Token licensing mapping costs to enabled software tool features

• US 8,589,264 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2009
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Clemm, Geoffrey M., Col, Catherine G., Goddin, William, Zetie, Carl P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Goyea, Olusegun
• Application Number:
  US12/581,305
• Publication Number:
  US 20110093371A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,492 Days
• Field of Search: 705/59, 705/52, 705/37, 705/26.1, 725/131, 726/28, 726/1, 726/3, 726/6, 707/999.107, 707/999.003, 707/999.009
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0621 Item configuration or customization
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A request to activate a software tool can be received, where activation requires a quantity of tokens of a token license model. An entity, project, user-set, user, or combination thereof corresponding to the request can be ascertained. A feature-set to be enabled can be determined by querying preexisting indexed records. The preexisting indexed records can associate different feature-sets to different entities, projects, user-sets, users, or combinations thereof. A token cost can be computed for activating the software tool with the feature-set enabled for the request. Token costs for utilizing the software tool can vary depending upon the enabled feature-set. The computed token cost can be the quantity of tokens required to activate the software tool responsive to the request.

Claims

1. A system using tokens to license computer program products comprising:

a processor executing a plurality of computer program products,

the plurality of computer program products digitally encoded in at least one storage medium, each comprising a plurality of selectively activate-able features;

a data store comprising records relating different user-sets, specific ones of the computer program products, and feature-sets, to one another, wherein each feature-set defines which of said selectively activate-able features of the related computer program products are activated when provided to the related user-set; and

a token cost calculator, which is a computer program product digitally encoded in a storage medium, operable to determine a token cost for users of said different user-sets to utilize each of said computer program products with each of said feature-sets activated, wherein the different token costs are determined by the token cost calculator for use of the same computer program product depending upon which feature-set is activated when the computer program product is utilized, and wherein a token cost for concurrent usage of more than one said computer program products by a user-set is based on common features among the computer program products and non common features of the computer program products.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a token handler, which is a computer program product digitally encoded in a storage medium, comprising logic needed to configure the indexed records of the data store that associate user-sets with feature-sets; and

a feature-configuration user interface implemented in a computer program product digitally encoded in a storage medium that is executable by a processor, wherein said feature-configuration user interface presents a set of features enabled for one of said computer program products based upon content of indexed records of said data store, presents a token cost incurred for said set of features, and comprises an editing option to change said set of features, which results in a corresponding change in said token cost.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a token manager, which comprises a processor executing a computer program product digitally encoded in a storage medium, operable to receive a request to utilize one of said plurality of computer program products, to determine a user making the request, to determine from indexed records of the data store and from the determined user a user-set, and to determine from the user-set, a feature-set to be activated responsive to the request.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a token pool of a plurality of tokens purchased by an entity for use of said computer program products, said plurality of tokens being digitally encoded in a storage medium;

a pool handler, which is a computer program product digitally encoded in a storage medium, operable to manage and permit authorized administrators to configure specifics of how tokens of said token pool are able to be utilized by said user-sets, wherein said pool handler imposes a configurable constraint on a maximum-user-set amount of tokens available to at least one of the different user-sets, which said maximum-user-set value is a configurable value less than a quantity of tokens available to the entity.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the user-sets is a set of one user, wherein said user-set specific features-sets are user specific feature-sets defined for each of said computer program products that a given user is authorized to access, and wherein each computer program product is a software tool.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the computer program products is a software tool, wherein each software tool is a computer program product that consumes a quantity of said tokens when utilized and that automates an aspect of the software development process, wherein said software tool comprises at least two of a code editor, a compiler, a debugger, a testing program, a change management program, and a software configuration program.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the user-sets is a set of a plurality of users associated with a project, wherein a plurality of persistent data objects associated with the project are stored in a storage medium, said system further comprising:

a token manager, which comprises a processor executing a computer program product digitally encoded in a storage medium, operable to receive a request to utilize one of said plurality of computer program products, wherein said received request specifies one of the persistent data objects associated with the project, to determine the project associated with the requested persistent data object from the indexed records of the data store, to determine a user-set associated with the project, and to determine from the user-set a feature-set to be activated responsive to receipt of the request.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein each selectively activate-able features of the computer program products are features that have an active state and a non-activated state, where placing a selectively activate-able feature in the active state consumes a quantity of tokens.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein an activated state of one of said selectively activate-able features permits a user to access or utilize that feature, and wherein a non activated state of one of said selectively activate-able features is a state where a user is not permitted to access or utilize that feature.

