build -c Release

What the build reports to ThinkGeo¶

Once a day per machine and key, the build sends ThinkGeo one short report. It contains:

• the license key's id, never the key itself;
• the license key's state;
• the machine name;
• the ThinkGeo.Core version;
• the target framework and the operating system;
• whether the machine is a CI agent.

It never sends project names, file paths, user names or source code. The server derives a country from the connection and does not store the address.

The report takes at most two seconds, once a day. It never fails a build and never writes to the build output, so a machine without internet access is unaffected.

To switch the report off, set the environment variable THINKGEO_NO_TELEMETRY=1, or add this to the project:

<PropertyGroup>
  <ThinkGeoBuildReporting>false</ThinkGeoBuildReporting>
</PropertyGroup>

What changed from ThinkGeo 14¶

ThinkGeo 14 licenses do not carry over: development licenses installed by Product Center and runtime license files do not license ThinkGeo 15 packages. A ThinkGeo 15 application needs a license key when it is built. Applications that stay on ThinkGeo 14 packages keep using their ThinkGeo 14 licenses as before.

Your purchases and renewals are unchanged; the help desk derives the seats from them.

To upgrade a team:

1. Your administrator checks the seat table on the help desk (see For administrators). Developers who had Enable My Download in ThinkGeo 14 are already seated.
2. Each developer downloads their keys; build servers get THINKGEO_LICENSE.
3. Move to the ThinkGeo 15 packages. In MAUI apps, remove LicenseLoader.LoadLicense(...) and the .mapsuitelicense files.

For administrators¶

The main contact of your ThinkGeo account (set by ThinkGeo sales) manages the team's seats at helpdesk.thinkgeo.com → ThinkGeo 15 License Keys.

Seats¶

• Each purchase gives seats to a product family: ten Desktop licenses are ten Desktop seats. The page shows each family you own with N of M in use and the date the seats are valid until. These numbers follow Order History.
• A developer's key takes one seat of its family; each person holds one key per family. Downloading the key again does not take another seat.

Assigning people¶

• The seat table at the bottom of the page lists every contact of your company, with a column per family. Assign gives a seat. Remove takes it back and revokes that person's key for that family.
• Contacts without a help desk sign-in are listed but cannot be assigned until they register with the e-mail address on file.
• Developers who had Enable My Download in ThinkGeo 14 are seated by default while seats last. If you remove such a seat it stays removed; if you assign it, it is pinned to that person.
• When every seat of a family is in use, the next developer sees All N seats are in use, and the page names you as the person to ask.

Typical situations¶

Questions¶

Can I use my key on my laptop and my desktop? Yes. The key belongs to you, not to the machine.

I lost the key file. Download it again; it is the same key.

Someone may have seen my key. Press Revoke on the help desk and download the new key.

My subscription ended. Packages released before the end date keep building. Newer packages show TG0003 until you renew. Deployed applications are unaffected.

Can I skip the check? Setting ExcludeAssets="build;buildTransitive" on the ThinkGeo.Core package reference skips it. Maps then show the watermark, so this does not license anything.

What is the build-reports folder next to my keys? It is in %LOCALAPPDATA%\ThinkGeo\ (~/.thinkgeo/ on macOS and Linux) and records which daily build reports were already sent, so a machine reports at most once a day. It is not a license; deleting it only means the next build sends one more report.

Where do I get help? Contact sales@thinkgeo.com about seats and renewals, and helpdesk.thinkgeo.com about everything else. Include the exact TG line from your build output.