You can easily download an evaluation version of Aspose.BarCode 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 Limitation

 

Evaluation version of Aspose.BarCode (without a license specified) provides full barcode generation functionality but it shows an Evaluation Watermark (that is aspose.demo) on the barcode image that can be clearly seen in the figure below:

 

 

 

Evaluation version of Aspose.BarCode recognition library only supports Code39 barcode recognition, however, a full featured demo application is provided for all supported barcode symbologies.

 

Note: If you want to test Aspose.BarCode without evaluation version limitations, you can also request a 30 Day Temporary License. Please refer to How to get a Temporary License?

 

Setting a License in Aspose.BarCode for .NET

 

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 generating barcodes without eveluation watermark. 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.BarCode tries to find the license in the following locations:

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

 

There are two common methods to set the license, which 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.BarCode.dll and specify just the file name without its path.

 

[C#]

 

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

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

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

 

[VB.NET]

 

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

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

license.SetLicense("Aspose.BarCode.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.BarCode.lic.xml". Then in your code, you should use the modified license name (that is Aspose.BarCode.lic.xml) for the SetLicense method.

 

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

 

[C#]

 

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

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

license.SetLicense(myStream);

 

[VB.NET]

 

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

Dim license as Aspose.BarCode.License = new Aspose.BarCode.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.BarCode. 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.

 

[C#]

 

//Instantiate the License class

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

 

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

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

 

[VB.NET]

 

'Instantiate the License class

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

 

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

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

 

Setting a License in Aspose.BarCode for Java

 

Specify the license file path to set up a license for java. This method only needs to be called once as long as the application is still running.

 

[JAVA]

 

//Instantiate a license class

License l = new License();

 

//Place the set license method inside a try block

try {

 

//Setting up license by the absolute path of the license file

l.setLicense("c:\\Aspose.Total.Java.lic");

 

} catch (Exception ex) {}