Thread

I’m looking to use EE for project of mine that functions similar to a document management repository. I would develop a portal of sorts with EE which my customers could log in to and get access to their documents, manipulate them, share their files with others, etc.

The one line of the EE license that disturbs me is:

Unless you have been granted prior, written consent from EllisLab, Inc., you may not:
  * Use the Software as the basis of a hosted weblogging service, or to provide hosting services to others.

I wouldn’t say I’m providing hosting, but I want each user to log in to their own customized version of my site where they can manage their files. Is this allowed?

Thanks!

-Dan

Greetings, Dan—

Do you have a few more details about how you envisage this working?  Are the files part of a shared, community effort? Does the user have self-management of their little section?

You might also like to look at this kb entry.

If you want to share more details but privately, please feel free to email sales with the details and concerns.

Thanks for the quick response.

Here’s some clarification:
The files being managed contain personal information and are not open to the public. Each user has their own little island of documents that no one else has access to unless that user explicitly grants permission to another user to read them. There’s no community effort, each user is on their own and self-manages their section of the website. The website IS NOT searchable by google, open to the public, and so forth. It’s a private information/document locker. The only exception is that you can grant read access to a set of your documents to others inside the website.

I’ll double check that KB article in a moment…

It does sound like this is the equivalent of a hosted blogging service, so it would not be appropriate for ExpressionEngine. You can confirm with that article, of course. =)

There’s no blogging, or writing of any kind for that matter. Simply posting documents and then logging back in to access them. The user has no control over the interface either.

You’re sure EE would be unsuitable for this?

I read the kb article, I’m 100% sure I’m not making anything like MySpace or Blogger.

Is this something that is private to each user, they’re not sharing the files?  I may be misunderstanding your application.

If it’s a common interface, not a fully separate “property” as such, then you are going to be ok.  It would be good to put together a cohesive, detailed description and pop it over to sales so that it can looked at in its entirety, as I’m not entirely sure that I’m following your project plan.  My apologies. =)

Hi Dguido,

The best thing to do would be a description and send it to sales for review.

Its not just blogging services that are restricted, its hosting services in general. There is a difference between using EE to publish content and using EE as a hosting service, which an information locker could be. Granted, there are a lot of grey areas and we are not license police. Hopefully you can be a little more open through email as to what the service is and how EE will be used.

Thanks.

What is the reason for that limitation btw? Would you offer a custom license (with higher price tag of course) if someone is willing to make all the custom coding and use EE for such a use? Or is it a absolute no?

Right now its an absolute no. There are several reasons for the license restrictions that deal with business, technical, and support issues. These have been discussed somewhat on the forums before; we draw a pretty hard line on the current license. Its very generous for the majority of situations but EE simply isn’t meant to be a hosting application of any kind.

If you’re going to do extensive custom coding and you like EE, you might give serious consideration to CodeIgniter, our open source php framework. CI has its roots in the EE libraries and there is an active community behind it so if you’re looking at custom coding anyway, that would likely be a much better starting point then EE.

Hi Leslie,

I stumbled across this thread and feel that it may relate to something I was intending on doing as well.  Of course, I don’t want to get too far along before realizing I’m breaking any type of licensing agreement.

Could you please check out this thread where we are discussing a similar project and see if I’m within my boundaries?

http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/55158/

Thanks.

The best thing to do, as mentioned in this thread, is to email sales when the license questions get really specific. Thanks.

Right now its an absolute no.

Thanks for your answer Leslie. I’m not planning anything like that, I was just curious about the reason for limitation.

I’m familiar with CI, it’s a beautiful 😉