Archicad 26 is receiving cloud license compatibility with its newest Update 5. With this update, we are also introducing a new way for the add-ons to identify the users using cloud licensing.
Cloud licensing works differently compared to the CodeMeter software and hardware keys. Thus, the same user identification information and the number of seats a license has are unavailable. The concept of serial or configuration number (also known as the container code) does not apply to this new license technology.
We introduce two alternative identifiers to the Archicad API as an alternative to the configuration number. From now on, you can query the signed-in user’s identifier and the identifiers of the organizations (also known as companies) this user is a member of.
GSErrCode ACAPI_Protection_GetGSIDUserId (GS::UniString& userId);
GSErrCode ACAPI_Protection_GetGSIDOrganizationIds (std::set<GS::UniString>& organizationIds);
The functions return NoError on success, APIERR_GENERAL if no user is signed in currently, and APIERR_NOTSUPPORTED if Archicad is an older build not supporting these identifiers yet (applicable for AC 26 and AC 27 only).
These identifiers are stable; for the same user and organization, the same result is returned even if queried from different Archicad versions and computers.
It's important to note that the actual content of these identifiers does not have any meaning; that is, it’s impossible to infer the organization’s or the user’s name, e-mail address, or any other personal information. However, you can ask users to provide these identifiers corresponding to their account and organization explicitly if a specific use case requires this (e.g., entitlement management). Users can see the value of their own identifiers on the company management portal, referred to as “Unique ID”.
Even though these were introduced to provide an alternative for the configuration number, they are not tied to license technology, identity, or content. For example, they are queryable even in demo mode, given the user is signed in with a GSID account in Archicad.
For Archicad 26, we’ve just released an updated version of the API Development Kit, making these two new functions available. For Archicad 27, an updated development kit is expected to be released later this year. Archicad 28 will be supporting this new user identification from day one.
