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Setting Up Your License Key in CI/CD Environment

This article describes how to set up and activate your Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC license key across a few popular CI/CD services by using environment variables.

The deployment articles in this documentation provide general guidance and fundamentals. Telerik does not provide technical support for setting up CI/CD environments or application publishing infrastructure, except for questions about using Telerik license keys.

Basics

When working with CI/CD platforms, always add the Telerik.Licensing NuGet package as a project dependency. This package activates the UI for ASP.NET MVC components at build time by using the provided license key.

The license activation process in a CI/CD environment involves the following steps:

Add the Telerik.Licensing NuGet package as a dependency to all projects that reference Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC or Telerik Document Processing:
Razor
```
<PackageReference Include="Telerik.Licensing" Version="1.*" />
```
Go to the License Keys page in your Telerik account and get your license key.
Create an environment variable named TELERIK_LICENSE and add your UI for ASP.NET MVC license key as a value.

Creating Environment Variables

The recommended way to provide your license key to the Telerik.Licensing NuGet package in CI/CD environment is to use environment variables. Each CI/CD platform has a different process for setting environment variables. This article lists only some of the most popular examples.

Azure Pipelines (YAML)

Create a new user-defined variable named TELERIK_LICENSE.
Paste the contents of the license key file as a value.

Always consider the variable size limit—if you are using a Variable Group, the license key will typically exceed the character limit for the variable values. The only way to have a long value in the Variable Group is to link it from Azure Key Vault. If you cannot use a Key Vault, then use a normal pipeline variable instead (see above) or use the Secure files approach instead.

Azure Pipelines (Classic)

Create a new user-defined variable named TELERIK_LICENSE.
Paste the contents of the license key file as a value.

Azure Secure Files

Secure files are an alternative approach for sharing the license key file in Azure Pipelines that does not have the size limitations of environment variables.

You have two options for the file-based approach. Set the TELERIK_LICENSE_PATH variable or add a file named telerik-license.txt to the project directory or a parent directory.

Make sure you’re referencing v1.4.10 or later of the Telerik.Licensing NuGet package.

YAML Pipeline

With a YAML pipeline, you can use the DownloadSecureFile@1 task, then use $(name.secureFilePath) to reference it. For example:

Razor

  - task: DownloadSecureFile@1
    name: DownloadTelerikLicenseFile # defining the 'name' is important
    displayName: 'Download Telerik License Key File'
    inputs:
      secureFile: 'telerik-license.txt'

  - task: MSBuild@1
    displayName: 'Build Project'
    inputs:
      solution: 'myapp.csproj'
      platform: Any CPU
      configuration: Release
      msbuildArguments: '/p:RestorePackages=false'
    env:
      # use the name.secureFilePath value to set TELERIK_LICENSE_PATH
      TELERIK_LICENSE_PATH: $(DownloadTelerikLicenseFile.secureFilePath)

Classic Pipeline

With a classic pipeline, use the "Download secure file" task and a PowerShell script to set TELERIK_LICENSE_PATH to the secure file path.

Add a "Download secure file" task and set the output variable's name to telerikLicense.
Add a PowerShell task and set the TELERIK_LICENSE_PATH variable to the secureFilePath property of the output variable:

The script to set the environment variable is quoted below:

Razor

Write-Host "Setting TELERIK_LICENSE_PATH to $(telerikLicense.secureFilePath)"
Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=TELERIK_LICENSE_PATH;]$(telerikLicense.secureFilePath)"

Alternatively, copy the file into the repository directory:

Razor

echo "Copying $(telerikLicense.secureFilePath) to $(Build.Repository.LocalPath)/telerik-license.txt"
Copy-Item -Path $(telerikLicense.secureFilePath) -Destination "$(Build.Repository.LocalPath)/telerik-license.txt" -Force

GitHub Actions

Create a new Repository Secret or an Organization Secret.
Set the name of the secret to TELERIK_LICENSE and paste the contents of the license file as a value.
After running npm install or yarn, add a build step to activate the license:
YAML
```
env:
    TELERIK_LICENSE: ${{ secrets.Telerik_License_Key }}
```

Next Steps

Restore Telerik NuGet Packages in CI/CD Workflows