A friend of mine has a business and they would like me to take over their site for them.  Their current site is in EE and they are very familiar with making some updates, but not all the ones they would like to make.  They want a complete redesign and I have not used EE before.  I have been on your site frequently the last couple of weeks learning what I can, but my questions are - if they want a redesign instead of just updates, do I need to have a copy of EE and will that enable me to redesign their site.  Also, I am assuming that, if I need it, I would need the commercial license, but I just wasn’t sure.  It is a small business with just two owners on staff and then me, so I didn’t know if the Freelancer license would work.
Thanks!  I look forward to learning EE. 

Kelley

Hi Kelley,

If you have a quick read of the License Agreement: http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/license.html you’ll notice this gem:

An ExpressionEngine license purchase allows a single “live” installation in a production environment and ancillary “development use only” installations as needed to support the live installation (such as development and a staging servers).

So you’re well within the license terms to use your friend’s license, for development purposes only.

Neither of them has the “live” installation.  The site was built for them 3 or 4 years ago by someone else who had the installation.

Hey DopeysWife,

You client just needs to give you access to the Control Panel so that you can get to the templates to update them with your new design.

If they currently have an ExpressionEngine site then they must have a license. You will see the license number in the Control Panel under Admin -> General Configuration. The bottom of the Control Panel will also tell you if it’s Freelancer or not.

What version of ExpressionEngine are they currently running?

If they want to upgrade at the same time they are doing an upgrade, that’s not a bad idea.

Depending on when they purchased ExpressionEngine, they may be able to download their version for you to install and try on your own.

Does that help?

Cheers,

Thanks Shane.

They are running EE 1.7.3.  I found the license number, but I don’t see what type of license they have.  Should I assume that updating from this version would be recommended?  I enjoy learning new software, but I don’t want to teach myself this version if the update would change what I’m learning.

Hi DopeysWife,

In the Control Panel located in the footer it will say Freelancer or it won’t. At that point you know that you have a Non-Commercial or Commercial license. You can also email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to get the details, just include the license number. But your client should already have a login for the forums here as well as information on the license.

If you have been reading through our docs, they are actually for the latest version, which is 2.5.2. You do not need to upgrade, was just mentioning it because of the redesign. Totally up to you.

Is there anything else I can help you?

Cheers,

Shane…you have been wonderful, thank you!  It does not say “Freelance” anywhere, so I’m pretty sure they have the commercial.  I’ve asked them questions but…they are not exactly the tech type.  Usually I get fairly blank stares when I ask them things. 

Thanks for all of your help!

Hey DopeysWife,

It’s my pleasure! I am really glad to help!

Any more questions?

Cheers,