The easiest and fastest way to activate SoftXpand is by online activation using an active internet connection.

In some cases, the site where SoftXpand is implemented does not have an internet connection, and therefore, offline activation is needed.

This document consists of 2 parts.

• Part 1: How to perform offline activation.
• Part 2: How to implement offline activation in large scale projects.

Part 1 – How to activate offline

This part describes the steps needed in order to activate offline a SoftXpand host.

Software requirements for offline activation as described in this part:

• SoftXpand Version 3.0.0 or higher.
• Use administrative user.

In order to activate offline – follow these steps:

1. Click ‘Activate’ to launch the SoftXpand activation dialog.
   SoftXpand activation dialog can be accessed either from the SoftXpand control panel, or from SoftXpand Admin Tools.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Fill in all the details in the ‘Activation Info’ section.
3. Select ‘Activate Offline’ button.
4. Paste the serial number into the ‘Serial Number’ section.
   
   
   
   
5. Click on the ‘Activate’ button to generate an offline activation file.
6. Select the path in which to save the generated file.
   Note: SoftXpand version 3.0.11 and higher will generate a file name in format [serial number].txt. If you are using a lower SoftXpand version (3.0.1 or 3.0.0), then change the generated file name into the format of: [serial number].txt.
   For example: 05359d11-b923-4c32-9ed4-b56421c0e502.txt.
   
   
   
   
7. Send the file to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  
8. MiniFrame will reply with a zip file containing a file called SoftXpandLicense.dat.
9. The file SoftXpandLicense.dat should be placed in the folder:
   C:\Program Files\Miniframe\SoftXpand\  
10. Offline activation is completed.

Part 2 - How to implement offline activation in large scale projects

This section deals with the scenario where there is no active internet connection or email. However, there is access to a centralized server folder (FTP, UNC).

The offline activation files will be sent from the sites to the shared folder. From there, the files will be sent to MiniFrame by email.

MiniFrame will reply with zip files which need to be placed back in the shared folder and from there the technicians on sites will be able to pull their relevant files and complete the offline activation.

Software requirements for offline activation as described in this part:

• SoftXpand Version 3.0.11 (or higher for future releases).
• Use administrative user.

Perform the following steps:

1. On the server:
   Create a centralized folder which will contain all offline activation files. From sites and replied by MiniFrame.
   For example:
   \\ServerName\SharedFolder
   Or
   Ftp://ServerName/ShareName
2. Give read and write permissions for everyone.
3. On the sites:
   Perform the offline activation procedure as described in part 1 (1-6).
   All activation files generated from the sites – should be placed in the shared folder in this format: [serial number].txt.
   Note: it is recommended to use SoftXpand version 3.0.11 to generate the offline activation file since the generated file name is in the format of [serial number].txt. Do not change the name of the file. Earlier versions of SoftXpand do not generate the file in this format. Therefore, you will need to manually rename the txt file name to that format.
   Example for file name: 05359d11-b923-4c32-9ed4-b56421c0e502.txt
4. From the server:
   Send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it containing the offline activation files in the format of [serial number].txt.
5. MiniFrame will reply for each attached file with a zip file in this format: 
   [serial number].zip.
   The zip file will contain SoftXpandLicense.dat.
6. Save the zip files in the shared folder.
   The technicians on the sites will access the shared folder to retrieve their offline activation replies.
   The shared folder should look something like this:
   
   
   
   The txt files are the initial offline activation requests, and the zip files are the offline activation replies from MiniFrame):
7. On each site:
   Pull the relevant zip file from the shared folder, unzip it, and place it’s relevant SoftXpandLicense.dat file in the folder C:\Program Files\Miniframe\SoftXpand\

Note: it is recommended to keep on the shared folder a DOC file which catalogs all sites with their serial numbers, for tracking proposes.