How to maintain a demo version of an application?
- by O.O
I need to be able to demo our production application to prospective clients. The way I have it setup today is simple. The demo application is an exact duplicate of the production system, except that the data in the database is obfuscated to protect our current clients' data. This works great because it doesn't require any application changes.
Boss dropped a potential BOMBSHELL today and said that the demo system needs to contain a special link and that ONLY shows up on demo. He went on to explain that in the future there may be much bigger differences between the demo and production apps (e.g. an entire area of functionality). What do I do now?
Some things I have thought about doing:
Maintain a different branch in subversion specific to the demo system
Create an installation package that has the changes for demo, then revert and build a production installation package
Modularize the application (no idea how)
Say: "Screw you! I will not do it!" (LOL)
Use some sort of conditional logic in the app to determine if it is a demo or a production app. E.g. (if the URL contains 'demo' then show else hide).
If you haven't guessed by now, this is a web application
Anyways, I have no experience in this scenario as to which one is better or if none of these are any good. Anyone have an answer, strategy, something!?
