You can easily download an evaluation version of Aspose.Cells from its download page. The evaluation version provides absolutely the same capabilities as the licensed version of the component. Furthermore, evaluation version simply becomes licensed when you purchase a license and add a couple of lines of code to apply the license.

 

Evaluation Version Limitations

 

Evaluation version of Aspose.Cells product (without a license specified) provides full product functionality, but it is limited to open 100 files in one program and an extra worksheet with evaluation watermark.

 

The limitations are shown below:

 

1st Limitation: Number of Opened Files

 

When running your program, you can only open 100 Excel files. If your application exceeds this number, an exception will be thrown.

 

2nd Limitation: Worksheet with Evaluation Watermark

 

 

This worksheet will always show as the active worksheet. Only in licensed version, you can set the active worksheet to other worksheets.

 

Note: If you want to test Aspose.Cells without evaluation version limitations, you can also request a 30 Day Temporary License.

 

Setting License

 

The license is a plain text XML file that contains details such as the product name, number of developers it is licensed to, subscription expiry date and so on. The file is digitally signed, so don't modify the file. Even inadvertent addition of an extra line break into the file will invalidate it.

 

You need to set a license before utilizing Aspose.Cells if you want to avoid its evaluation limitation. It is only required to set a license once per application (or process). The license can be loaded from a file, stream or an embedded resource.

 

Aspose.Cells tries to find the license in the following locations:

• Explicit path
• The folder that contains Aspose.Cells.dll
• The folder that contains the assembly that called Aspose.Cells.dll
• The folder that contains the entry assembly (your .exe)
• An embedded resource in the assembly that called Aspose.Cells.dll

There are two common methods to set the license, these are discussed below:

 

1st Method (Using File or Stream)

 

The easiest way to set a license, is to put the license file in the same folder as that of Aspose.Cells.dll and specify just the file name without its path.

 

For Java, the easiest way is to put the license file in the Working directory and specify just the file name.

 

Example:

 

[C#]

 

 

//Instantiate an instance of license and set the license file through its path

Aspose.Cells.License license = new Aspose.Cells.License();

license.SetLicense("Aspose.Cells.lic");

 

 

[VB.NET]

 

 

'Instantiate an instance of license and set the license file through its path

Dim license As Aspose.Cells.License = New Aspose.Cells.License()

license.SetLicense("Aspose.Cells.lic")

 

Note: When you call SetLicense method, the license name should be same as that of your license file name. For example, you may change the license file name to "Aspose.Cells.lic.xml". Then in your code, you should use the modified license name (that is Aspose.Cells.lic.xml) for the SetLicense method.

 

It is also possible to load a license from a stream.

 

Example:

 

[C#]

 

 

//Instantiate an instance of license and set the license through a stream

Aspose.Cells.License license = new Aspose.Cells.License();

license.SetLicense(myStream);

 

 

[VB.NET]

 

 

'Instantiate an instance of license and set the license through a stream      

Dim license as Aspose.Cells.License = new Aspose.Cells.License()

license.SetLicense(myStream)

 

 

[JAVA]

 

 

//Instantiate an instance of license and set the license through a stream

License license = new License();

license.setLicense(myStream);

 

2nd Method (Using Embedded Resource)

 

Another neat way of packaging the license with your application and making sure it will not be lost, is to include it as an embedded resource into one of the assemblies that calls Aspose.Cells. To include the license file as an embedded resource, perform the following steps:

 

• In Visual Studio .NET, include the license (.lic) file into the project using the File | Add Existing Item... menu

 

 

• Select the file in the Solution Explorer and set Build Action to Embedded Resource in the Properties window

 

 

To access the license embedded in the assembly (as embedded resource), it is not needed to call GetExecutingAssembly and GetManifestResourceStream methods of System.Reflection.Assembly class of Microsoft .NET Framework. All is needed to do, is to just add the license file as an embedded resource to your project and pass the name of the license file into SetLicense method. The License class will automatically find the license file in the embedded resources.

 

Please review the example given below to understand this method of setting license (embedded) in your applications.

 

Example:

 

[C#]

 

 

//Instantiate the License class

Aspose.Cells.License license = new Aspose.Cells.License();

 

 

//Pass only the name of the license file embedded in the assembly

license.SetLicense("Aspose.Cells.lic");

 

 

[VB.NET]

 

 

'Instantiate the License class

Dim license As Aspose.Cells.License =  New Aspose.Cells.License()

 

 

'Pass only the name of the license file embedded in the assembly

license.SetLicense("Aspose.Cells.lic")