Xenforo Test Install?

[NinoDraven]

Hello. We recently switched our forums to Xenforo.
I realize the license is good for one forum only.
But here's my little issue. Being in charge of the forum, I often want to try out various addons.
It's not the best practice to try them out on the fly as some of them completely change the look of the forum, etc.
Am I able to make a test installation somewhere (on my computer for example, it already has a LAMP installation) so I can demo addons out?

 

[Paul B]

You are permitted one test installation, even on your live server, as long as it is password protected/locked down.

Localhost is of course permitted also.

How many installations can I make with a single license?
Each license permits you to install the software once. However, you may create a single additional test installation for testing purposes only. Any test installation of this kind must be password protected, and access to it must be limited to you and your website staff.

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/pre-sales-faq.4951/

 

[NinoDraven]

Thank you very much for your speedy reply.
When you say password protected, what do you mean?
Installing it on localhost would make it unreachable by anyone else since I've no ports forwarded.
Would that be enough?
Also, am I to somehow mark the installation as a "test" one so that the license doesn't interfere with our live forum?

 

[Paul B]

Localhost is of course exempt from that.

If on your web server though, you can protect it using .htaccess.
Just apply a password to the directory, here's an example: http://xenforo.com/community/resour...and-the-install-directory-using-htaccess.353/

There is no need to mark the install as a test, it doesn't call home.

 

[NinoDraven]

Once again, thank you very much for the speedy response and the information.
Have a great rest of the day/evening.

 

[oman]

I recently moved my test site to local host with Brogan's guide, and it is much faster to use. So if you have localhost, I'd definitely use it.

 

[NinoDraven]

I recently moved my test site to local host with Brogan's guide, and it is much faster to use. So if you have localhost, I'd definitely use it.

Thanks for that guide mate.
I already have a LAMP installation on my desktop so I don't need that but
the part about allowing more memory to php and mysql is probably gonna come in handy
if I end up importing the databases from the main site to my test install.

Also, I have a different question and this is probably not the thread for it but I'd rather not litter the forums with extra threads.
If I was to get rid of the homepage for our website (it really serves no purpose at the moment, just a kinda ugly static page with some info)
and move the forum installation from /var/www/forum to /var/www would it instantly work or would I have to do certain tweaking?
Thank you for any responses.

 

[Paul B]

It would work fine, but you would need to update the Board URL in the ACP.

The FAQ in my signature includes how to move the installation.

 

[MattW]

Thanks for that guide mate.
I already have a LAMP installation on my desktop so I don't need that but
the part about allowing more memory to php and mysql is probably gonna come in handy
if I end up importing the databases from the main site to my test install.

Also, I have a different question and this is probably not the thread for it but I'd rather not litter the forums with extra threads.
If I was to get rid of the homepage for our website (it really serves no purpose at the moment, just a kinda ugly static page with some info)
and move the forum installation from /var/www/forum to /var/www would it instantly work or would I have to do certain tweaking?
Thank you for any responses.

You'd probably need a couple of re-writes in .htaccess to point anyone using the old URLs to the new ones in document root

(courtesy of Brogan)

        RewriteRule ^forum/(.*)?$ /$1 [L,R=301]
        RewriteRule ^forum$ / [L,R=301]

 

[NinoDraven]

Thank you both very much for the information.