Licence

Your key arrives by email after a purchase or a trial request. It looks like CR-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. Lower case and spaces are accepted: Cookie Rocks cleans the key before sending it. When a key is already active, the field is called Another key.

How many sites one key covers (subdomains, staging sites, changes of domain) is set by your plan: see Pricing.

Without a key, everything works when the plugin is installed. If no key or trial was ever active on the site, the banner stops showing to visitors 30 days after the plugin was installed; only the preview stays. When a trial or a paid key expires, the banner keeps working for your visitors as it was, but its settings, the updates and support are locked until you renew. A section Buy a key leads to the prices, and a reminder appears 7 days before the end of a trial. A revoked key, or a key bought for another site, is marked Refused.

While no key is entered, the screen shows the Free 30-day trial section. The trial lasts 30 days and needs no card. There is one trial per site.

1. Check the Email address. It is filled in with the administration email address of your site.
2. Choose the Country where your business is established. It is filled in from the country set for your site on the Obligations screen, when there is one.
3. Click Start the trial. The screen says “Check your inbox: a link confirms the trial, then your key arrives by email.”
4. Click the link in the email. Your trial key arrives in a second email.
5. Enter the key in the Key field, then click Activate.

Other answers are possible: “A trial was already used for this site.”, “This email address is not valid.”, “Choose the country where your business is established.” and “Cookie Rocks is not available in your country yet.” During the trial, Cookie Rocks Pro works exactly as with a paid key.

With an expired key, a Renew on cookierocks.com button follows.

Not confirmed means the end date is still ahead, but the last answer of the Cookie Rocks server could not be confirmed on this site. The screen asks you to enter your key again. Until you do, the settings are locked, as with an expired key.

With a Community key, the name in the header, in the menu of Cookie Rocks and on the Plugins page becomes Cookie Rocks Community.

With a valid Community key, your cookie policy always ends with a short credit: “This cookie policy is written and kept up to date by Cookie Rocks, a WordPress plugin.” It is the condition of the free key. On the Consent screen, the Credit box stays ticked and cannot be unticked, with “Always shown with a free key for a non-commercial site: it is the condition of the free key.”

Under the key field, the screen says: “Only the key, the address of this site and the version of the plugin are sent to Cookie Rocks. Nothing about your visitors.” The key alone also goes with the daily reading of the legal watch lists.

• Once a day, Cookie Rocks Pro asks the Cookie Rocks server whether the key is still valid. The server answers with a signed token that the plugin checks on your own server.
• When WordPress looks for updates, the key and the address of the site are sent to find the update.
• The trial request sends the email address you entered, the country of your business, the address of the site and the language of your administration.

Cookie Rocks Pro is not on WordPress.org. It updates like any plugin, from the Plugins page or Dashboard > Updates, but only while the key is valid. WordPress looks for updates twice a day, and each time you open Dashboard > Updates.

• When a version is ready, the Overview shows “Version … is ready. Your settings are kept.” with an Update now button.
• At the bottom of each Cookie Rocks screen, next to the version number, the Check for updates link looks at once. It answers “You have the latest version (…).” “The update server could not be reached. Try again in a few minutes.” or “Updates need an active key. Enter or renew your key on the Licence page.” Only users who can update plugins see it.
• When the key becomes valid, stops being valid or is removed, WordPress reads its list of updates again at once.

Each update of Cookie Rocks Pro is signed by Cookie Rocks. Before installing it, the plugin downloads the signature published next to the file and checks it with the public key written in the plugin. A file that was changed, or that has no signature, is never installed. WordPress then shows one of these messages, and your site stays as it was:

• “The Cookie Rocks update was not installed: its signature could not be read. Try again later.”
• “The Cookie Rocks update was not installed: the file does not match the one Cookie Rocks published. Your site is unchanged. Please tell us at support@cookierocks.com.”

Translations come as language packs, one per language, signed and checked the same way before they are installed. Cookie Rocks fetches the packs of every language installed on your site, and of your own administration language. They are installed the first time someone who can update plugins opens a Cookie Rocks screen, or Dashboard > Updates, in that language. WordPress then keeps them up to date with its other translations. Until then, the screens show in English. A pack that fails the check is not installed, with a message such as “The Cookie Rocks translation was not installed: its signature could not be read. Try again later.”

The key locks the day after its end date: on day 31 for a trial. The screen lists the rules under Without a valid key. In short, nothing stops on your site: the settings of the banner, the updates and support lock.

What keeps working

• The banner, with the settings it had.
• The visitors’ choices, Google Consent Mode and WP Consent API.
• The blocking of trackers until consent.
• The register of proofs.
• Everything the free Cookie Rocks Audit does: the analysis, the laws, the points to fix.

What locks

• The settings of the banner. They keep their value. Three actions stay open: turning the banner off, choosing your policy pages, and asking every visitor again.
• The classification of the cookies your site sets. A cookie found later appears on the Overview as “1 new cookie found: your banner and your cookie policy do not mention it. Renew your key to classify it.”
• The updates, including those that follow changes in the law. When the law of your jurisdictions changes after the end of the key, the Overview says so, names the countries, and says that your banner does not follow these changes until you renew the key.
• Support.

Each Pro screen then starts with “Without a valid key, the settings of the banner are locked. The banner keeps working. You can still turn it off, choose your policy pages and ask everyone again.” and an Enter or renew your key link. If you save a locked setting anyway, it keeps its value and the screen says “These settings were not changed: without a valid key, the settings of the banner are locked.”

What visitors see

The banner looks the same, with no added link, during the trial, with a paid key, and after a key ends. Only the cookie policy changes: once a key has expired, it always ends with “This cookie policy is written by Cookie Rocks, a WordPress plugin.”

On the Overview

Until a key is active, the Overview starts with a red card: “Enter your key, or start the free 30-day trial.”, then “The banner works on your site until …. After that date, without a key or a trial, it no longer shows to your visitors. Until a key is active, its settings are locked and it receives no updates.” Its button, Enter a key or start the trial, opens this screen.

After the end of a key, the red card reads “Your key has expired.”, with what keeps working (the banner, the visitors’ choices, the blocking of trackers and the register of proofs), what is locked, and “The rules of the laws may no longer be up to date.” Its Renew the key button opens this screen. Once you enter a renewed key or another key, everything opens again at once, with the settings you had.

Click Remove the key from this site before you close a site or move a key. The screen says “The key was removed from this site. Its place is free for another site.” The settings of the banner then lock, as without a key.