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Activating Your License

If you already have DreamFactory running and have received a license from the DreamFactory team, this guide walks through applying it to your existing instance. Your services, roles, API keys, and system database are untouched. Only the application packages and the license key change.

What you receive​

The DreamFactory team provides two things:

  • Three composer files: composer.json, composer.json-dist, and composer.lock. These tell Composer which DreamFactory packages to install for your license. The DreamFactory team will typically give you credentials to download these from the DreamFactory SFTP server, where they are organized by version.
  • A license key: a string you set as DF_LICENSE_KEY in the environment.

Both must match the DreamFactory version you are running. If you are unsure which version that is, check Admin > About DreamFactory in the admin panel before you start.

tip

The Oracle connector is shipped separately due to Oracle's licensing terms. If your license includes Oracle, see Installing Additional Drivers.

Docker​

These steps assume you started DreamFactory from the df-docker repository.

  1. Back up first. Stop the containers and confirm APP_KEY is pinned in docker-compose.yml so your system database stays readable after the rebuild (see Persisting system database configs).

    docker compose stop

  2. Copy the three composer files into the df-docker directory, overwriting the existing ones.

  3. Add the license key to the web service in docker-compose.yml:

    web:
      environment:
        DF_LICENSE_KEY: "your-license-key"

  4. Rebuild and start:

    docker compose build web
    docker compose up -d

    The build pulls the additional packages, so it takes longer than usual.

Linux and manual installs​

These steps assume DreamFactory lives in /opt/dreamfactory. Adjust the path if yours differs.

  1. Back up the installation directory and system database.

  2. Copy the three composer files into the installation directory, overwriting the existing ones.

  3. Install the packages:

    cd /opt/dreamfactory
    composer install --no-dev --ignore-platform-reqs

  4. Add the license key to .env:

    DF_LICENSE_KEY=your-license-key

  5. Run migrations and clear caches:

    php artisan migrate --seed
    php artisan cache:clear
    php artisan config:clear

  6. Restart the web server and PHP-FPM:

    sudo systemctl restart nginx php8.3-fpm

Verify​

Log in to the admin panel and open the API Generation & Connections tab. Connectors that were previously greyed out, such as SQL Server, SOAP, and Salesforce, are now selectable. Admin > About DreamFactory also shows your license key.

Troubleshooting​

composer install fails on a platform requirement such as ext-oci8. Composer is checking for a PHP extension you do not have installed. The --ignore-platform-reqs flag above skips that check, which is safe for any driver you are not using.

Connectors are still locked after restart. Confirm the key is visible to the application with php artisan tinker --execute="echo config('app.license_key');" (inside the container for Docker). An empty result means the key is not being read from the environment.

"The MAC is invalid" after a Docker rebuild. APP_KEY changed. Restore the original value in docker-compose.yml and restart.

Need help? Contact support@dreamfactory.com.