Licensing and updates

🔒 Pro feature — requires the Pro plugin.

Your Pro licence key connects your site to the Dantian Health store so Pro can receive automatic updates. This guide explains how to activate and move a licence, what the licence does and doesn’t control, how often it is checked, and what happens to Pro’s data when you uninstall it.

The free plugin has no licence and needs none. With Pro installed, all licence settings are on the Licensing tab.

Activating your licence

Where

Clinical Training Logbook → Plugin Settings → Licensing. Only administrators can open this tab or change the licence.

The Logbook Pro License section shows a status badge:

Badge	Meaning
Active	The licence is activated on this site and valid. The expiry date shows underneath as “License expires: …” when the store provides one.
Expired	The store reports the licence has expired
Invalid	The store reports the key is not valid for this site
Inactive	No licence is activated on this site, or the store’s answer couldn’t be read

Activate

1. Copy your licence key from your purchase confirmation or your account on the Dantian Health store. The description under the field links to the store’s pricing page if you need to buy one.
2. Paste it into License Key. The field hides what you type. Once a key is saved, only a masked version (first and last four characters) is shown.
3. Select Activate License.

You will see one of these messages:

Message	What to do
Licence activated.	Nothing. Updates are now enabled.
That licence key could not be activated. Check the key and try again — if it was bought for another site, deactivate it there first.	Check for typos or extra spaces. If the key is in use on another site, deactivate it there first (see below).
Enter a licence key before activating.	The field was empty

Activation sends your licence key and your site’s address to the store. The store records this site as an activation of your licence.

When a licence is already active

The tab shows two buttons:

• Deactivate: releases the licence from this site and removes the key from this site. You will see “Licence deactivated for this site.”
• Activate a Different Key: enter a new key in License Key first, then select this button. If the new key fails, the previous licence stays in place.

Moving a licence to another site

1. On the old site, open Licensing and select Deactivate.
2. On the new site, install the free plugin and Pro, then activate the key there.

Do this before changing a site’s domain too, because the store records the site address the licence was activated on. If the old site is already gone and you can’t deactivate it, contact Dantian Health support to release the activation.

What the licence controls

The licence controls updates only. It never turns Pro features on or off.

• Every Pro feature works as soon as Pro is activated, whether or not a licence key is entered: allocations, cohorts, the Trainer Workspace, reports, evidence review, reminders, cloud storage and the rest.
• A missing, expired or invalid licence does not lock anything, hide any data, or affect anything students or trainers see.
• There is no grace period, because there is nothing to lose when a licence lapses.

What the licence is for:

• Automatic updates. WordPress regularly asks the Dantian Health store whether a newer Pro version exists. With an active licence, the update appears under Dashboard → Updates and on the Plugins screen like any other plugin. The answer is cached for up to three hours.
• Checking your subscription. The status badge shows whether your licence is current.

What your site sends to the store: when WordPress checks for updates, it sends your site address, the installed Pro version, your WordPress and PHP versions, and your licence key if one is activated. It sends the key again for the daily licence check. Licence data is stored in your site’s database and is never shown in full on screen.

Licence checks and expiry

The daily check

Pro checks your licence with the store once a day. The first check is scheduled about an hour after licensing starts on the site. A check also runs straight after you select Activate License.

• If the store says the licence has expired or is invalid, the badge changes to Expired or Invalid.
• If the store can’t be reached, nothing changes: the last known status stays and nothing is locked.
• Renewing at the store is picked up by the next daily check. To refresh straight away, enter your key again and select Activate License (or Activate a Different Key).

The daily check relies on WP-Cron, so on a site with very little traffic it can run late.

The admin notice

When the licence is not Active, administrators see this warning on the plugin’s own admin screens:

Logbook Pro is active but its licence is not activated. Activate it to receive automatic updates. Enter your licence key.

• It only appears on Clinical Training Logbook screens, never across the rest of wp-admin, and never on the Licensing tab itself.
• It shows for expired and invalid licences as well as missing ones.
• Dismiss for 30 days hides it for the administrator who clicked it, for 30 days. Other administrators still see it.
• It disappears once the licence is Active again.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
“That licence key could not be activated…”	Typo, the key is in use on another site, or the store couldn’t be reached	Check the key, deactivate it on the other site, and try again later
Badge shows Expired	The subscription has lapsed	Renew at the store, then enter the key again or wait for the next daily check. Pro keeps working in the meantime.
No Pro updates appear	The licence isn’t Active, or the last answer from the store is still cached	Activate the licence. Allow up to three hours, then use Check again under Dashboard → Updates
The licence notice keeps coming back	The licence still isn’t Active, and dismissal lasts only 30 days per administrator	Activate the licence

Pro data on uninstall

Deactivating Pro (Plugins → Deactivate) removes nothing. Your data stays until you delete the plugin.

The setting

At the bottom of the Licensing tab, the Data management section has:

Setting	Effect	Default
Delete data on uninstall (“On uninstall, permanently delete all Pro tables and settings. Leave this off to keep your logbook data as audit evidence — licence credentials are removed either way.”)	When ticked, deleting Pro removes all of Pro’s data permanently	Off (keep data)

Save with Save Data Retention Setting.

⚠️ The free plugin’s setting also counts. Pro’s data is also deleted on uninstall if On uninstall → Delete this plugin’s data is ticked under Plugin Settings → Site Setup → Data management, even when Pro’s own box is off. To keep Pro’s data, make sure both are off before you delete Pro.

Always removed when Pro is deleted

Whatever the setting, deleting Pro always removes:

• the licence key and licence status, and every administrator’s notice dismissal
• every student’s reminder opt-out, so after a reinstall all students receive the weekly digest again (see Reminder emails)
• stored cloud storage credentials and Google Drive connection details (see Cloud storage)
• Pro’s scheduled jobs (reminders, licence check, storage clean-up)

Removed only when data deletion is on

• Evidence files in cloud storage (Bunny or Google Drive) are deleted, as far as the provider allows.
• Pro’s database tables are deleted: cohorts and cohort requirement links, allocations and allocation history, storage migration records, attachments, the treatment audit log, reflection feedback, and cloud evidence records.
• All Pro settings are deleted.

This cannot be undone. Treatment entries, reflections and the program catalogue belong to the free plugin and follow its own Data management setting (see Evidence storage and privacy).

Worked example

A college is moving its logbook to a new server. On the old site, the administrator selects Deactivate on the Licensing tab and confirms that Delete data on uninstall (Licensing) and On uninstall (Site Setup) are both unticked. She then migrates the site. On the new server, she opens Licensing, pastes the key, selects Activate License and sees “Licence activated.” The badge reads Active. Allocations, cohorts and feedback carried over with the database, unchanged.