License Testing

🙋 Questions
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1

How have you automated verifying that the correct licenses are displayed properly in your application?

For example, let’s say your application is using a package that uses the MIT license, requiring you to display that somewhere in the application. How do you make sure that:

  1. The application is displayed in the proper place.
  2. If there is a new license, that license is detected and it is checked against the list of licenses that are displayed within your application (if needed)

Right now, we have a test for the first, but no automation around the second. It’s a manual process that the developer who adds a package has to check for licensing requirements and adds any additional check to the automated test. We’d like to take out the human element so we don’t accidentally miss a new license that needs to be added. Thanks in advance!

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2

Personally I would review how many times the developers add a package? Surely that’s just inviting problems, the least of all would be licensing. And what if the package owners change the licence?

Every place I’ve tested has very strict policies on adding packages. For example ones from one or two mainstream suppliers (EG Microsoft) are allowed but are all covered under the same licence. Outside of that there has to be significant justification for using some random package.

If there is justification for automation ( EG a process being repeated more than three or four times) then for me the process has failed long before you get involved.

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