When starting a new project and developing it online, it is a good idea to hide it while working on it to conceal it from your competitors or from the viewers that may be expecting a launch until you feel confident enough to launch it.
There is a couple of ways you can do that, and in this article, we will go over them.
Maintenance plugin or module
All of the open-source applications out there, such as WordPress, Magento, Open-Cart, or Drupal, have either a built-in maintenance functionality or a plugin/module which adds it. Typically, the "maintenance" sign can be modified to match your needs. For example, you can change it to "coming soon", "awaiting release", or something similar. What will happen is this will be loaded on your website each time someone visits it, covering the content until it has been entirely deployed or meets your quality expectations. These plugins or modules can be found on the official repositories of each application. Here are some examples:
Set up password protection on the website
Password protecting a directory will prevent access unless a username and password are provided in the login form when the specific URL is accessed. This option is convenient as you can give access to yourself, your developers, or associates, allowing free browsing while preventing everyone else. We have a great tutorial on the matter which you should check here.
Block all IP addresses from accessing, allow only specific IP addresses
This method is another alternative to prevent people from visiting the site. It revolves around setting up a deny rule in your .htaccess file that will either block or allow visitors based on their IP address. The process of configuring this explained thoroughly in our knowledge base article here.
Setup a custom index page
The last method we are going to discuss is setting up a custom index page To create this, you will need to know HTML, or you can employ a web designer who can build the page for you. All you need to do once you have it is to place this newly created index.html file within the root directory of the domain. The web server will show it to the visitors next time it is accessed. If your website's original index file is called index.html as well, you can rename it to index.html-original until you finish developing the site.
Can HostArmada assist me with setting up my page?
Absolutely! You can request our technical support for assistance regarding the installation of your maintenance plugin, setting up your password-protected directory, or configuring the deny/allow rules in your .htaccess file. The only thing we will not be able to assist you with is the custom index.html file, as we purely specialize in hosting services. Development assistance and web design are beyond our scope of expertise.
