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Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature

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Dave
Staff / Moderator

Jun 8, 2009, 12:07 PM

Post #1 of 35 (5382 views)
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Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature	Can't Post

Hi everyone,

We're working on a new feature for v1.29 that allows for "public demos". Basically how this works is you can setup CMS Builder, then put it into demoMode by changing the following value in /data/settings.dat.php:

demoMode = 1

and then the following happens:
- When a new user visits the viewers and admin program a copy of the database tables get created just for them
- This copy lasts 1 hour and then it's removed
- All the admin features are locked down (not editable)
- Uploads are disabled
- All other parts of the software can be tried

Basically this allows you (and us) to setup a public demo where anyone can try out the software without risk of breaking something on the server or entering in-appropriate content that other demo visitors might see.

Many of our customers ask for a public demo and many of you have asked for the ability to set that up safely so that's what this is for.

A lot of code changes were required for this so if anyone wants to help beta test (you must own at least 1 CMSB license) please email me at dave@interactivetools.com and post any questions here on this thread.

Thanks!

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Dave
Staff / Moderator

Jun 9, 2009, 1:42 PM

Post #2 of 35 (5354 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

A few more notes on this.

Once you've setup a demo and put it in "demo mode" you can edit it again by renaming admin.php to a temporary name (such as admin2.php), then disabling demo mode, making changes, then re-enabling and renaming back.

This will prevent anyone from accessing the demo who doesn't know the temp php filename you chose.

Also, I've attached a plugin that will display "Demo Mode: Some features are disabled. Demo will reset in ## minutes." on the bottom. Just save it to cmsAdmin/lib/plugins/ and then enable it from the admin menu.

Let me know any questions or feedback.

Update: Fixed bug in plugin that caused other footer content not to show when _not_ in demo mode.

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

(This post was edited by Dave on Jun 10, 2009, 1:55 PM)

Attachments:

displayDemoNotice.php (0.78 KB)

Djulia
User

Jun 10, 2009, 1:03 PM

Post #3 of 35 (5333 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Dave,

I have just made the update but I have an error message with the use of the fields of the type "list" and "Get options from database (advanced)".

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at lib/menus/header.php:12) in lib/database_functions.php on line 560 There was an error creating the list field. MySQL Error: Incorrect table name ''

You think that it is the update which causes this error ?

I continue to explore the new function.

Thanks, Djulia

Djulia
User

Jun 10, 2009, 1:43 PM

Post #4 of 35 (5327 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Dave,

I do not understand the use of the plugin.

When demoMode is 0, it is possible to activate all the plugins ( Capture 1).

But, if I place after on demoMode 1, the plugins Display Demo Notice and Footer License Link are automatically deactivated and the countdown timer is not visible ( Capture 2).

You have an idea ?
I do not find my error.

Thanks, Djulia

Attachments:

Capture1.gif (8.53 KB)

Capture2.gif (9.33 KB)

Dave
Staff / Moderator

Jun 10, 2009, 1:54 PM

Post #5 of 35 (5325 views)
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Re: [Djulia] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Djulia,

Thanks for the report! There was a glitch in the "Display Demo Notice" plugin that removed the other footer content when you weren't in demo mode. I'll update that in the thread above or you can apply this fix (add code in red to /lib/plugins/displayDemoNotice.php):

Code

  // only show in demo mode 
  if (!inDemoMode()) { return $html; }

But when you are in demo mode you shouldn't be able to activate or deactivate any plugins. You should get an error like this "Plugins are disabled in demo mode.".

Let me know if that fixes it.

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Dave
Staff / Moderator

Jun 10, 2009, 2:05 PM

Post #6 of 35 (5323 views)
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Re: [Djulia] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Djulia,

Thanks for the report on "Get options from database (advanced)". Yes, that's a new bug. We'll fix it for the next beta build or here is the patch if you'd like to do it now:

- edit /cmsAdmin/lib/database_functions.php
- search for $selectTable
- replace this line:

Code

      $selectTable  = "`" . $TABLE_PREFIX . $fieldSchema['optionsTablename'] . "`";

- with this line:

Code

      $selectTable  = $TABLE_PREFIX . $fieldSchema['optionsTablename'];

Hope that helps! Let me know if that fixes it for you.

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Djulia
User

Jun 10, 2009, 2:44 PM

Post #7 of 35 (5320 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Dave,

"Get options from database (advanced)" is now corrected !

