If you've purchased the Developer Pack option please refer to the Installing Developer Pack & Best Practices section below before completing the installation. You will also find this information in the welcome email received at time of purchase.
What is the developer pack? What can I do with it and how should I use it?
The developer pack, as the name suggests, is a package designed for use by developers to extend the Ventrino Traffic Exchange Script by providing access to the source code used by the Ventrino Developers to create the application.
It is not required for the normal operation of the script and does not provide any extra features whatsoever. The developer pack does not enhance operation in anyway. Without it you still have complete freedom to modify the graphic design of the script, you can also write your own PHP anywhere in the templates, you can change the language used and there are high level functions that allow you to automatically format results from the database. While these may not be the sort of thing the average script user will want to do there are many developers who create and modify the script without the developer pack. So please, think long and hard before your purchase! Save yourself the cost unless you or your programmer really need access to the underlying code!
The typical reason for purchasing the developer pack is that you, as a programmer wish to extend the site in a way that cannot be done in the above paragraph and usually because you wish to offer your code as a third party add-on to other Ventrino Traffic Exchange Script owners for a fee.
Using the developer pack is up to you but please heed the warning in Best Practices below. As a programmer you are probably keen to throw all the code in your live site and make changes on the fly. I know this because it's the sort of thing I would do. But let me save you a major headache and explain why that's not a good idea:
Saving you from a major headache
There's more than one programmer involved in this development. There's you and the rest of us. We have built a massive system over the years, there are bugs and enhancements happening all the time and we are releasing patches and hotfixes on a regular basis. You really need to take advantage of these and keep up to date. Of course if we have modified a file that you have added code to there will be a conflict. So how do we manage changes?
The easiest method is for you to take control. Even in the encoded script we have hooks that allow a non developer pack owner to write their own code, and it would be good for you to do something similar. That way when the patch overwrites your file you have a backup PLUS integrating your changes again are easy. Now that's a word all of us programmers like to associate ourselves with isn't it?
Here's a good way to develop your code:
Modify a single file and where possible only add something like this:-
$file = 'hooks/anyphpfile.php'; if(file_exists($file)) { require_once($file);}
By adding the above only, if we overwrite the file during a patch update all you have to do is grab the new unencoded version in your developer pack and add it back to your live site. After testing, if it becomes apparent that you need to modify your code all you have to do is open hooks/anyphile.php in your editor. Simple and effective as well as tidy and easy to understand.
Installing Developer Pack & Best Practices
Most developers will understand the difficulties associated with branched code and how maintaining version control can be confusing at the best of times. If you create fantastic code the last thing you want is for it to be overwritten and lost forever. Therefore a little careful planning will go a long way towards keeping you sane and happy. First thing to realise is it is not a good idea to copy source code over your live script. The approved method is to develop and test your changes and then move over only the file (or files) you have altered. This simplifies the management of code, reduces risk of loss when patching, and provides best performance.
We recommend that you install the source on a sub domain, make changes to the file(s) and copy only the changes files to your main domain. So you might have a structure like this:-
example.com
www.example.com (usually in the same physical directory as above)
source.example.com
The first two point to the site your visitors access. The final one, http://source.example.com is where you manage your development.
By taking a copy of the original encoded file before replacing with your modifed source code file you can easily recover from a mistake or change made that has a negative impact on your web site.
How to find your Developer Pack information.
Login to your Ventrino account and select "My Licenses".
| IMPORTANT The developer pack cannot be run on an unlicensed website. Make sure your website has a traffic exchange script license before installing any developer pack files. |