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FAQ for customers updating to 2019

Domingo Rodriguez

BarTender Content Team

  • Updated

You will only need to contact your BarTender partner if your license is not under a maintenance and support contract. Otherwise, you can simply use your existing license key to proceed with the update process. BarTender 2019 can be downloaded from the BarTender Portal. You can always contact us if you are unsure about your maintenance and support contract.

Creating a sandbox environment before updating is the best practice, but not mandatory.

Please review our guide Updating to BarTender 2019 and the “Making an Update Plan” section.

Yes, BarTender 2019 is backwards compatible with documents you’ve created in BarTender 10.1.

Previously, with BarTender 10.1 you would need to own an Automation or Enterprise Automation Edition of BarTender in order to run concurrent BarTender processes over RDP / Citrix sessions. In BarTender 2019 every Full Edition of BarTender will be able to work with concurrent BarTender processes under RDP / Citrix.

Besides this, in order to avoid printer duplication, you required to install a component called License Server Remote Assistant. This component is still required for BarTender 2019. Click here if you want to download this component.

BarTender Web Print Server has been replaced in BarTender 2019 with an improved web-based application called BarTender Print Portal. For further information, please check our technical document.

If your license is on active maintenance and support contract you will have access to standard or even premium support assistance (see available support plans).

Professional Services such as consultancy, training, template or integration design are also at your availability. If you are interested in any of these services, please send us an email to ProfessionalServices@SeagullScientific.com

No, you don’t need a separate product key code when updating to BarTender 2019 if you have an active maintenance and support contract. You can simply use your existing product key code to activate.

For further recommendations, please visit our Welcome to BarTender 2019! and What is Provisional Activation articles.

Provisional activation lasts for the following number of days:

  • Professional and Automation Editions: 30 days.
  • Enterprise Editions: 180 days.

No, you can’t. An active maintenance and support agreement is required for provisional activations. Please reach out to your BarTender partner or our sales team for more information on purchasing or renewing BarTender maintenance and support.

Provisional activations provide the same functionality as the Edition of BarTender your license corresponds to. Please keep in mind that higher edition features can always be tested in BarTender 2019. Watermarks would be applied to any printed item utilizing these higher edition feature sets.

First, you would need to deactivate your previous 10.1 production environment. Then, your BarTender 2019 environment will automatically switch to be your new production environment. See Provisional Activation for further information.

Each environment will have its own separate printer licenses, they’re completely independent from each other.

Yes, you will be able to provisionally activate BarTender 2019 on a test / sandbox environment and you do not need a separate product key code. Before you begin, make sure that your BarTender license is under active maintenance and support contract in order to make use of your Provisional Activation.

Provisional Activation is a new BarTender 2019 feature, it is not available for BarTender 2016. With BarTender 2016 you would download instead a 30-day Trial Edition.

Ideally, you would first install and provisionally activate BarTender 2019 on a different server. This will give you the chance of having a temporary sandbox environment. For further recommendations, please visit our Updating to BarTender 2019 article.

No, uninstalling BarTender / Seagull License Server 10.1 is not required before updating.

We have simplified the BarTender Installer. By default, all the BarTender companion applications will be installed except Print Portal. You can optionally install Print Portal or the Licensing Service/Administration Console only. Additionally, BarTender 2019 can be installed as a 32- and 64-bit application.

If you have doubts as to which Installer architecture you should choose, please check our 32-bit vs 64-bit White Paper.

BarTender PCs do not require an internet connection but will require network connectivity in order to establish a connection to a centralized BarTender License Server. On the BarTender License Server, an internet connection is advised since BarTender Licensing Service will try to regularly communicate with our activation servers to check any upgrades you may have applied to your license (ex. adding printers or upgrading edition).

The new Licensing method used by BarTender 2019 is incompatible with BarTender 10.1. Therefore, 10.1 BarTender clients won’t be able to detect the 2019 activated License Server. That’s why the concept of Provisional Activation exists. If you have doubts on how provisional activation can help you, please reach out to your BarTender partner or our sales team for more information.

In BarTender, under Help > BarTender Licensing Wizard, you can search for and select an activated License Server within your network. Within these settings you can also specify an IP address or a hostname.

When you use your BarTender 10.1 / 2016 product key code to activate BarTender 2019 (only available for licenses under active maintenance and support contract) the equivalent BarTender 2019 Edition will be:

  • BarTender 10.1 / 2016 Basic corresponds to a BarTender 2019 Professional, 1 printer license.
  • BarTender 10.1 / 2016 Professional corresponds to a BarTender 2019 Professional, 2 printer license.
  • BarTender 10.1 / 2016 Automation Edition corresponds to BarTender 2019 Automation Edition, same printer count.
  • BarTender 10.1 / 2016 Enterprise Automation Edition corresponds to BarTender 2019 Enterprise Edition, same printer count.

If the connection to the centralized BarTender License Server is lost from a BarTender PC, you can continue printing for up to 72 hours. If you are printing directly through BarTender, you will receive notifications of the lost connection and grace period. Additionally, you can setup email alerts. Configuring email alerts can be especially useful for customers who leverage print automation.

For the best guidance we recommend to Contact Support

This tool is no longer needed in BarTender 2019. Viewing License Server information (remote or local) is now accessible through Administration Console. This new method not only grants you visibility, but also provides additional tools for managing your printer licenses from any BarTender PC within your network.

Since the release of BarTender 2019 R5, installing SQL Server Express is no longer a requirement. We now use LocalDB for internal application related storage. However, there are some BarTender features that require the use of a BarTender System Database stored on a local (for Automation and Enterprise) or remote (Enterprise Edition required) SQL Server instance.

In most cases this should be possible. Please refer to the “Updating the BarTender System Database” section of the Updating to BarTender 2019 article.

Yes, Integration Builder (the new middleware package that replaces Commander) allows you to import and convert your existing Commander task lists. The transactional data you are currently submitting will still work with your newly converted BarTender 2019 integration.

Replacing Commander is also a good opportunity for you to improve your current automated print processes. If you need assistance in migrating your Commander implementation to the new Integration Platform or improving functionality, do not hesitate to reach out to our Professional Services team: ProfessionalServices@SeagullScientific.com

Print automation is handled quite differently than it was in BarTender 10.1. Creating an integration in BarTender 2019 provides an advanced toolset for testing integrations before they are deployed into production. These new tools allow you to see interactive dialogs and error messages in a console. It even allows you to capture sample data that you can later resend without the need for your ERP or WMS system to repeat transactions.

Yes, automating BarTender over ActiveX Automation is still available in BarTender 2019.

The .NET SDK is still be available. In fact, we’ve even updated and improved our .NET APIs. Please keep in mind that BarTender 2019 is available in 32- and 64-bit architecture and is compiled against a different .NET Framework version than BarTender 10.1, so you will need to recompile.

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