Ineligible Neve Personal key returns “invalid license provided” without plan context

[pirate-bot]

Summary

Submitting a Neve Pro Personal key in Otter Pro produces “invalid license provided.” Expected behavior is an activation result that distinguishes an otherwise valid Neve license from a key whose plan does not include Otter Pro. The generic invalid-key result obscures the plan restriction and prevents users from understanding why activation was rejected.

Customer context

• Product / area: Otter Pro license activation response
• Version: Customer version not provided; inspected Otter Pro source is 3.2.3
• Environment: WordPress with Neve Pro Personal and Otter Pro installed
• Integration / third party: ThemeIsle license validation
• Reported error / symptom: “Error: invalid license provided” after submitting a Neve Pro Personal key
• Impact: Users cannot distinguish plan ineligibility from an invalid or mistyped key

Reproduction notes

1. Install and activate Otter Pro with Neve Pro Personal present.
2. Enter a valid Neve Pro Personal license key in the Otter Pro activation field.
3. Select Activate.
4. The customer reports “Error: invalid license provided”; support confirmed that Personal is ineligible and that the message does not explain the restriction. This exact response was not reproduced locally because no test license or licensing service fixture was available.

Diagnosis

Conclusion

The reported messaging defect is confirmed by the runtime report and the staff determination that the error does not explain the Agency-only restriction. Repository inspection shows that Otter forwards licensing errors to the dashboard without adding product-plan context. The exact “invalid license provided” text is not defined in the available checkout, so its upstream SDK or service origin remains an inference.

Where this likely occurs

• User-visible surface: snackbar response after submitting a key in the Otter Pro license panel.
• src/dashboard/components/LicenseField.js — LicenseField::onSaveLicense() lines 46–68 displays res.message directly for unsuccessful activation responses.
• plugins/otter-pro/inc/server/class-dashboard-server.php — Dashboard_Server::toggle_license() lines 124–151 invokes themeisle_sdk_license_process_otter and returns a WP_Error message directly to the client.
• plugins/otter-pro/inc/server/class-dashboard-server.php — Dashboard_Server::toggle_license() lines 154–163 supplies only generic success handling after the licensing filter completes.

Engineering notes

The exact error string was absent from the Otter repository, and the ThemeIsle SDK dependency source was not present in the workspace. The inspected Otter path nevertheless passes the upstream message unchanged through REST and then through the dashboard notice. This supports the observed generic response but does not establish whether the SDK, licensing service, or Otter integration first classifies the eligible product and plan.

Test coverage status

No relevant unit, integration, or e2e coverage for toggle_license, Neve plan-ineligible keys, or activation error presentation was found during inspection. Existing e2e bootstrap references the real licensing filter chain but no matching assertion was located.

What to verify or explore next

• May be worth reproducing activation with valid Neve Personal, Business, and Agency keys against the same licensing environment.
• May be worth capturing the raw result from themeisle_sdk_license_process_otter for a plan-ineligible but otherwise valid Neve key.
• If the SDK source is available in the release artifact, checking the handler registered for themeisle_sdk_license_process_otter may identify where the generic classification originates.
• May be worth comparing malformed, expired, product-mismatched, and plan-ineligible key responses to confirm their current distinctions.

Unknowns / follow-up

• The exact SDK or service component producing “invalid license provided” was not available in the workspace.
• The customer’s exact Otter Pro, Neve Pro, and licensing SDK versions are unknown.

Confidence

Confidence: 90/100

The current Otter 3.2.3 source contains the reported unrestricted Neve Pro eligibility claim, and its activation endpoint passes SDK errors directly to the UI; the staff response independently confirms that only Agency is eligible and that the displayed error does not explain this restriction. No matching GitHub issue was found.

---

Source: HelpScout #3425841827
Generated by bug-report-triage (ID: bug-report-triage_6a88059c825450.33711998)

[girishpanchal30]

I have fixed it with this PR #2999

[milicavs]

🤖 Automated QA Repro Steps

Otter Pro is only included in some Neve plans. When someone activates a Neve key from a plan that does not include it (Personal, for example), the activation is rejected with the generic "invalid license provided" error — the same message a mistyped or fake key produces. Users read that as a broken key and open a ticket, instead of learning that their plan simply doesn't cover Otter Pro.

Requires: a real Neve Pro Personal key (a plan without Otter Pro), plus an eligible key (Agency, or a standalone Otter Pro key) for comparison.

Reproduce on Otter Blocks 3.2.3 with Otter Pro:

1. Install and activate Otter Blocks and Otter Pro on a site with no license currently active.
2. Go to Settings → Otter → Dashboard and find the license key field.
3. Paste the valid Neve Pro Personal key.
4. Click Activate.

• Bug: the notice reads Error: invalid license provided. — nothing indicates the plan is the reason.
• Fixed: the notice reads Entered license key does not include Otter Pro.

Edge cases

• Eligible Neve key (Agency or another plan that bundles Otter Pro) — activates successfully, Otter Pro features unlock as before.
• Standalone Otter Pro key — activates successfully, message unchanged.
• A key that does cover Otter Pro but is expired, revoked or out of activations — must still show the original invalid-license message, not the new plan message.
• Random / mistyped string in the field — still shows the generic invalid-license message.
• Deactivate an active eligible license and re-activate it — works as before, and the success notice is unchanged.

Fix: #2999 (open)