The free trial version of ChartDirector will include a small yellow banner line at the bottom of every charts it produces. After installing a license key, the yellow banner should disappear. If the yellow banner is still there, please follow the steps below to trouble-shoot the problem.

• Please double check you have already followed the license installation instructions.
• For license key installed using the "chartdir.lic" file, there is a "getBootLog" API in ChartDirector that can return diagnostic messages as a text string. It will explain what directories ChartDirector has searched for the "chartdir.lic" and why the license key cannot be loaded.
  
  

  Programming Language	getBootLog Usage
  C++	char message[10000]; Chart::getBootLog(message);
  C#/Java	String message = Chart.getBootLog();
  VB.NET	Dim message As String = Chart.getBootLog()
  VB6/VBA/VBScript	Dim message message = cd.getBootLog()
  Python	message = getBootLog();
  PHP	$message = getBootLog();
  Perl	my $message = perlchartdir::getBootLog();

• For ChartDirector editions with web application sample code, on the index page of the sample code, on the right side there is a "check installation" link that can also display the diagnostic messages.
• For ChartDirector Redistribute License keys installed with the setLicenseCode API, that API will return a text string which contains the error message.

Some common reasons that the license key cannot be loaded:

• The license key is spelled incorrectly.
• The license file is not called "chartdir.lic".
  Some text editors (eg. Notepad) may automatically add the ".txt" extension to the file, so the file name becomes "chartdir.lic.txt". You may not see the ".txt" because the File Explorer may be configured to hide "known extensions". You would need to remove the ".txt" extension.
• The license file is in an incorrect directory.
  The getBootLog will list out the directories that ChartDirector has searched.
• The application does not have read access to the license file.
  Normally, a newly created file is readable by everyone. If for some reasons, the "chartdir.lic" is only readable by the file owner (you), and the application is running under another account, it will be unable to read the license file. In particular, for web applications, the web server may run under a low privilege anonymous user account, and it may only be able to read files that are readable by everyone.
• The license file is not an ASCII file.
  Some text editors (eg. Notepad) can save the file in more than one format (ASCII or Unicode). One way to distinguish the two is to check the file size. A ChartDirector license key contains 29 characters, so an ASCII file should be around 29 bytes, plus a few bytes to allow for line feed or white space. A unicode file will be twice the size.
• The license file contains only an upgrade key.
  An upgrade key cannot be used by itself. It must be appended to the original license key. Each upgrade key will increase the major version of the original license key by 1.
• The license key is too old for the ChartDirector version in use.
  This should only be possible if you are using an old license key. The getBootLog will display the maximum version that the license key can be used. You may consider to purchase one or more upgrade keys to upgrade to the current ChartDirector version. Only major version counts. Each upgrade key increases the major version by 1.
• The license key is not for the operating system in use.
  Some ChartDirector licenses are only valid for Windows/Linux/FreeBSD. They will not work on other OS (eg. macOS). You may contact support@advsofteng.net on how to upgrade or change the license type.

If you need further help, please contact support@advsofteng.net,