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I've installed layerslider on both websites: live = https://urban.realtor, development = https://urban.mattsson.pro. I was ablt to activate license at the live site, but when I attempt to activate license at dev site, i get a message that the license is already in use.
From your documentation, I get the impression that if the development website name doesn't match your pattern for development website names, I can work around this by creating a domain alias from a domain name that matches your pattern and redirects to the development website.
So I did that just now: domain alias "dev.urban.realtor" redirects to "urban.mattsson.pro." I set up the domain alias from the cPanel where I'm hosting urban.mattsson.pro.
Still, when I attempted to activate the license for the dev site after creating this domain alias, I STILL get the message that the license is in use. So I need your help.
What do you think might be wrong? Must wait more time for domain alias to become active? Do I need a DIFFERENT domain alias? Must I set up the domain alias at the web host for the LIVE website?
Sincerely,
Carol Mattsson
Web developer for https://urban.realtor
Hello Carol,
Thank you for getting in touch with us!
It doesn’t matter how you get to a page, but what domain name the page works under. and that has not changed. Currently there is a domain which immediately move on to another, but that other domain is actually used and LayerSlider see that as well. This domain does not match the pattern and is not recognized as dev.
I think this is a redirection, not a domain alias. it should be resolved that your page actually goes from a domain that matches a pattern.
Maybe you should try to contact with your hosting provider, they should help with it.
Please let me know.
Best Regards,
Andrea | Kreatura Support Team
Hi Kristof,
I see. I'm having trouble understanding your instructions for creating a domain alias and I don't understand your answer. Suppose I give you my exact situration, then you can tell me in more detail?
Live site, urban.realtor, is hosted at SiteGround (SG). This is the URL I've chosen to register to the LayerSlider license.
Development site, urban.mattsson.pro, is hosted at InMotionHosting (IMH).
Both web hosts, via cPanel, offer me the option to create a domain alias. (Your instructions say domain alias used to be called a parked domain. SG still uses the term parked domain.)
Once the domain alias is created, I have the option to create a redirect for that domain alias.
So my questions are:
* Do I create the domain alias (or parked domain) at SG or IMH?
* What URL do I give to create the domain alias?
* What else do I do with this domain alias, to make it suitable for you to recognize that urban.mattsson.pro is the development website for urban.realtor?
Am I on the right track here?
Thanks,
Carol Mattsson
Hello Carol,
Thank you for your feedback!
Currently, if I click to https://dev.urban.realtor/ it redirects to your main domain https://urban.realtor/, which is not correct.
You should create a domain alias for your development site at InMotionHosting. You should use a domain which contains dev, test, local, stage, staging, etc.
Please check it.
Best Regards,
Andrea | Kreatura Support Team
Hi Kristof,
The short answer is, I believe what's tripping up my domain alias is that at SiteGround, there's already a redirect for *.urban.realtor to /public_html. I found this out after spending over an hour with InMotion Hosting tech support. I'd like to see your process for supporting a development/staging website on a single-site license, not require so much effort. I give up.
DETAILS
Thanks for trying to explain. Indeed, even without the domain alias, dev.urban.realtor redirects to urban.realtor. I asked InMotion Hosting tech support about it and we tried things for about an hour, with 2nd level support involved too.
Checking at SiteGround cPanel, indeed *.urban.realtor goes to /public_html. Someone from the website owner's marketing department probably set that up. I could probably ask Marketing, or SiteGround tech support, for their help in setting up an exception for dev.urban.realtor to go to urban.mattsson.pro, but I don't wnat to spend any more time on this issue.
I'd like to see your plugin support the conventional website setup of live site + staging site, in a way that requires less than one hour of my time, your time, the website owner's time, my web hosting company's time. That's more than the $25 cost of purchasing an additional single site license.
A good workaround would be one request to Kreatura tech support, giving the name of the development website, and having you add it to your whitelist, as you describe here: https://layerslider.kreaturamedia.com/documentation/#activation-sites. One other plugin for urban.realtor website activates the development website license this way for us.
I think it's a BIG time saver that my purchase of an updated license for LayerSlider was able to fix the PHP errors AND reuse all the existing slideshow settings. I do thank you for that. But because of this license problem I don't want to spend any more money or time on LayerSlider.
As a workaround, I plan to manually update my development website's LayerSlider (by uploading a new zip) for as long as the 6-month support period lasts. After that I'm not sure what I will do.
Sincerely,
Carol Mattsson
Hi Carol,
I'm John from the Kreatura Dev Team. I'd like to provide some further insights to clear up some of the confusion and find a solution.
The 6 months included support time that you receive with a purchase is only for product support. After the 6 months, you will still be able to receive updates and access all features and content. We're providing lifetime licenses, so you will receive every benefit for the entire lifecycle of the product, including major version updates. The only change is that you will not be able to open new support tickets when your support time expires. This can be extended without purchasing another license, but it's entirely optional and only needed to contact our support team.
What your host provides are not real domain aliases. This is a technique called domain forwarding. It's basically a redirection, a common trick that sometimes used to substitute real domain aliases. A proper domain alias would make it possible to access your site from multiple domains. It would work on its own, independently from other domains, without relying on or navigating you to your primary domain.
Our whitelist is based on industry standards, conventions, and common naming schemes that developers and hosts use around the world. It's not LayerSlider specific. We're also open to extend this list with exceptions for commonly used services like we did with WP Engine. However, we can't keep filling this list with every single exception we find because it would have unintended consequences and potentially open the door for misuse and license violation. Most products on the market don't even bother to offer additional license seats for developers, and we're trying to find a balance that's beneficial for all parties.
Wildcard domains (*.urban.realtor) are always have less priority than a more specific domain name. So there's no need for asking an exception. You can always make a regular subdomain (no matter under which host) and set up a separate WordPress installation. In that case the subdomain name should be one that's on our whitelist: dev, test, local, stage, staging, etc.
I believe the easiest way to go forward is to create a subdomain under the domain where your current development installation resides. Then, point the subdomain path to the directory of that development installation. Lastly, navigate to Settings -> General on your WordPress admin area and set the Site Address and WordPress address to this new subdomain.
Another way to make things more clear to your host is asking them to simply change your existing development WP installation to be accessible from another domain name. The problem is that even if you set up the right domain name, WordPress might still defaults to your primary domain and instantly redirects you to that site. That's why it's important to shift the emphasis from setting up a domain alias to making WordPress accessible from a domain name of your choosing that fits the pattern. With this in mind, your host will likely understand the problem more and could offer a potential solution. The key is not what you type into your browser's URL bar. The key is under which domain name your site actually runs. A redirection will only do just what the name implies. It navigates you from one domain to another. The end destination what really matters. In your previous attempts you only changed the starting point but ended up under the same domain name. That's why it didn't work.
I understand that this is not the easiest topic for customers. Usually only developers and hosts deal with cases like this. However, I hope you understand that the situation is technical by its nature and we're trying to offer a very open-minded approach that follows conventions that most hosts and developer are already using and it's not specific to us.
Best Regards,
John | Kreatura Dev Team