Keeping a non-live WP site hidden

[Alien]

What does everyone do or use (if anything) when you're working on a live Wordpress site before actual launch?

Do you use plugins to allow you to build the site from the backend but displays a public 'coming soon' etc page (to public and search engines) or do you build offline and transfer over when complete?

Are there plugins that do this sort of thing that people can recommend?

Thanks all.

 

[Paullas]

i just password protect the root folder until i am ready to open the site im working on.

 

[Alien]

i just password protect the root folder until i am ready to open the site im working on.

Ahhh, thanks Paul, I forgot the obvious and easiest method! LOL.

 

[murph]

Can easily ip restrict in htaccess too. Best to route to a coming soon or under maintenance page with correct http status code too.

 

[peter_w]

I just have two themes on the site. The activated theme shows some kind of coming soon page (with or without a mailing list sign up, depending on what you are doing), while I actively work on the inactive theme which you can view via the "preview" link on the themes page. If you right click on it and open it in a new tab, it works just like the "live" website.

 

[Aiden Roberts]

I just have two themes on the site. The activated theme shows some kind of coming soon page (with or without a mailing list sign up, depending on what you are doing), while I actively work on the inactive theme which you can view via the "preview" link on the themes page. If you right click on it and open it in a new tab, it works just like the "live" website.

Well I didn't know that, nice one.

Aiden

 

[peter_w]

Well I didn't know that, nice one.

Aiden

The only thing you have to be concious of is the functions.php file. If you use any custom post types and such forth (anything advanced that you have to manually create via a function), you will need the same functions.php in both themes in order for the Dashboard to have the correct menus so you can add posts etc.

 

[retired_member21]

Think wordpress has a maintenance mode too? Perhaps you could activate this (used during updates)

 

[boxfish]

I change my hosts file on my PC to point at the hosting package I'm working on. I point the nameservers somewhere else until I'm ready to launch.

 

[viceroy]

Just use the 'maintenance mode' plugin?

 

[Alien]

Thanks all, some great ideas there.

I like Peter's - that way I can display a countdown type page, collect e-mail sign-ups etc and work on the site behind closed doors.

 

[retired_member33]

There are a lot of Coming Soon Wordpress theme, here is an overview:

http://inspirationfeed.com/inspirat...-creative-coming-soon-pages-wordpress-themes/