Licensing and evaluation Leave feedback

To study the system, you may want quick access to the API. To make this easier, GroupDocs.Viewer provides different plans for purchase and offers a Free Trial and a 30-day Temporary License for evaluation.

Note

Note that there are a number of general policies and practices that guide you on how to evaluate, properly license, and purchase our products. You can find them in the Purchase Policies and FAQ section.

You can also try GroupDocs.Viewer without buying a license.

The evaluation version is identical to the purchased one; it becomes licensed once you set the license. You can set the license using methods described in the following sections of this article.

The evaluation version has the following limitations:

• Rendering is limited to the first 2 pages.
• Trial badges are added to the top of a rendered page.

If you want to test GroupDocs.Viewer without the limitations of the trial version, request a 30-day Temporary License. For details, see the Get a Temporary License page.

After buying, apply the license file or include it as an embedded resource.

License needs to be set:

• Only once per application domain
• Before using any other GroupDocs.Viewer classes

Licenses can be applied from different locations:

• Explicit path
• The folder containing the GroupDocs.Viewer.dll file
• The folder containing the assembly that called GroupDocs.Viewer.dll
• The folder containing the entry assembly (your .exe)
• As a Metered License that allows you to pay for your usage. For details, see the Metered Licensing FAQ.
• As an embedded resource When you reference GroupDocs.Viewer.dll in the application, the library is copied to your output directory (unless Copy Local in the properties for that entry is set to false). The easiest way to set a license is often to place the license file in the same folder as GroupDocs.Viewer.dll and specify just the filename without the path.

Use the SetLicense method to license a component.

Calling SetLicense multiple times is not harmful, it simply wastes processor time.

Calling SetMeteredKey multiple times is not harmful either but wastes processor time and can accumulate consumption improperly.

After obtaining the license, set it. This section explains how to do this. When developing your application, call the SetLicense method in your startup code before using the GroupDocs.Viewer classes.

The following code snippet shows how to set a license from file:

using GroupDocs.Viewer;
// ...

string licensePath = "GroupDocs.Viewer.lic";
License license = new License();
license.SetLicense(licensePath);

Imports GroupDocs.Viewer
' ...

Module Program
    Sub Main(args As String())
        Dim licensePath As String = "GroupDocs.Viewer.lic"
        Dim license As License = New License()
        license.SetLicense(licensePath)
    End Sub
End Module

The following code snippet shows how to set a license from a stream:

using System.IO;
using GroupDocs.Viewer;
// ...

string licensePath = "GroupDocs.Viewer.lic";
using (FileStream fileStream = File.OpenRead(licensePath))
{
    License license = new License();
    license.SetLicense(fileStream);
}

Imports System.IO
Imports GroupDocs.Viewer
' ...

Module Program
    Sub Main(args As String())
        Dim licensePath As String = "GroupDocs.Viewer.lic"
    
        Using fileStream As FileStream = File.OpenRead(licensePath)
            Dim license As License = New License()
            license.SetLicense(fileStream)
        End Using
    End Sub
End Module

You can set the Metered license as an alternative to license file. It is useful for the customers who want to be billed based on the usage of the API features. For more details, please refer to Metered Licensing FAQ.

The following code snippet shows how to use the metered license:

using System;
using GroupDocs.Viewer;
// ...

string publicKey = ""; // Your public license key
string privateKey = ""; // Your private license key

Metered metered = new Metered();
metered.SetMeteredKey(publicKey, privateKey);

// Get amount (MB) consumed
decimal amountConsumed = GroupDocs.Viewer.Metered.GetConsumptionQuantity();
Console.WriteLine("Amount (MB) consumed: " + amountConsumed);

// Get count of credits consumed
decimal creditsConsumed = GroupDocs.Viewer.Metered.GetConsumptionCredit();
Console.WriteLine("Credits consumed: " + creditsConsumed);

Imports System
Imports GroupDocs.Viewer
' ...

Module Program
    Sub Main(args As String())
        Dim publicKey As String = "" ' Your public license key
        Dim privateKey As String = "" ' Your private license key
    
        Dim metered As Metered = New Metered()
        metered.SetMeteredKey(publicKey, privateKey)
    
        ' Get amount (MB) consumed
        Dim amountConsumed As Decimal = GroupDocs.Viewer.Metered.GetConsumptionQuantity()
        Console.WriteLine("Amount (MB) consumed: " & amountConsumed.ToString())
    
        ' Get count of credits consumed
        Dim creditsConsumed As Decimal = GroupDocs.Viewer.Metered.GetConsumptionCredit()
        Console.WriteLine("Credits consumed: " & creditsConsumed.ToString())
    End Sub
End Module

Instead of using a license file, you can install the license as an embedded resource. To do this, add a license to the project and specify the license name in the SetLicense method without specifying the full path to this file.

Note

To use the embedded license, add it to your project and set the Build Action property of this file to “Embedded Resource”. Ensure that the license name in the embedded resources matches the string parameter of the SetLicense method.

The following code snippet shows how to use the embedded license:

using GroupDocs.Viewer;
// ...

License license = new License();
license.SetLicense("GroupDocs.Viewer.lic");

Imports GroupDocs.Viewer
' ...

Module Program
    Sub Main(args As String())
        Dim license As License = New License()
        license.SetLicense("GroupDocs.Viewer.lic")
    End Sub
End Module

You do not have to name the license file “GroupDocs.Viewer.lic”. Feel free to rename it as you prefer, and use that name when setting the license in your application.

When you buy and download a license from the GroupDocs website, the license file is named “GroupDocs.Viewer.lic.” Download it using your browser. Sometimes, browsers recognize it as XML and add the .xml extension, making the full file name “GroupDocs.Viewer.lic.XML” on your computer.

If Microsoft Windows is set to hide file extensions (which is the default in most installations), the license file will show as “GroupDocs.Viewer.lic” in Windows Explorer. You might assume this is the actual file name and call the SetLicense method with “GroupDocs.Viewer.lic”, but there is no such file, leading to an exception.

To fix this issue, rename the file to remove the hidden .xml extension. Additionally, we suggest disabling the Hide extensions option in Microsoft Windows.