Using s2Member for live vs. test site

[merchant]

hello,
I recently purchased wptwin plugin to clone sites so that I could take a backup of the site and also clone it as a test site so I can make changes there before migrating back to the production site.
however while the cloning is successful it does not let me access video content in the s2member files directory giving me access denied errors.
1. Is there something that would prevent this?
2. Is there a way to get around this ?
3. Is there a way to duplicate the site and do all testing of future content on the test site and then migrating the tested code to the production site?

Your replies will be appreciated.

[Raam Dev]

I would suggest looking at the file permissions to make sure the wptwin plugin didn't adversely effect those when it cloned the site. (Do the file and folder permissions match those on the live site?)

Secondly, if you're testing on a local web development environment, be sure to read the documentation in WP Admin -> s2Member -> General Options -> Localhost WAMP/MAMP Developers.

[merchant]

1. I host my site at Hostgator so no its not locally hosted.
2. My live site is at say www.livedomain.com/s2
3. My test site is at say www.testdomain.com/s2clone

I checked the file permissions and they are the same. Now the files under the s2member-files directory and the directories under access-s2member-level0 or 1 or 2 etc all have the same permissions for both files and folders under both the live site and the cloned site.
It plays files that are not under the s2member-files directory without any issues (I have some under the content/uploads directory and they play fine (outside the s2member-files directories)
So not sure what's going on.
Do I have to do something with the license key that gets generated? I have put an awful lot of hard work to get this site up and running and do not want to mess it up or risk not having a mirror test site because if something goes wrong I will be dead in the water.
Please advise.

[Raam Dev]

Are you able to access files stored in the s2member-files directory on the live site?

Have you confirmed that the files actually exist in that directory on the test site?

Have you tried accessing the files on the test site using the Advanced Download Restrictions (to bypass level-restrictions)?

[merchant]

Hi Raam,
Yes when I use the Advanced Download Restrictions using the shortcode it works fine.
The following is my code on my original site and the video plays fine:

[jwplayer config="myplayer" file="http://originalsite.info/s2t/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-inline/access-s2member-level1/set-nameservers.flv" image="http://originalsite.info/s2t/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-inline/access-s2member-level1/cover-300.png"]

The above code works fine

The following is the code on my cloned site and the code gives me an access denied or video does not exist error (the video files are there in the correct directories):

[jwplayer config="myplayer" file="http://www.clonedsite.com/s2tclone/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-inline/access-s2member-level1/set-nameservers.flv" image="http://www.clonedsite.com/s2tclone/wp-content/plugins/s2member-files/s2member-file-inline/access-s2member-level1/cover-300.png"]

I am at a total loss to understand what's going on ..... basically any file within the s2member-files directory are inaccessible....please help

[merchant]

I resolved the issue!!
the .htaccess file needs to be changed to point to the new subdirectory from the original subdirectory of s2t to s2tclone in my case.
The rewrite base parameter and the rewrite conditions both had references to the original s2t subdirectory.
Hope this helps anyone else who may have this issue.

One more question:
would this work the same way for the Pro license of s2member? I have not tried that yet. Would I be allowed to have a clone of the site if I buy only one site license? ( as a preprod or test site to my live site?)

[Raam Dev]

Thank you so much for the update!

Regarding your license question: a test installation or development installation doesn't count towards the single-site license. The license is only for a live-site.

[merchant]

So how does one determine what is "test" or "development" installation? If I clone my production site to another sub-domain and do all my testing etc including the paypal and "live" penny tests with Clickbank etc how would I "inform" you folks this is a test site? or do I need to inform you of this?