Is the mobile suite necessary?

[NiteCore]

Any decent host should have PHP 7.x available by now. If they can't get you PHP 7.x that would be a big red flag.

Many hosts can change your PHP version within minutes, or show you how to change it yourself, so it likely is no big deal.

Hiya Joe.

You were spot on with your second comment. After getting in touch with the support guys they pointed out that I can switch between PHP versions (and other stuff too), from within my control panel on there.

I think (I only looked briefly) that PHP 7.2 was available, and the support folks also informed me that everything I additionally asked about (based on the VBulletin manual) was available. So good to go by the looks of things!

Thanks again to everyone on here for all of their help and support.


Regards, Mark.

[BirdOPrey5]

Any decent host should have PHP 7.x available by now. If they can't get you PHP 7.x that would be a big red flag.

Many hosts can change your PHP version within minutes, or show you how to change it yourself, so it likely is no big deal.

[NiteCore]

Hiya Mark.

Many thanks for your response!

I don't think I will need any branded apps for my humble site

I've been looking at a number of forum packages for some weeks now, and always VBulletin comes out on top.

It was very helpful to be able to create a demo/test site on your servers to see how thing look from the back end.

The only sticking point for me at the moment is an issue with the version of PHP running on the server of my host. I recently upgraded my hosting package to allow for the use of VBulletin, but only afterwards did I notice that the server had PHP version 5.5.38.

I see from the note in the manual that:-

PHP versions prior to php 5.6 are now End Of Life and not supported by PHP. PHP 5.6.X enter end of life on December 31, 2018.

Maybe they can update the PHP, or perhaps move my hosting to another one of their servers that may be running a higher version.

Once again, many thanks for all the info.

[Mark.B]

The mobile suite allows you to produce a branded app for your site. If you search for vBulletin in the App Store / Android Market you'll see the one for this site so you'll see exactly what it does.

However, vBulletin 5 features a fully responsive style out of the box, without needing to purchase the mobile suite. Again, view this site on a mobile phone web browser and you'll see it in action.

In short some people prefer using dedicated apps - in which case, buy the suite - others prefer a browser experience on their mobile device, in which case don't.

NB - for the mobile suite, it's important to realise you'll need an Android Developers account, plus a computer running Mac OSX and an Apple developer account.
From there you build the application in the members area for vBulletin, download the apps, sign them, and deliver them to the respected app stores.

[NiteCore]

Hi.

I'm a bit confused about what to purchase.

I am thinking of setting up a forum using VBulletin 5 Connect, and looking at the sales info seems to suggest that the script can cope with PC based browsers/users and mobile phone users alike.

But then I see that there is an additional mobile suite available, the sales pitch seems to suggest that the suite is needed to create/produce apps to allow mobile phone users to interact with a forum.

So my question is, must I purchase a mobile suite licence as well as the main VB5 Connect licence if I want mobile users to access my planned site?

Or, is the mobile suite only needed if I wanted to develop some 'magical' app to allow users to access my site in some 'special' way?

Or is the answer a little bit of both of the above?


Thanks in advance!