Risk of using 1.1 Beta in production

For those that have purchased the XenForo, would you use XenForo 1.1 Beta in production?


  • Total voters
    33
  • Poll closed .

rEd86

Active member

OK, I have read the warnings on the download pages:

This is Beta Software

Please remember that this is beta software. It contains known bugs and incomplete functionality. We do not recommend running beta software in a production environment, and support is limited at this time to questions here on the community forums.

If you choose to run beta software, it is your responsibility to ensure that you make a backup of your data. We recommend you do this before attempting an upgrade.
But there are so many cool/great features in the latest release that I REALLY want to launch a new site on version 1.1. Yea, I know - I've been warned but the product looks pretty stable and I am hoping this is just a standard disclaimer to avoid liability/blame.

I hope we're on a shorter release path for 1.1 than we had for 1.0. With 1.0, which was a brand spanking new product, the releases were:
  • Beta 1 - October 5, 2010
  • Beta 2 - October 21, 2010
  • Beta 3 - November 11, 2010
  • Beta 4 - December 3, 2010
  • Beta 5 - December 10, 2010
  • Beta 6 - January 13, 2011
  • RC1 - January 20, 2011
  • RC2 - February 3, 2011
  • RC3 - February February 22, 2011
  • 1.0 - March 8, 2011 (y)
I didn't find anything when I searched but are we looking at a similar time frame for 1.1? (Beta 1 was released on the same date of October 5) I would think that it's going to be a much shorter timeline since this isn't a 2.0 release. I get the sense that there is more functionality being added and there are still bugs being corrected, but the core product is fairly baked at this time so nothing significant structurally will change. That changes the risks of running the beta IMHO but I wanted to get the community's thoughts on this, especially since many of you have already installed the latest 1.1 betas on production sites. (and maybe a hint from Kier or Mike as to time lines)

Thoughts?

--Ed
 
I've been using it on my site since Beta 2.

I know what the projected date is but I can't say :censored:
 
If I were launching a fresh new site, I'd consider 1.1 beta, but it would also depend on how many, and which add-ons you plan to use, as well as custom styles. Fresh install, no add-ons, and default style then why not use beta? Existing active site, lots of add-ons, and custom style, then I wouldn't use beta.
 
I use xenForo 1.1 beta 3 for my small community. Everything is working fine for me, well - for the features which we use, ;) ( members haven't reported any bugs yet.. )
I keep a close eye on the Open Bug Reports forum before upgrading, by the way, :coffee:

For a forum with over 20 members online at the same time ( any point of the day ) , I'd recommend you wait for a stable version to be released, (y)
That's just me.. :whistle:
If members start complaining about bugs, then it'll be a headache to switch back from 1.1 to 1.0. ( posts might be lost if you're unable to convert because you'll be using a backed-up database )
 
Excellent points. I was only going to use XenForo 1.1 with a limited number of simple plugins initially (if any) so that too significantly reduces the risk of things breaking or having conflicts with each additional beta release. Any plugins that I will use are cosmetic and could be disabled if there were conflicts.

It does look like some sites with a fair amount of traffic have made the jump. (Brogan's site has 75 active users online right now) So what's the largest site (active users) that's made the jump to 1.1 beta? XenForo.com has made the jump and currently has 231 active users, so that says a lot IMHO. (unless they are using some version that's not available to us yet! :))

--Ed
 
Do not run beta software on your site unless you know what you are doing.
If you have to ask, must likely you should NOT run the beta.

I am running myself 1.1 on production, but I am a Software Engineer that has done UBB for years, then VB for years, then XF ...
If there is a bug, I am pretty much capable of fixing it myself. If you feel comfortable debugging the database, browsing through the code, and reporting issues, run the beta.

That said, I have run in just 1 serious issue so far ...
You can no longer import an style (in beta 3), due to this bug - http://xenforo.com/community/threads/mysqli-errors-when-importing-style.17301/#post-226432

Other than that it has been cosmetic issues, small bugs here and there, translations, nothing major, nothing serious.
The software is rock solid.
 
If you do run the beta, you know you run the risk of increasing global warming, starting the chain reaction that will lead to the apocalypse, dogs loving cats, and a whole slew of other potential side effects. :)
 
I am currently migrating my large forum (4 million posts, started in 2003) to XenForo as we speak. :)
 
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