pre-sale question - metabox on multisite

[middlesister]

I want to use the metabox extension for a plugin that adds a custom post type. It will be activated on a multisite install, making the post type available on all subsites. Can I do this with the metabox license?

I could not find any licensing details on the site, and on the checkout page nothing happens when I want to read the terms. (Well the link changes to say hide terms, but they are never shown... :( )

What exactly does 1 commercial product / year mean? My long term goal is to make the plugin available for free on .org, does that qualify as commercial? And one year is the common 1 year of support and updates, right? I don't need to buy premium support separately, do I?

I am looking for something that will make the creation of this plugin a bit smoother, so I won't have to create all the metaboxes manually. And I'm not a UI designer, so a framework with good looks will help me a lot. I know there are several different metabox frameworks around, but if I can use the same framework for both plugin/theme options and metaboxes that would be awesome.

I haven't dug around too much in the docs or the code yet, but if I can also use the redux framework for an extended user profile screen then I am sold!

I am not above writing an extension for it if that's what it takes. Anything new has a learning curve. If I know that I can accomplish what I need then I am ready to make the time investment to get to know the depths of the framework.

[dovy]

Hey there, sorry for the delay. Been working on the newest release of Metaboxes. ;)

About the checkout stuff, I really do need to finish setting up the site. I've been more focused on our documentation than the checkout process. The new metaboxes documentation may answer a few of your questions. You can find that here: http://docs.reduxframework.com/premium-extensions/metaboxes/

So I have no problem with you using metaboxes on the same server with multi-site unless each of those sites is a different revenue builder. If they're a network of the same type of product or site, feel free to use it across all of them. I typically count a server as a site/product.

The license is a yearly subscription for 1 given product. Cancel at any time. You must keep the subscription active to get support and updates after a year. Unfortunately the product is more focused on commercial products. If it is placed in a free product we would want you to append a license or something to make it clear that code is ours, yada yada. However, we can't give the code away even if you're putting it into something free.

The point of the metaboxes extension is to make it one seamless experience when making options for your pages. You'll be shocked at how much time it saves you. If you like Redux as a panel, you'll love working with metaboxes.

Your question about premium support. If there are bugs with metaboxes, we'll support you. If you need extra help like me logging into your site, or helping you with Redux configurations and stuff like that we'd appreciate you grabbing the premium support. Remember, the premium support comes with a subscription to Redux Tracking. So you can get this: http://reduxframework.com/statistics to act like this: http://reduxframework.com/statistics/?d=3a91ce2622596f6b4c67e27a4a2dc313 for your product. ;)

You'll want to give the Redux Generator a try to get going. It's free and hands you a theme or admin folder to start with, including a plugin loader. It makes things REALLY easy. http://generator.reduxframework.com/

We haven't moved to an extended user profile as of yet. It's something we have on the back of our minds. We're going to fix our custom fonts extensions to use APIs and then we're going to make the most advanced customizer integration out there. Then we can think about user meta data. ;)

Hopefully I have answered your questions. Quite frankly, Redux is the most powerful framework available on the market. I know, because I do my best to make sure of it.

If you have further questions you are welcome to Skype me: DovyDigital.

Have a great day.

[middlesister]

Thank you for your thorough response. Your support policy makes total sense, of course the support included with the metaboxes module would only cover metaboxes issues.

I assume that the metaboxes will store it's data in the postmeta table instead of wp_options (and extended profiles in the future would use usermeta). Is it possible to change that for individual fields? I want some of my fields to be generated from custom taxonomies, as radio box or select box. Would this be possible through a field extension or something similar? I don't want the custom taxonomies to be in separate metaboxes in the sidebar but integrated with the other options in the main metabox.

I would never suggest that you give away your product for free. And of course any third party code would need to be clearly marked as such with appropriate license attached and everything. It's just that while I know it's technichally legal under GPL to buy your framework extension and then redistribute with my free plugin, it somehow doesn't feel right. Sure, it's only by becoming your customers that anyone who wants to re-use the code can get support and updates, but it still feels like giving away someone elses work for free. I'll have to think about that.

I'm still at the architectural drawing board stage of my plugin, but when I have a clearer vision of which fields and data I want to store, I will give the generator a spin.

Thanks again and happy easter!

[dovy]

Correct. It's stored in the postmeta table, but when called in a wp_query it overrides the Redux variable for you in your functions.php page and the front-end.

You can have metaboxes work for any post as it's saved at the post level. I haven't planned to go the taxonomy route as of yet. I could do that. You can of course have boxes for custom post types, but not the categories yet. It may be tough to do. Not sure how we'd do that. It would have to be a future task.

Yea, I really kind of want to keep this code in premium products for that reason. The GPL is for Redux itself. The extensions you can modify, but only under the terms of the license. So if you alter it and want to put it in 2 products, then you need to buy 2 licenses. We'd prefer you not distribute it in a free product. Maybe make an installer from a private repo or something? heh. A LOT of work went into that code.

You are most welcome. I'm not trying to take advantage of anyone, but I want to make sure I can justify working on this project as I move forward. I am sure you, a developer, can fully understand.

Oh 3.2.1 was just released. TONS of big improvments.

Happy Easter to you as well.

Χριστός ἀνέστη! - Christos Aneste - "Christ is Risen!" in Greek
Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! - Alithos Anesti - "Truly He is Risen!" or "He Has Risen Indeed!"

[middlesister]

Wow, that's a fast response :)

To clarify, I want to put a fairly complex meta box in a custom post type. There will be custom taxonomies also added by the plugin, and I would like to pull from those taxonomies into the options fields for the meta box in the CTP. One example is using a custom taxonomy as a custom post format. I would like the user to have a radio box to select the post format of the CPT, and since you cannot add post formats to the ones defined by core I need to use a custom taxonomy for that.

But I am already treading into complex relational database land with a possible use case requiring connecting this CPT to another CPT, which might even require an extra database table á la post2posts plugin. Having a possibility to make that kind of connection straight in the meta box would really make me drool.

And yeah considering the amount of work this plugin might require, I also thought of selling it as a commercial product instead of distributing it for free. But it's a very niche market so I am unsure if that is viable. I need to get some kind of prototype working first and then we'll see.

[dovy]

How about we Skype sometime next week. I am tied up until Wednesday. Skype: dovydigital

;)