How Do I Register The Software
Answer
This question was discussed in the APG vNext support community. For a complete answer, browse the Knowledge Base or search the support forum.
Quick Reference
- FAQ — common questions answered
- Installation Guide — step-by-step server setup
- Upgrade Guide — upgrading between versions
- Features Overview — what APG vNext includes
- Support Forum — ask the community directly
Registering Your APG vNext Licence
Registering APG vNext means linking your purchased licence key to your forum installation. The registration process has two parts: entering the licence key in web.config, and activating support forum access in the customer portal. Both steps are important — the web.config key activates the software and removes trial restrictions, while the customer portal activation grants access to the private support forum and the update download page.
Step 1 — Enter the Licence Key in web.config
Open the web.config file in the APG vNext application root and locate the appSettings section. Add or update the following key with the licence key from your purchase confirmation email:
<add key="APG.LicenseKey" value="XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX" />Save the file and perform an IIS Application Pool recycle to apply the change. After recycling, visit the forum home page and verify that the trial notice in the footer is no longer displayed. If the trial notice persists, double-check that the key was copied exactly without leading or trailing spaces and that the Application Pool was fully recycled rather than just restarted.
Step 2 — Activate Support Forum Access
Log in to the customer portal at aspplayground.net with the email address used for the purchase. Navigate to Account → My Licences and click Activate Support Forum Access. Within a few minutes, your community forum account (registered with the same email address) is promoted to the private support tier. If your community forum account uses a different email address than the purchase email, contact support to manually link the accounts.
Registering on a New Server
When moving the forum to a new server, no re-registration is needed as long as the domain name remains the same. The licence key validates against the domain in the HTTP request, not the server IP address. Simply copy the same web.config with the existing licence key to the new server. If the domain changes as part of the migration, contact support to transfer the licence key to the new domain — this is a standard request covered under the active maintenance subscription.
Troubleshooting Registration Issues
If the forum still shows trial restrictions after entering the licence key, verify that the Application Pool was recycled, check that customErrors mode=Off is not masking a licence validation error in the APG error log, and confirm that the server can reach the APG licence validation endpoint (requires outbound HTTPS on port 443). For air-gapped servers without internet access, contact support for an offline activation option.
Related Resources
Common Registration Scenarios and Edge Cases
Over the years, the APG vNext support team has encountered several recurring registration edge cases that are worth knowing in advance. The most common is a mismatch between the email address on the purchase and the email address used to register on the community forum — because support forum activation ties the customer portal account to the forum account via email, a mismatch means the activation step cannot automatically promote the correct forum account. The fix is simple: log in to the customer portal and manually specify the forum username to link. Another common scenario is deploying APG vNext behind a reverse proxy or load balancer that strips or rewrites the HTTP host header — the licence validator reads the host header to verify the domain, so an incorrectly configured proxy can cause license validation to fail even with a valid key. In this case, configure the proxy to pass the original Host header value, or set the APG LicenseOverrideDomain web.config key to explicitly specify the licensed domain.
Multi-Environment Licence Management
Many development teams maintain three environments: development, staging, and production. As mentioned earlier, development on non-public URLs is exempt from licence requirements. However, a staging environment hosted on a public URL (e.g., staging.yourforum.com) technically requires a separate licence unless it is password-protected and not publicly accessible. APG vNext provides a Development Mode configuration flag that disables licence checking when set — use this for staging environments to avoid needing a second licence while still running full production configuration for realistic testing. Contact APG support to obtain a staging-mode activation code if your deployment workflow requires public-URL staging access.
Version Upgrade and Licence Compatibility
Your existing licence key remains valid across all version upgrades within the same major version and across minor major version boundaries. When APG vNext releases a new major version with architectural changes, existing licence keys are typically upgraded automatically as part of the maintenance subscription — you do not need to purchase a new licence to move from v4 to v5. Check the release notes for any major version upgrade to confirm licence key compatibility before upgrading. If a new major version requires a new licence key, current customers receive a discounted upgrade path rather than paying full price.
Looking for more help? Browse the support forum or check the Knowledge Base.