Including a license in a Download
Introduction
A license may be associated with a Download and a user may optionally be asked to accept a license before being able to download.
There are seven licenses as standard and additional licenses may be added.
Please note any enforcement of a license is solely the resposibility of the website owner or operator. jDownloads just provides the facilities and can take no part whatsoever in enforcing the terms of the licence.
There are seven licenses as standard and additional licenses may be added.
Please note any enforcement of a license is solely the resposibility of the website owner or operator. jDownloads just provides the facilities and can take no part whatsoever in enforcing the terms of the licence.
License types
The six standard licenses may be grouped into two classes. There is also a seventh license, the Commercial license, which is a blank one for testing your own license.
1. Those that are linked to a document such as the GNU/GPL, GNU/LGPL and the Creative Commons licenses. A Description may also be included in these licenses. These licenses cannot be modified.
2. Those that only have a description that contains the text of the license, examples are Donationware, Linkware and Charityware. The text may contain HTML code.

1. Those that are linked to a document such as the GNU/GPL, GNU/LGPL and the Creative Commons licenses. A Description may also be included in these licenses. These licenses cannot be modified.
2. Those that only have a description that contains the text of the license, examples are Donationware, Linkware and Charityware. The text may contain HTML code.

Adding a License to a Download
Adding a licence to a Download can be carried out in the Frontend or the Backend. When creating or editting a Download in the Backend adding the license selection is in the righthand panel of the General tab. In the Frontend it is in the Additional Data tab. There are two parameters.
License selection is a pull down selection box, as shown on the right

'Confirm License'
which is a simple Yes/No pulldown.
When set to Yes the user has to accept the license in order to continue with the downloading.

The license as shown in the Summary differs depending whether the license is a Description type, as shown immediately opposite, or a Link type as shown on the far right.


Clicking on the New button gives a view as shown opposite
If a link is present jDownloads uses it as the license location otherwise it just shows the description.
Give the license a Title. If it is a Link type licence then paste the link in the 'Link to License' field. Then Save and Close.
An example of a Description license is shown below.

The view as it would appear in the front end.
The Download button is inactive until the user 'ticks' the I accept box. If you hover the mouse over the button it will show as

which is a simple Yes/No pulldown.
When set to Yes the user has to accept the license in order to continue with the downloading.

Front End View
The license 'acceptance' occurs in the Summary view which will be automatically shown if you have selected 'Confirm License' as Yes.
The license as shown in the Summary differs depending whether the license is a Description type, as shown immediately opposite, or a Link type as shown on the far right.


Creating a New License/Editting Existing License
Licenses are accessed in the backend through the jDownloads Control panel by clicking on the
Button.

This shows a panel like the one opposite.
For a new license click on the
button.
To edit an existing license then just click on its title.
A license may have a link and a description but if it does have a link then that takes precedence.
Generally link type licenses are used with what might be refered to as an 'established' or generally accepted licence.

For a new license click on the

To edit an existing license then just click on its title.
A license may have a link and a description but if it does have a link then that takes precedence.
Generally link type licenses are used with what might be refered to as an 'established' or generally accepted licence.

Clicking on the New button gives a view as shown opposite
If a link is present jDownloads uses it as the license location otherwise it just shows the description.
Give the license a Title. If it is a Link type licence then paste the link in the 'Link to License' field. Then Save and Close.
An example of a Description license is shown below.

To enter the description just type in the text as if you were writing an article with any appropriate colours, images and so on.
The view in the Editor of an example is shown opposite.
The equivalent code generated is illustrated opposite.


The view in the Editor of an example is shown opposite.
The equivalent code generated is illustrated opposite.


The view as it would appear in the front end.
The Download button is inactive until the user 'ticks' the I accept box. If you hover the mouse over the button it will show as


ColinM October 2020 updated July 2021
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