Unlicensed components

Why a component is watermarked⁠link

There are two reasons, and the browser console tells you which one applies.

• Your license does not cover releasing the component. Community covers a core set of components. The rest are yours to evaluate, develop and test on your own machines, and releasing them needs Pro.
• The app was built without a valid license. Chameleon's build tooling normally stops such a build before it produces anything. If an app built without a license reaches a browser anyway, every component in it is watermarked.

The watermark is decided from the build alone. Chameleon never checks a license over the network, so a deployed app never changes because a server is unreachable.

When the watermark appears⁠link

For a component your license does not cover, the watermark depends on how long ago the app was built. The clock starts when the build runs, not when the page opens, so a page left open never changes.

What you see	Does the component work?	App built before 1 February 2027	App built from 1 February 2027
Nothing	Yes	Less than 7 days old	Less than 24 hours old
A faint watermark	Yes	7 to 28 days old	24 hours to 7 days old
A strong watermark, over the component faded to half strength	No, it's disabled	28 days or more	7 days or more

The date of the build decides which schedule applies, so an app keeps the schedule it was built under.

The first stretch is clean on purpose. Evaluating and developing with every component on your own machines is something your license allows, and a build you're working on is always minutes old. An app that has been deployed for weeks is not.

Rebuilding restarts the clock, which is exactly what happens when you fix the cause and redeploy.

An app built without a valid license is watermarked and disabled from the moment it loads.

What a disabled component does⁠link

A disabled component stays on the page, so your layout doesn't move, but nobody can use it:

• It can't be clicked, focused or typed into, and it's no longer a tab stop.
• It's hidden from screen readers.
• It takes no part in forms: it submits no value, it never stops a form from submitting, and a submit or reset button does nothing.

Content you place inside a disabled component is disabled along with it.

Components inside other components⁠link

Two rules keep a page from filling up with watermarks.

• A building block is licensed with the component that uses it. When a component you're licensed for uses another part of Chameleon to do its job, that part is never watermarked.
• Each watermark covers what's inside it. Icon buttons in a button group, for example, show one watermark for the group rather than one on every button.

What the console says⁠link

Each watermarked component writes one message to the browser console, once for each kind of component, naming the component and linking to this page.

Level	When	Message
Warning	Your license does not cover the component, and it still works	Watermarked. Your Chameleon license does not cover releasing this component.
Error	Your license does not cover the component, and it is disabled	Watermarked and disabled. Your Chameleon license does not cover releasing this component.
Error	The app was built without a valid license	Watermarked and disabled. This build has no valid Chameleon license.

A disabled component writes nothing else to the console: the watermark is the one thing to fix. A component that still works keeps writing its usual messages.

Removing the watermark⁠link

Fix the cause, then rebuild and redeploy.

• If your license doesn't cover the component, upgrade to Pro, or replace the component with one your license covers.
• If the app has no valid license, make sure your build runs Chameleon's build tooling with a build token. The get-started guide shows how.

Removing or hiding the watermark any other way is not permitted by the license.