CI4-Lic

CI4-Lic is a software license manager modul for Codeigniter 4, connecting to WordPress license server based on Software License Manager Plugin.

Requirements

• PHP 7.3+, 8.0+ (Attention: PHP 8.1 not supported yet by CI 4 as of 2022-01-01)
• CodeIgniter 4.0.4+

Features

• activate/deactivate a license key
• register/deregister a domain for a license key
• display license information

Installation

Install Sofftware License Manager on your WordPress site

I assume that you have a WordPress site installed on which you want to manage your licenses. I recommend to install a separate WordPress instance just for that purpose. Connectivity between your CI4 application and that server is required.

• Install the Software License Manager Plugin on that server
• Configure the plugin, e.g. setting the secret key for validation

Install Codeigniter

Install an appstarter project with Codigniter 4 as described here.

Make sure your app and database is configured right and runs fine showing the Codigniter 4 welcome page.

Download CI4-Lic

Download the CI4-Lic archive from this repo here.

Copy CI4-Lic to your ThirdParty folder

Note: CI4-Lic is not available as a Composer package yet. It works from your ThirdParty folder.

Unzip the CI4-Lic archive and copy the 'lewe' directory to your \app\ThirdParty folder in your Codeigniter project. You should see this tree section then:

project-root
- app
  - ThirdParty
    - lewe
      - ci4-lic
        - src

Configuration

1. Add the Psr4 path in your app/Config/Autoload.php file as follows:

public $psr4 = [
    APP_NAMESPACE  => APPPATH, // For custom app namespace
    'Config'       => APPPATH . 'Config',
    'CI4\Lic'      => APPPATH . 'ThirdParty/lewe/ci4-lic/src',
];

2. For easier access the the helper functions, add the helper names 'lic' and 'bs5' to your app/Controller/BaseCopntroller.php. It might look like this (do not reomve existing helper entries):

protected $helpers = ['bs5', 'lic', 'session'];

3. Change the details for your license server and secret key in lewe/ci4-lic/src/Config/Lic.php. Example:

public $licenseServer = 'https://www.mylicenseserver.com';
...
public $secretKey = '5e07r7d791df36.99585318';

Routes

The CI4-Lic routes are defined in lewe/ci4-lic/src/Config/Routes.php. Copy the routes group from there to your app/Config/Routes.php file, right after the 'Route Definitions' header comment.

/*
* --------------------------------------------------------------------
* Route Definitions
* --------------------------------------------------------------------
*/
//
// CI4-Lic Routes
//
$routes->group('', ['namespace' => 'CI4\Lic\Src\Controllers'], function ($routes) {

    $routes->match(['get', 'post'], 'license', 'LicController::index', ['as' => 'license']);
    
    ...

});

Views

The views that come with CI4-Lic are based on Bootstrap 5 and Font Awesome 5.

If you like to use your own view you can override them editing the $views array in lewe/ci4-lic/src/Config/Lic.php:

public $views = [

    'license'   => 'CI4\Lic\Views\license',

];

Database

This library does not need any database records. However, you may want to save the license key in a database at a later point.

Currently, this library uses a hard-coded key for testing purposes in the readKey() function of the license controller. Replace that code for reading the key from your database when you're ready. lewe/ci4-lic/src/Controllers/LicController.php:

// ------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
 * Reads the license key from the database.
 */
function readKey()
{
    //
    // Most probably your license key will be in your database together with
    // other settings of your application. Add the proper code to read it
    // here e.g. from a database with this pseudo code
    // $this->key = read_key_from_db();
    //
    $this->key = 'CI4-1781ydy363738';
}

For saving a license key in your database, use the saveKey() function of the license controller. Add your code there. lewe/ci4-lic/src/Controllers/LicController.php:

// ------------------------------------------------------------------------
/**
 * Saves the license key to the database.
 * 
 * @param string $value The license key
 */
function saveKey($value)
{
    //
    // You may want to use this method to save the license key elsewhere
    // e.g. to a database with this pseudo code
    // save_key_to_db($this->key);
    //
}

Run Application

Start your browser and navigate to your public directory. Use the menu to check out the views that come with CI4-Lic.

Helper Functions (Lic)

In addition to the helper functions that come with Myth-Auth, CI4-Lic provides these:

dnd()

• Function: Dump'n'Die. Returns a preformatted output of objects and variables.
• Parameters: Variable/Object, Switch to die after output or not
• Returns: Preformatted output

Helper Functions (Bootstrap 5)

In order to create Bootstrap objects quicker and to avoid duplicating code in views, these helper functions are provided:

bs5_alert()

• Function: Creates a Bootstrap 5 alert box.
• Parameters: Array with alert box details.
• Returns: HTML

bs5_cardheader()

• Function: Creates a Bootstrap card header.
• Parameters: Array with card header details.
• Returns: HTML

bs5_formrow()

• Function: Creates a two-column form field div (text, email, select, password).
• Parameters: Array with form field details.
• Returns: HTML

bs5_modal()

• Function: Creates a modal dialog.
• Parameters: Array with modal dialog details.
• Returns: HTML

bs5_searchform()

• Function: Creates a search form field.
• Parameters: Array with search form details.
• Returns: HTML

bs5_toast()

• Function: Creates a Bootstrap toast.
• Parameters: Array with toast details.
• Returns: HTML

Disclaimer

The CI4-Lic library is not perfect. It may very well contain bugs or things that can be done better. If you stumble upon such things, let me know. Otherwise I hope the library will help you. Feel free to change anything to meet the requirements in your environment.

Enjoy, George Lewe