# Activating

## The license

Open Rank's **License** page, in the workspace sidebar under Rank or, in the
standalone plugin, in Rank's own navigation under **SleekWP > Rank**. Enter
the license key and activate it. The same page shows the license's status and
deactivates it.

You can also set the key in code by defining a constant, for example in
`wp-config.php`:

```php
define("SLEEK_RANK_LICENSE", "YOUR LICENSE KEY");
```

While the constant holds a key, Rank uses it, the License page shows it
masked, and activating or deactivating there is refused because the constant
manages the license.

When the standalone plugin is white-labelled, its License page is hidden.

## Updating from SleekRank

The earlier standalone SleekRank plugin updates in place to its next major
release from any published version. That release requires PHP 8.2 and
WordPress 6.5; a site below either stays on its current release.

The administration is rebuilt on the suite's workspace and stays under the
**SleekWP** menu. Page groups, their data sources, mappings and sitemap
settings, and the Google Sheets and Notion credentials carry over. To roll
back, reinstall the previous ZIP.

## Deactivating

Deactivating the plugin that carries Rank stops every generated URL: Rank
takes its rewrite rules out of the site's saved rules, so a generated URL
returns WordPress's 404 instead of the home page. On a network it also clears
the saved rules of every other site that still holds Rank's, and WordPress
builds them again on that site's next request, with Rank's only where Rank
still runs. Deactivating also clears the scheduled cleanup and data source
refreshes. Page groups, their cached rows, credentials and settings stay;
activating again restores the rules on the next request.

## Uninstalling

Deleting the plugin removes the Google Sheets API key and the Notion token,
Rank's settings, the license, the fetched data source rows in
`{prefix}sleek_rank_items`, the scheduled refreshes and cleanup, Rank's version
markers, the tables the earlier built-in AI chat used and the
[Agent Sync](/docs/ai/agent-sync.md) markers on page groups, on every site
of a network. It keeps the page groups with their data sources, mappings and
sitemap settings, and the page group files Agent Sync wrote to the theme, so
reinstalling Rank finds them and fetches their rows again. While another
plugin that carries Rank is still installed, such as the suite's Pro plugin
after you delete the standalone plugin, Rank's data stays for it and deleting removes
nothing.