Can I hide my Wordpress site until it is ready?

[LesB]

I know someone developing a site hosted by GoDaddy with a packaged Wordpress package. He is not specifically a web developer but that's not something I had influence over. Anyway, the site is being created and while it is looking good, it's actually published on the web for anyone to see, warts and all. That's not desirable at all!

Is there a simple way of having it published so that only a limited number of people can see it for review? Ideally, the current domain.com address would be used for a basic landing page with the basic name and contact details of our club with access to the site being developed either behind it or elsewhere.

I know this is a pretty dumb question and you'll say it should be being done by someone more skilled in the art but it's what it is. Sorry.

[mlseim]

You need to use a maintenance mode plugin:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-maintenance-mode/

Using that, anyone who views the site will see the splash screen.

Anyone that logs-in as admin, will see the real site, that they are working on.

There are other ways too ... I think there is a radio button in the admin dashboard settings to just set it to "maintenance mode". But using the plugin will have more options and look better.

[LesB]

You need to use a maintenance mode plugin:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-maintenance-mode/

Using that, anyone who views the site will see the splash screen.

Anyone that logs-in as admin, will see the real site, that they are working on.

There are other ways too ... I think there is a radio button in the admin dashboard settings to just set it to "maintenance mode". But using the plugin will have more options and look better.

Thanks for that. We'll look into it.

[Ronald Roe]

No real need for a plugin. Just create a file with no filename, but the extension .maintenance. Similar to how the .htaccess file is named.

In that file, add this code:

<?php $upgrading = time(); ?>

Put the file in the root of the Wordpress install.

Then just delete the file when you're ready to go live.

[LesB]

No real need for a plugin. Just create a file with no filename, but the extension .maintenance. Similar to how the .htaccess file is named.

In that file, add this code:

<?php $upgrading = time(); ?>

Put the file in the root of the Wordpress install.

Then just delete the file when you're ready to go live.

Thanks Ron. We're exploring the plugins at the moment and it seems to be just what we need. The site will be off line for quite a while so having something that directs people to our facebook page meanwhile seems to be an ideal option. In addition, having password access by editors or admin that are at a different location is great too.

I have to add here that having just joined this forum I'm really pleased to have had this positive feedback Much appreciated.

[teccrowd]

I also want to know about this.

[turboguy]

Teccrowd, there are basically three options and just in case it helps someone I will cover all three.

1. Maintenance mode. I won't talk about this since it has been covered a lot but basically you can put your site in maintenance mode until it is ready.

2. A staging area. Some hosts but not a lot have a staging area where you can build your site until it is ready to go live. I would say that only 5-10% of hosts offer this but there are some.

3. Building the site on your computer and uploading it to a host when you are ready. This involves more than just installing Wordpress on your computer. You need to install some other things such as PHP, MySql and Apache but there are one click installs to do that. When you upload the site there are changes you need to make and there are YouTube vidoes that can talk you though it.