feat: Docs for Pre-Trial (#4559) (CP: v24)

articles/flow/configuration/licenses/index.adoc

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 title: Licenses
 page-title: How to configure Vaadin licenses for your project
 description: How commercial product license validation works, and how to get and use license keys.
-meta-description: Learn how commercial product license validation works, and how to get and use license keys for your Vaadin projects. 
+meta-description: Learn how commercial product license validation works, and how to get and use license keys for your Vaadin projects.
 order: 150
 ---
 
@@ -17,6 +17,57 @@
 
 For other use cases, you don't need a license after deploying an application to production.
 
+== Using Free Trials
+
+The Vaadin Trial experience lets you evaluate all Vaadin commercial features - such as Vaadin Copilot, commercial components (e.g., Charts), Acceleration Kits - with minimal effort:
+
+- 7‑day Trial (no registration needed): Start instantly by clicking a button in the development tooling of a started Vaadin application,
+- 30‑day Commercial Trial (registration required): Extend your evaluation by signing in to `vaadin.com`.
+
+Both trials enable commercial features in development. Production builds during trials are allowed with an opt‑in flag and will display a visible runtime banner.
+
+A trial period can be activated through Vaadin Dev Tools by clicking the `}>` button in the right bottom corner of the application's page and also through the automatic splash screen shown when a commercial component is used without a license.
+
+Vaadin Control Center supports only the 30‑day Commercial Trial.
+
+=== 7-day Trial Workflow (Seven-Day, No Registration)
+
+When you use a commercial feature (for example, place a commercial component on a view or trigger a Vaadin Copilot function that makes changes to source code) and no valid license is found, a modal splash screen appears in development mode once you navigate to a view that uses a commercial component. It explains that a subscription or trial is required and offers two choices:
+
+- Try for 7 days (no registration): Starts the 7‑day trial immediately.
+- Log in / Sign up (to acquire or extend a license/trial): Opens Vaadin web-site to sign in and retrieve a license key or start the 30‑day trial.
+
+It also shows the following information:
+- Link to the commercial license terms
+- Examples of Vaadin commercial products you have full access to.
+
+=== 30‑Day Commercial Trial Workflow (Registration Required)
+
+If you choose Log in / Sign up from the splash screen, or when your 7-day Trial has expired, you’ll be guided to authenticate and start a 30‑day trial. This enables all commercial features for 30 days.
+
+When a 7-day Trial expires, the splash screen shows guidance to "Extend trial 30 days" (via the login path). Once button is clicked, the trial starts immediately.
+
+The 30‑day trial can be started again after 90 days per user/account.
+
+=== Production Builds While Using a Trial
+
+Production builds do not enable commercial features if you don’t have a valid license. However, you can opt‑in to enable commercial features in production builds by adding a `-Dvaadin.commercialWithBanner` system property or `commercialWithBanner` Vaadin plugin parameter that shows a visible persistent banner on the bottom of the page in runtime.
+
+The banner links to the https://vaadin.com/commercial-license-info[Commercial License Info] page. It is closable, but reappears on page reload.
+
+[.example]
+--
+[source,terminal]
+----
+<source-info group="Maven"></source-info>
+mvn package -Pproduction -Dvaadin.commercialWithBanner
+----
+[source,groovy]
+----
+<source-info group="Groovy"></source-info>
+./gradlew build -Pvaadin.productionBuild -Pvaadin.commercialWithBanner
+----
+--
 
 [[online-license-key]]
 == Local License Validation