Disable Sitecore content testing functionality for CMS mode only

Content tests let you test alternative variants of your website's content to find out which pages, components, or combinations of components are the most effective with visitors. The content or components that you are comparing in a test should be designed to achieve the same goal. 

Content testing is not working properly with CMS mode only. In other words, if you are disabling the analytical function (xDB).

First of all, let me list down the software versions that I used in this article

• Sitecore Experience Platform 8.1 rev. 160519 (8.1 Update-3)
• Solr 4.10.4 - recommended Solr version for Sitecore 8.1

To disable content testing you should patch one of the Sitecore settings called ContentTesting.AutomaticContentTesting.Enabled. You will need to set this value to false

Moreover, you can find few exceptions on crawling log files

4352 12:15:39 WARN  Could not compute value for ComputedIndexField: impact for indexable: sitecore://master/{110D559F-DEA5-42EA-9C1C-8A5DF7E70EF9}?lang=en&ver=1

Exception: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException

Message: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.

Source: mscorlib

   at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethod(Object target, Object[] arguments, Signature sig, Boolean constructor)

   at System.Reflection.RuntimeConstructorInfo.Invoke(BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture)

   at Sitecore.Reflection.ReflectionUtil.CreateObject(Type type, Object[] parameters)

   at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateFromTypeName(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert)

   at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateObject(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert, IFactoryHelper helper)

   at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.GetInnerObject(XmlNode paramNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert)

   at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.AssignProperties(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Object obj, Boolean assert, Boolean deferred, IFactoryHelper helper)

   at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateObject(XmlNode configNode, String[] parameters, Boolean assert, IFactoryHelper helper)

   at Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.CreateObject(String configPath, String[] parameters, Boolean assert)

   at Sitecore.Analytics.Reporting.ReportingQueryBase..ctor(ReportDataProviderBase reportProvider, CachingPolicy cachingPolicy)

   at Sitecore.ContentTesting.Analytics.Reporting.TimeRangeItemBasedReportingQuery..ctor(ID queryItemId, ReportDataProviderBase reportProvider, CachingPolicy cachingPolicy)

   at Sitecore.ContentTesting.Analytics.Reporting.TestPotentialQuery..ctor(ReportDataProviderBase reportProvider)

   at Sitecore.ContentTesting.ContentSearch.ComputedIndexFields.TestPotentialMetricBase.ComputeFieldValue(IIndexable indexable)

   at Sitecore.ContentSearch.SolrProvider.SolrDocumentBuilder.AddComputedIndexField(IComputedIndexField computedIndexField, ParallelLoopState parallelLoopState, ConcurrentQueue`1 exceptions)

Nested Exception

Exception: System.NullReferenceException

Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Source: Sitecore.Analytics.MongoDB

   at Sitecore.Analytics.Reporting.MongoDbReportDataSource..ctor(String connectionStringName)

These exceptions are related to three computed fields that Sitecore is trying to index them. You can find these fields on the below files 

• \App_Config\Include\ContentTesting\Sitecore.ContentTesting.Solr.IndexConfiguration.config - If you are using Solr
• \App_Config\Include\ContentTesting\Sitecore.ContentTesting.Lucene.IndexConfiguration.config - if you are using Lucene

Fields names are:

• impact
• potential
• recommendation

In order to remove these exceptions you have to remove these lines form the above mentioned files, or follow the Sitecore best practices and create a separate config file under Include folder that will be responsible for removing these fields.

I've created these config files to make it easier for you :)

• If you are using Solr, please use zz.Disable.Content.Testing.Solr.config
• If you are using Lucene, please use zz.Disable.Content.Testing.Lucene.config 

Downloads:

• zz.Disable.Content.Testing.Lucene.config
• zz.Disable.Content.Testing.Solr.config