But, I always have the same problem with the plugin, and I do not obtain time : (...) $minutesRemaining minutes. in the footer of the admin pages.

In fact, as soon as I put in demo mode the two plugins are automatically deactivated by cmsB.

You have an idea ?

Thanks, Djulia

(This post was edited by Djulia on Jun 10, 2009, 3:10 PM)

Dave
Staff / Moderator

Jun 10, 2009, 6:37 PM

Post #8 of 35 (5306 views)
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Re: [Djulia] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Djulia,

That's very strange. Can you email me CMS and FTP login details to dave@interactivetools.com and I will take a look at the plugin issue for you. Note: Email, don't post login details to the forum.

Hope that helps!

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Djulia
User

Jun 11, 2009, 1:01 AM

Post #9 of 35 (5302 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Dave,

Oops ! I found the origin of my problem.

In fact, the problem was caused with the use of the file settings.dat.php and the activePlugins variable.
My configuration of origin was : activePlugins = "footerLicenseLink.php, displayDemoNotice.php"

I always used my local file to make my tests. Also, after each modification, I transferred the initial configuration again of the file settings.dat.php. Crazy

Djulia

Dave
Staff / Moderator

Jun 11, 2009, 3:15 PM

Post #10 of 35 (5287 views)
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Re: [Djulia] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Djulia,

Great, thanks for the update. Let me know if you run into any other problems! :)

Thanks for your help with this.

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Toledoh
Enthusiast

Jun 11, 2009, 7:30 PM

Post #11 of 35 (5281 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Dave,

Some suggestions to be used or discarded as you see fit 

It would be good to be able to control the �demoMode = � from the admin� I keep making changes, then uploading the settings.dat.php to turn on/off demo mode and overwriting the changes I just made�

Maybe also a �reset� switch, so I can revert to the base install at any time, rather than waiting for the time to elapse.

With the demo mode plugin, maybe it can automatically add something to all article edited/created. This way, we can set up the front end to display an icon or similar for anything changed in demo mode�

Cheers,
Cheers,

Tim Forrest
Toledoh Enterprises
www.toledoh.com.au

Dave
Staff / Moderator

Jun 12, 2009, 11:00 AM

Post #12 of 35 (5269 views)
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Re: [Toledoh] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the feedback.

For the demo mode switch, the challenges we had with making that part of the UI was that you wouldn't be able to switch it off once on (since you can't edit admin settings in demo mode) and maximizing security (leaving no way for a user to disable demo mode).

Would it work to just download settings.ini.php before you change the demoMode settings and upload it again?

For the reset switch, we have that, try: admin.php?resetDemo=1

It would also be possible to have a plugin add something (a flag, extra text, etc) to records adding or created in demo mode. What would be the purpose for that? Note that each user has their own isolated demo, so user A can't see any content that user B added.

Let me know what you think.

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Toledoh
Enthusiast

Jun 12, 2009, 2:34 PM

Post #13 of 35 (5264 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Dave,

Yeah - just downloading and uploading works - it's just easy to over write changes... I was thinking some master password... but that I guess is going a bit far.

The reset is perfect... ta. Just for ease, I may add it to the header - just for ease of use.

I guess I didn't test to well, I didn't realise that you can have multiple demos happening at the same time. Negates my third question!

Brilliant!
Cheers,

Tim Forrest
Toledoh Enterprises
www.toledoh.com.au

Toledoh
Enthusiast

Jun 14, 2009, 11:37 PM

Post #14 of 35 (5181 views)
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Re: [Toledoh] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

I'm not sure whether this is an error on my side or with the demo...

http://www.forrest.id.au/nutsandbolts/index.php

If you search for "test" you get 2 results... one with it in the title, one in the summary.

However, if you search for "article" you get an error.

The code I've used is;

Code

<form method="post" class="search" action="news.php"> 
<p><input name="title,summary,content_keyword" class="textbox" type="text" /> 
<input name="search" class="searchbutton" value="Search News" type="submit" /></p> 
</form>

Cheers,
Cheers,

Tim Forrest
Toledoh Enterprises
www.toledoh.com.au

Dave
Staff / Moderator

Jun 16, 2009, 12:48 PM

Post #15 of 35 (5156 views)
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Re: [Toledoh] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Tim,

Great demo design, it really showcases all the different features! My first guess is that you have a viewer on that page that is loading a single record and you need to add:

'allowSearch' => false,

to it's options so it ignores the search options. If you attach the viewer file I could take a look for you.

