Local Laptop Testing and Mobile website support

[SrDev]

Good afternoon,

I would like to preface my inquires by saying that I was introduced to XenForo by one of my favorite forums: "TheGearPage". I am impressed with the user experience and stability. (And this is coming from a Sr. .Net Developer...) Not wanting to re-invent the wheel so to speak, I am considering XenForo for my 'pre-canned' forum choice. I also want to mention that I was additionally impressed with how "TheGearPage" forum displayed on my iPhone as well as from my laptop.....

1. I wanted to confirm the dependencies/prerequisites to local laptop website testing with XenForo.
Once I pay and have downloaded XenForo, am I able to install locally? I would assume I would need a local webserver, Apache or IIS, and and instance of MySQL? Any existing documentation available regarding the local setup dependencies and workflow?

2. As mentioned in my preface, is anything needed to have the forum display according/correctly in a mobile setting (iPhone/Android)? or is this default behavior included?

3. My only concern is the 'a la carte' business model for additional features... This could add up quick.. Would someone with and existing forum be able to provide ballpark end price of what to expect? Any other 'surprises"/"gotchas" to be aware of?

4. After local testing/config/dev, when I am ready to launch to a hosting domain, any recommendations?

Thank you in advance..

 

[Paul B]

Once I pay and have downloaded XenForo, am I able to install locally?

Yes.
There are various ways of achieving that - I have used XAMPP previously, others use scotchbox, etc.

As mentioned in my preface, is anything needed to have the forum display according/correctly in a mobile setting (iPhone/Android)? or is this default behavior included?

Responsive design is standard.

Custom development costs vary wildly depending on the amount and complexity of work.

 

[sbj]

1. Just download XAMPP, download XF files from your customer login when you have purchased the software, upload/move XF files to "htdocs" folder which will be created when you install XAMPP on your local machine. Create a database with mysqladmin, configure your XF config file and done.

2. Default.

3. It all depends on you, what you want or need. Anything what you see on this forum is a part of the core software. XF has multiple great features, it would be a long list to list all of them. Except for the footer down below, which is a custom thing for this website only.

In addition to that, if you desire to have a Media Gallery, XF offers it as an addon, which you can purchase in additition to the core, just like the Resource Manager. Most forums don't need them but it depends on what you want to do.

Then there are a lot of addons available in the XF marketplace (see the Resources). Most of them are paid ones but there are also good free ones. So many things you can purchase. Themes cost around 30$ and addons between 10-60$. Just ask away what you want to do or need, and we can suggest you some addons and you can see their prices.

4. Depends on your budget, willingness if you want to manage the server yourself and the location. You can start with shared hosting services and you can find here some of them offering their services.

 

[SrDev]

1. Just download XAMPP, download XF files from your customer login when you have purchased the software, upload/move XF files to "htdocs" folder which will be created when you install XAMPP on your local machine. Create a database with mysqladmin, configure your XF config file and done.

2. Default.

3. It all depends on you, what you want or need. Anything what you see on this forum is a part of the core software. XF has multiple great features, it would be a long list to list all of them. Except for the footer down below, which is a custom thing for this website only.

In addition to that, if you desire to have a Media Gallery, XF offers it as an addon, which you can purchase in additition to the core, just like the Resource Manager. Most forums don't need them but it depends on what you want to do.

Then there are a lot of addons available in the XF marketplace (see the Resources). Most of them are paid ones but there are also good free ones. So many things you can purchase. Themes cost around 30$ and addons between 10-60$. Just ask away what you want to do or need, and we can suggest you some addons and you can see their prices.

4. Depends on your budget, willingness if you want to manage the server yourself and the location. You can start with shared hosting services and you can find here some of them offering their services.

Thank you for your informative reply!

 

[SrDev]

Yes.
There are various ways of achieving that - I have used XAMPP previously, others use scotchbox, etc.


Responsive design is standard.

Custom development costs vary wildly depending on the amount and complexity of work.

Thank you!