Licence & updates

The Licence page

Open Essentials → Licence in the Hub. Paste the key from your Code Heaven purchase and click Activate. The page then shows the licence status, the domain, a masked copy of the key, how many seats are in use and when it was last checked, and it offers Re-check now, Release this site and Check for updates.

A seat is this site’s domain. Release this site gives the seat back so the key can be used on another site. Deactivating the plugin does not release it, so release first when you move a site.

Status on the page	What it means
Active	Licensed. Updates arrive on the Plugins screen like any other plugin
Update period ended	Every feature keeps working — the licence you bought does not expire. Only new versions have stopped
Not activated	No key entered yet. The Hub loads; no feature registers anything
Not valid	The server doesn’t recognise the key, or it has been revoked. Features stay off
Seat limit reached	The key is already on as many sites as it covers. Release one, or buy another licence
Not activated for this domain	A real key, but this site doesn’t hold one of its seats. Activating claims one

Activation is confirmed, not assumed: claiming a seat is always followed by a validate, and that verdict is what gets stored — so a key that activates happily but is over its seat limit is still reported honestly.

Without a valid licence

While no valid licence is active:

• No feature registers anything — no hooks, no plan capabilities, no menu entries beyond the Hub itself.
• The Hub stays reachable, because the Licence page is the only way to open the gate again.
• Nothing is deleted. Tables, settings and per-plan grants stay exactly where they are. Activating a key brings all of it back.

A licence that has passed its update window keeps every feature running — you bought the software; what ends is the window for new versions.

A licence server that can’t be reached never switches anything off. The site keeps running on its last positive verdict and simply stops being offered new versions until a re-check succeeds. Only a real “no” from the server changes the status. The licence is re-checked automatically once a day.

Updates

With a current licence, new versions appear on Plugins → Updates like any other plugin and install the normal way. If you don’t want to wait for WordPress’s own schedule, use Check for updates — it sits both on the Licence page and on the WordPress Plugins screen next to Deactivate, and it says what came back rather than silently reloading.

Updates need the licence to have been confirmed within the last 14 days. If the server couldn’t be reached for longer than that, everything you already have keeps running, but new versions pause until a re-check succeeds. A licence that was actually revoked stops being offered updates immediately.

Uninstalling

Removing the plugin keeps your data: the feature tables, settings and plan grants stay in the database. Re-installing and activating a key picks up exactly where you left off.