10. A computer program product for incurring varying token costs for activating software tools depending upon enabled feature-sets comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code operable to receive a request to activate a software tool, where activation requires a quantity of tokens of a token license model;

computer usable program code operable to ascertain an entity, project, user-set, user, or combination thereof corresponding to the request;

computer usable program code operable to determine by querying preexisting indexed records, a feature-set to enable for the software tool for the request, wherein said preexisting indexed records associate different feature-sets to different entities, projects, user-sets, users, or combinations thereof;

computer usable program code operable to compute a token cost for activating the software tool with the feature-set enabled for the request, wherein token costs for utilizing the software tool varies depending upon the enabled feature-set, wherein said computed token cost is the quantity of tokens required to activate the software tool responsive to the request; and

computer usable program code operable to display a software tool having a user interface to present an enabled feature-set and a software tool token cost, wherein the user interface further comprising a user interface element to edit the enabled feature-set and associated token cost.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, the computer usable program code comprising:

computer usable program code operable to examine an available quantity of tokens in a previously established token pool; and

computer usable program code configured, when the available quantity of tokens in the token pool exceeds or is equal to the computed token cost,

to remove the computed cost of tokens from the token pool;

to convey the removed tokens to a computing device executing the software tool of the request; and

to activate the software tool utilizing the conveyed tokens;

computer usable program code configured, when the available quantity of tokens in the token pool is less than the computed token cost, to fire a message or an error event that indicates the request is unable to be satisfied due to an insufficient quantity of available tokens being present in the token pool.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein one of the parameters of the request is for a persistent data object, said the computer usable program code comprising:

computer usable program code operable to query a data store of records to determine a project indexed against the persistent data object;

computer usable program code operable to query the preexisting indexed records by the determined project to determine a project specific feature-set, wherein said preexisting indexed records associated a plurality of different feature-sets for the software tool, wherein the different feature-sets are indexed against different projects; and

computer usable program code operable to compute the token cost for activating the software tool with the project specific feature-set.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein said software tool comprises a plurality of sub-tools, wherein activation of each sub-tool requires a quantity of tokens of a token license model, the computer usable program code comprising:

computer usable program code operable to determine that one of said plurality of sub-tools has already been activated by a requisite quantity of tokens computed for said one sub-tool; and

computer usable program code operable to discount the token costs for activating the software tool with the feature-set enabled for the request by the cost of said one sub-tool.

14. A computing system for incurring varying token costs for activating software tools depending upon enabled feature-sets comprising:

a computing system comprising a combination of hardware and at least one computer program products, wherein said hardware comprises a storage medium for storing the computer program products and a processor for executing program code of the computer program products, wherein execution of the computer program products causes the computing system to;

receive a request to activate a software tool, where activation requires a quantity of tokens of a token license model;

ascertain an entity, project, user-set, user, or combination thereof corresponding to the request;

determine by querying preexisting indexed records, a feature-set to enable for the software tool for the request, wherein said preexisting indexed records associate different feature-sets to different entities, projects, user-sets, users, or combinations thereof; and

compute a token cost for activating the software tool with the feature-set enabled for the request, wherein token costs for utilizing the software tool varies depending upon the enabled feature-set, wherein said computed token cost is the quantity of tokens required to activate the software tool responsive to the request, and wherein a token cost for concurrent usage of more than one said software tools by a user-set is based on common features among the software tools and non common features of the software tools.

15. The computing system of claim 14, wherein each software tool is a computer program product that consumes a quantity of said tokens when utilized and that automates an aspect of the software development process, wherein said software tool comprises at least two of a code editor, a compiler, a debugger, a testing program, a change management program, and a software configuration program.

16. The computing system of claim 14 wherein said software tool comprises a plurality of sub-tools, wherein activation of each sub-tool requires a quantity of tokens of the token license model,

wherein execution of the computer program products causes the computing system to:

determine that one of said plurality of sub-tools has already been activated by a requisite quantity of tokens computed for said one sub-tool; and

discount the token costs for activating the software tool with the feature-set enabled for the request by the cost of said one sub-tool.

17. The computing system of claim 14 wherein execution of the computer program products causes the computing system to:

group the feature-sets of the software tool into a basic feature set, a standard feature set, a business feature set and an enterprise feature set.

18. The computing system of claim 14 wherein execution of the computer program products causes the computing system to:

establish a formula for computing the token cost, where feature specific parameters are variables of the formula.

19. The computing system of claim 14 wherein execution of the computer program products causes the computing system to:

set the token to expire in a relative short span after a discrete use to reappear in a token pool upon expiration.

20. The computing system of claim 14 wherein execution of the computer program products causes the computing system to:

permit a token consumer to alter the software tool features, which alters the token cost.