Need two licences for a test forum?

[Dan Clark]

We have chosen vBulletin for our forum. However, I'm a little confused about whether a test forum is covered under one license or would you need two licenses?

We want to set up a Test Forum that is a duplicate of the Production Forum. The purpose of the Test Forum is to test changes and mods to the forum PRIOR to rolling out the changes to the Production Forum.

Note that the Test Forum would be used ONLY for testing changes.

1) What is the preferred method for doing this? How do you set up a Test Forum?

2) Do we need to purchase two licenses (one Test and one Prod) or can we do this with one license? If so, how?

Thanks and regards,

Dan.

[Zachery]

Install vBulletin to a folder called testvb
You can do this with one as long as you follow the license agreement.

[Dan Clark]

Install vBulletin to a folder called testvb
You can do this with one as long as you follow the license agreement.

Zachery,

We definitely want to stay within the bounds of the license agreement. If the software changes cannot be tested effectively, we need to know this now.

In general, our goal is to:

1) Make a no-posts, exact copy of the production forum to a test area (to ensure that it's exactly like production).

2) Make the mods/changes.

3) Have the management team (one admin and four moderators) test the changes.

4) If the changes are safe and effective, deploy the software to production.

Can this be accomplished using the single-license method you described?

Regards,

Dan.

p.s., by profession, I'm a database developer (20 years). I'm pretty hardcore when it comes to deploying changes to production. Testing is critical to ensure quality.

[Jammiedodger]

Zachery,

We definitely want to stay within the bounds of the license agreement. If the software changes cannot be tested effectively, we need to know this now.

In general, our goal is to:

1) Make a no-posts, exact copy of the production forum to a test area (to ensure that it's exactly like production).

2) Make the mods/changes.

3) Have the management team (one admin and four moderators) test the changes.

4) If the changes are safe and effective, deploy the software to production.

Can this be accomplished using the single-license method you described?

Regards,

Dan.

p.s., by profession, I'm a database developer (20 years). I'm pretty hardcore when it comes to deploying changes to production. Testing is critical to ensure quality.

1) You can do this by making a folder "testvb" and upload the files there. You must password protect this folder.
2) You can do this
3) I'm not sure.
4) That is correct

[Wayne Luke]

3) Yes, you can have the management team test the changes. Wouldn't be worth much as a test/development bed if you couldn't do this.

The only restrictions are that you are allowed a single test installation in a folder called testvb and that it is closed to the general public. You can provide access to staff.

[Andy Huang]

When you have a valid license, you're allowed to have a test installation, which you can use to test addons, develop new features, and what not, before performing the changes on the production board.

If you are interested in trying out the software and learn how to use it, you can use admin demo session: http://www.vbulletin.com/go/demo . The demo sessions are valid for 24 hours and will automatically be deleted when it expires.

[Dan Clark]

Many thanks for the feedback. It looks like we can do what we want. I appreciate the information.

Regards,

Dan.