Access to vBulletin for testing purposes
 

Is it possible to get a copy of vBulletin for testing purposes?

Even if it say has a restriction of only being able to make one post or one forum topic?

This vBulletin test site would not be available publicly.

Please advise.

No, unless you have a vBulletin license. If you have a vBulletin license, you are permitted to run one live copy and another copy for testing purposes as long as it is password protected and not accessible to the public

The vBulletin Demo gives you the opportunity to try out all of vBulletin's features, including administrative functions, in a private environment. Within the demo you will be able to log in to the Admin Control Panel and examine for yourself all the options that are available to administrators. With this demo you will be able to:

• Examine the complete range of templates, editing and tweaking them to your heart's content. Feel free to adjust the design of the test forum with templates and see the results in real time!
• Check out the powerful abilities given to administrators through the user groups and members options.
• Add and delete forums, and learn how each forum can be individually customized with templates.
• Much more!

vBulletin Demo

Thanks for the suggestion however I already knew this existed and have tried it out before but find it too restrictive for what I need testing wise.

I am a web developer amongst other things and was just interested to find out whether vBulletin had a test version or trial version of their software available like other companies do as at the current point in time I will not be using it for myself but would like to become familiar with the backend and for writing modifications for vBulletin at some stage in the future and being able to test them.

Unfortunately due to the visible source nature of PHP (the programming language vBulletin is written in), sending out trial copies is not a feasible option, as any limitations we put in could be very easily circumvented.

We do have a live demo of vBulletin (including the Blog and Project Tools), including full access to the admin control panel. You can set one up for your own use from this page (the demo automatically expires after 24 hours):
http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo.php

At the current point in time that is too limiting for me to have to use the live demo of vBulletin as I need access for longer than a 24 hour period. I know of a one or two people who have vBulletin licences will have to try and ask them kindly if I can do some testing on a test install of vBulletin.

How is the licence linked to the vBulletin sites? Is it done via the db or another method out of interest?

The license owner submits the URL on which the license is used.

If you plan on developing mods, styles etc for vbulletin then you might as well buy yourself a owned copy its a good investment if you are planning on doing this as a designer or coder. Its pretty much the only way to have legal access to the software for purposes of writing mods or styling a site. As a designer myself it was well worth buying for me because I do quite a bit in my work that deal with vbulletin as well as many other scripts.

Nailed it.

nailed and Screwed :D:D

Not only that, if your going to design your own mods and hacks, you will without doubt get donations which, dependant on how many hacks and mods you release, could in fact pay for your licence for a year ;)