Hope that helps!

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

ross
Staff / Moderator

Jun 16, 2009, 12:49 PM

Post #16 of 35 (5156 views)
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Re: [Toledoh] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Tim

Thanks for posting!

I think that might actually have to do with the word "article". My first thought is that it might be the same name as one of your sections or something like that and there's a conflict. Could you post a copy of that page for me to take a look at?

Also, does that same thing happen when you aren't in demo mode.

Thanks!
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support@interactivetools.com

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Toledoh
Enthusiast

Jun 16, 2009, 4:12 PM

Post #17 of 35 (5145 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Yep - it was the 'allowSearch' => false,

Glad you like the demo, it's just a template from http://www.styleshout.com/index.php which I think I found from one of your newsletters at some stage... Wink

Will be adding a bit more to it over the next while... I've found CMSB marries well with jQuery stuff - so nice news sliders etc are very easy to add.

Cheers,
Cheers,

Tim Forrest
Toledoh Enterprises
www.toledoh.com.au

Dave
Staff / Moderator

Jun 16, 2009, 4:22 PM

Post #18 of 35 (5144 views)
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Re: [Toledoh] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Yea I really like jQuery. My long term plan is to incorporate it into the code generator as it would make it easier to do slideshows and galleries, etc.

Actually what I'd really like to do is switch over to use the jQuery UI framework, as it would be really easy to change the colors and have a unified design theme, but that will have to come after some other features as it will take quite a bit of a rewrite.

We've released a final version with the demo code. You can read about it here: http://www.interactivetools.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=72360#72360

Thanks for your help with the beta test!

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

(This post was edited by Dave on Jun 16, 2009, 4:23 PM)

Toledoh
Enthusiast

Jun 16, 2009, 5:05 PM

Post #19 of 35 (5139 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Sounds Great!

Do I need to update to the latest 1.29 for the demo I'm running? Are there additional things in the official release?

Cheers,
Tim
Cheers,

Tim Forrest
Toledoh Enterprises
www.toledoh.com.au

Dave
Staff / Moderator

Jun 16, 2009, 5:12 PM

Post #20 of 35 (5138 views)
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Re: [Toledoh] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Nothing major, you could just as easily wait for a future release when there's something new and upgrade then.

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Christopherb
User

May 11, 2010, 8:58 AM

Post #21 of 35 (3772 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Our Demo was working fine until we added the "Display Demo Notice" plugin.

Now we get quite a few Undefined index errors. (Even when we removed the plugin and reset the demo mode to "0", the errors still persist.)

Notice: Undefined index: wysiwygLang in /home/demo/lib/wysiwyg.php on line 20
Notice: Undefined index: includeDomainInLinks in /home/demo/lib/wysiwyg.php on line 32
Notice: Undefined index: wysiwygLang in /home/demo/lib/wysiwyg.php on line 53
Notice: Undefined index: wysiwygLang in /home/demo/lib/wysiwyg.php on line 54
Notice: Undefined index: wysiwygLang in /home/demo/lib/wysiwyg.php on line 54

Thanks,

Chris

Dave
Staff / Moderator

May 11, 2010, 9:27 AM

Post #22 of 35 (3768 views)
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Re: [Christopherb] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Chris,

I'd recommend upgrading or making sure you have these values in your /data/settings.dat.php:

[wysiwyg]
includeDomainInLinks = 0
wysiwygLang = "en"

Hope that helps!

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Christopherb
User

May 11, 2010, 10:06 AM

Post #23 of 35 (3764 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Dave,

Just before I received your post, I reverted back to an old "settings.dat.php" file and added the plugin manually. Now everything works.

Using CMS Builder 2.02.

Thanks,

Chris

Dave
Staff / Moderator

May 11, 2010, 10:07 AM

Post #24 of 35 (3763 views)
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Re: [Christopherb] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

Yea, it sounds like it was just missing some settings values.

Glad to hear it's working again. All the best! :)

Dave Edis - Senior Developer
interactivetools.com

Christopherb
User

Sep 14, 2010, 12:59 PM

Post #25 of 35 (2832 views)
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Re: [Dave] Beta Testers: New "Public Demo Mode" feature [In reply to]	Can't Post

OK, now we have a new problem.

We upgraded to 2.04 and now receive the error:

Creating demo (please wait a moment)...
Error: Couldn't create demo after 12 attempts! Please contact us and let us know about this error!

Any ideas?

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