Features

>What Is a Feature?

>Prerequisites for Creating a Feature

>Lifecycle Stages of a Feature

>Creating a Feature

>Actions for Features

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See How to Use Sentinel EMS?

What Is a Feature?

A feature is a distinct functionality in a software application that can be independently licensed. Features are the basic building blocks of products and licenses. You can bundle one or more features into a product according to your product monetization model. This lets you charge your customers per feature, giving your customers the flexibility to purchase only those features and capabilities that they actually need.

A feature can represent anything from a module to specific functionality such as Print, Save, or Draw, or an entire application.

For example, suppose you want to create a product called MySampleCalculator. You might include the following features:

F1	Add
F2	Subtract
F3	Multiply
F4	Divide

As part of your product monetization model, you might roll out the following flavors of the same product to the market:

>MySimpleCalculator (Add, Subtract)

>MyAdvancedCalculator (Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide)

This lets you charge different prices according to feature usage.

Licensing Features

Sentinel EMS provides you the flexibility to apply a license model to each feature in a product. This helps to secure each feature and enables you to generate different types of licenses for a product according to your requirements. You apply the license model when creating or editing the product that contains the feature, or when adding the product to an entitlement.

Prerequisites for Creating a Feature

>A role that includes Catalog (Namespace) permissions for the relevant namespace. (You cannot move an entity from one namespace to another.) At minimum, the vendor user needs the Add permission. For details, see Roles.

Lifecycle Stages of a Feature

When you create a feature, the current system date is automatically stored as the Creation Date attribute. The Deployed attribute defines the lifecycle stage of a feature.

>Deployed: The feature is included in a product that is part of an entitlement.

>Not Deployed: The feature is not deployed if:

•The feature is not included in any product, OR

•The feature is included in a product that is marked as a draft, OR

•None of the products containing the feature are included in any entitlements.

Creating a Feature

You create a feature from the Features page.

To create a feature:

1.From the navigation pane, select Catalog > Features to view the Features page.

2.Click the Add Feature button.

3.Fill in the feature attributes.

4.Click Save.

Feature Attributes

The following table explains the feature attributes:

Attribute	Description	Required/Optional	Valid Values
Namespace (Visible only if more than one namespace is available.)	The namespace allotted by Thales. (In Sentinel LDK, this is known as batch code.)	Required	>Any namespace in the list
Name	Name of the feature. The validity of the feature name depends on the enforcement in use.	Required	>1 to 50 characters >Cannot contain: < >
Identifier	Unique identifier for the feature. During runtime, the Sentinel Licensing API call uses the Feature Identifier. Always ensure that the Feature Identifier is the same in both Sentinel EMS and the Sentinel LDK application you are using to protect your application (Sentinel LDK Envelope or Sentinel Licensing API).	Required	>Must be unique >Number from 1 to 65471 >The Name + Identifier combination must be unique across Sentinel EMS. (In other words, the same Name + Identifier combination cannot be used in multiple namespaces.)
Description	Additional information about the feature.	Optional	>0 to 500 characters
Additional Attributes
External ID	External reference identifier that uniquely identifies the feature in an external system.	Optional	>Unique across Sentinel EMS for all features. >0 to 60 characters
Ref ID 1	Reference identifier that identifies the feature in an external system. For example, a feature code in your company's ERP system.	Optional	>0 to 100 characters
Ref ID 2	Reference identifier that identifies the feature in an external system.	Optional	>0 to 100 characters

Actions for Features

The following table lists the actions available for features:

Action	Description
	Edit	Updates information for an existing feature. Note: >Modifying a download definition requires appropriate permissions. For details, see Roles. >You can modify details for features that are not deployed. >For deployed features that have been activated, you cannot modify the feature name and Feature Identifier.
	Delete	Deletes a feature. Available only for non-deployed features and features that are included in a product that is not marked as "completed".
	Copy	Duplicates an existing feature to create an identical copy. Edit the attributes as needed and save to create the new feature.

Action

Description

Edit

Updates information for an existing feature.

Note:

>Modifying a download definition requires appropriate permissions. For details, see Roles.

>You can modify details for features that are not deployed.

>For deployed features that have been activated, you cannot modify the feature name and Feature Identifier.

Delete

Deletes a feature. Available only for non-deployed features and features that are included in a product that is not marked as "completed".

Copy

Duplicates an existing feature to create an identical copy. Edit the attributes as needed and save to create the new feature.