-TESTINSTALL .......What does it disable?

[Phillyman]

I live on the edge and rarely use my test install but the other day I wanted to see what would break in 4.4 when I finally upgrade. So I pull down a copy of my database and all my files, and upload that copy to my .INFO version of my site and fix the paths, rebuild the caches to bring back the FontAwesome icons. But I just want to make sure that when I changed that license over there to have -TESTINSTALL at the end, that emails are not going out to members and that subscription renewals are not firing off. So is there a list somewhere that lists out what -TESTINSTALL disables?

 

[Sonya*]

TESTINSTALL disables nothing. It is fully working copy of your site.

If you would like to disable mails then use EMAIL_DEBUG_PATH as described https://invisioncommunity.com/4guides/promotion/email-options-r24/. 

 

[David..]

1 hour ago, Sonya* said:

It is fully working copy of your site.

Are you sure?

[Black Tiger]

Are you sure?

Why are you doubting this? What do you think is missing then? Except for the users being able to visit it?

[Adlago]

8 hours ago, Black Tiger said:

Why are you doubting this? What do you think is missing then? Except for the users being able to visit it? 

Under a license agreement, testinstal should only be available from a staff team. The URL of this installation should be disabled in htaccess / htpasswd file, not only offline.

 

[AndyF]

10 hours ago, David.. said:

Are you sure?

What do you think is actually different / missing ? :)

[Sonya*]

10 hours ago, David.. said:

Are you sure?

Pretty sure. I use TESTINSTALL for my development environment. It would be awful if there were any difference to the live site as in this case I could not test my code properly  

[David..]

1 hour ago, AndyF said:

What do you think is actually different / missing ? 🙂

I wouldn't know, but I thought maybe spam defense would be one thing to perhaps not require running on testinstalls. Since testinstalls are supposed to be private and non-accessible to the public.

[steve00]

1 minute ago, David.. said:

I wouldn't know, but I thought maybe spam defense would be one thing to perhaps not require running on testinstalls. Since testinstalls are supposed to be private and non-accessible to the public.

If you secure as supposed to then Spam wouldn't be an issue as no one would be able to join/sign up (it is a test installation not to be used for members to access or matters like that)

[Sonya*]

1 minute ago, steve00 said:

If you secure as supposed to then Spam wouldn't be an issue as no one would be able to join/sign up (it is a test installation not to be used for members to access or matters like that)

Additionally if I would like to test/enhance spam defense then I definitely need it to work on my test installation the same way it work on the live site 😉 

[steve00]

1 minute ago, Sonya* said:

Additionally if I would like to test/enhance spam defense then I definitely need it to work on my test installation the same way it work on the live site 😉 

But are you are allowing members/people to sign up ... if so then against the terms

[Sonya*]

3 minutes ago, steve00 said:

But are you are allowing members/people to sign up ... if so then against the terms

No, I sign up myself to test it 😉 or ask my beta testers to do the job. This is not against the terms.

[Andrew Anderson]

Quote

Test Install

Your self-hosted license allows you to have one live installation (your actual community) and one test installation. We also allow an unlimited number of installations on "localhost" domains so you can test locally without restriction.

If you are installing on a test install, enter your license key with -TESTINSTALL on the end. If you are installing on localhost (it must be "localhost" specifically, not "127.0.0.1" or any other alias), this will not count towards either of your installations, however, if you are installing on any other domain, it will count as your test installation.

This means that if you already have a test installation at a different URL, you will receive an error message that says "A test installation has already been activated for this license key. Your license key entitles you to one test installation only." There are three ways to overcome this:

1. You can delete your current test installation and reinstall at the same URL. For example, if your Test URL (as shown in the client area) is "example.com/test", you can install at example.com/test (meaning of course you'll have to delete whatever is there first) and you will not get the error message.
 
2. You can install on a localhost installation: localhost installations do not count towards your allowed usages.
 
3. You can reset the licensed URL associated with your license.  The test url is a one time url, so use something you can retain for future testing. To prevent abuse, we only allow this to be done once every 6 months, so do not use this option unless for example, you no longer have access to the domain where your test installation was previously. To do this, click "reset URL" on the same page in the client area.

5

5

Source;

 

To dumb it down a bit;

A testinstall is a full working edition of the forum software for everything you have a license for. Not a "copy of your forums". It will be blank and contentless unless you copy data from your existing database.

I'll also note this;

[Black Tiger]

Under a license agreement, testinstal should only be available from a staff team.

Yes I know, that's why I wrote that the users were not able to visit it.... or rather should not be. 😉

[AndyF]

AFAIK the only real difference is the usage report is disabled for a -testinstall.

        /* Check this isn't a test install */
        $licenseData = \IPS\IPS::licenseKey();
        if ( \IPS\IN_DEV or !$licenseData or mb_substr( $licenseData['key'], -12 ) === '-TESTINSTALL' )
        {
            return NULL;
        }

For those with a 'tin foil hat' It should be noted that its anonymous anyway and you have to (iirc) opt into it rather than choose to opt out. That is by default it is not enabled.