Fork Xenforo?

[Michael Murguia]

Hello!

I am an existing customer and I was wondering if Xenforo offers a purchase option that would allow a company to fork xenforo and create a highly customized version of the software free of future license requirements or upgrades. I don't intend this thread to be a "to fork or not" conversation. I just want to know if this is something Xenforo provides for.

Thank you in advance!

M

 

[Paul B]

You can modify it for your own uses, but you can't then sell/redistribute it.

 

[Michael Murguia]

OK, so in this case, a highly customized version of the software would be subject to the license agreement if redistributed. I'll give specifics:

Say we have 5 customers that are more interested in our custom software, but xenforo is a part of our community solution for some features. We could provide a community solution for those customers if each customer pays the XF license fee? Is that correct?

My only thought if that in this case is that it might be much more lucrative for XF to offer a "Enterprise" or forking option.

M

 

[Paul B]

We could provide a community solution for those customers if each customer pays the XF license fee? Is that correct?

You still wouldn't be able to redistribute XF.

Whatever solution you wanted to implement would have to take the form of an add-on which runs on the core XF installation.

 

[Rasmus Vind]

You can basically fork it with add-ons though. You can replace functionality of almost every single method in every single class.

You could also go another way and make an installer that modifies the existing XenForo files to what you want them to be, but it would only work if the customer has the original version.

Either way it could be classified as an add-on that you could sell, I think. As long as it doesn't work unless the customer already purchased XenForo.

 

[Michael Murguia]

That’s the approach we’ve taken with the custom code. Its all add-on. Each client would purchase a license. The motivation is for safe planning. I may build a valuable enterprise based on current xf software, then xf May change your business or approach and require me to upgrade even though fundamentally the software direction no longer fits our needs.

I do understand what you’ve said so far.

Thank you!

M

 

[Digital Doctor]

That’s the approach we’ve taken with the custom code.

What is the crux of your customized XF ?

 

[Michael Murguia]

Basically, mapping resource and navigation with event planning. Most of this exists outside xf, but there are many small addons which tie it all together.

 

[Robust]

I may build a valuable enterprise based on current xf software, then xf May change your business or approach and require me to upgrade even though fundamentally the software direction no longer fits our needs.

There is no requirement to use the latest XF version, and XF customers can download any previous version of XenForo. You can request all your customers install a specific XF version (or, better, stick to a specific branch e.g. 2.1.x), then install your add-ons. You're not obligated to update XenForo, so any future XF design decisions won't make any difference.

The license does not allow you to redistribute XenForo code, but you can distribute your own add-on code privately to your customers as you see fit.

You can use add-ons, which are sufficient to do pretty much most things (and sound like it include the stuff you're talking about), or you can distribute patches to your customers and create some kind of script to apply those patches to XenForo files. I don't see any reason why you cannot simply use add-ons, though. It sounds like you're overcomplicating your problem.

 

[Michael Murguia]

There is no requirement to use the latest XF version, and XF customers can download any previous version of XenForo. You can request all your customers install a specific XF version (or, better, stick to a specific branch e.g. 2.1.x), then install your add-ons. You're not obligated to update XenForo, so any future XF design decisions won't make any difference.

The license does not allow you to redistribute XenForo code, but you can distribute your own add-on code privately to your customers as you see fit.

You can use add-ons, which are sufficient to do pretty much most things (and sound like it include the stuff you're talking about), or you can distribute patches to your customers and create some kind of script to apply those patches to XenForo files. I don't see any reason why you cannot simply use add-ons, though. It sounds like you're overcomplicating your problem.

Thank you!