How to develop modX site at root with existing index.php splash page

Hi,

This might be a total noob question....Please bear with me. I have installed modx-1.0.0 and i have prepared my first html template design for conversion to modX template. There is an existing splash-page at the root which i preserved at modX install. How would you suggest approaching development of the site behind the (curtain so to speak). I need to preserve the splash-page’s php functionality until site launch. I do not wish to covert the existing splash page to modX as it is actually a complicated design mixed with php that will disappear as soon as the modX site is released.

Thank you...

Is there a reason why you do not want to use a staging folder?

Quote from: pseudorad10 at Sep 17, 2009, 02:52 PM

Hi,

This might be a total noob question....Please bear with me. I have installed modx-1.0.0 and i have prepared my first html template design for conversion to modX template. There is an existing splash-page at the root which i preserved at modX install. How would you suggest approaching development of the site behind the (curtain so to speak). I need to preserve the splash-page’s php functionality until site launch. I do not wish to covert the existing splash page to modX as it is actually a complicated design mixed with php that will disappear as soon as the modX site is released.

Thank you...

It should be easy to convert it to MODx and you can set it as your offline page. Set the site to offline and it will show.

Alternatively, you can change Apache to look at a different file besides index.php and you can rename your splash page to that, i.e. splash.php.

Since i’m new to modX...i just didnt want to complicate anything on my first install...so i installed to the root dir where it seemed to belong? I am totally open to suggestions as to what is the preferred method.

Here’s how I do it:

1. create a staging folder Eg:staging
2. install modx into it
3. develop the website there
4. when ready move everything from the staging into the root folder(make sure you backup). I usualy drag and drop in my ftp tool.
5. go to tools configuration and update the path for File Manager and Interface&Features
6. If you changed something into the htacces file please update accordingly

PS: If you use hardcoded paths in your snippets make sure you update those to.

Thank you for all of your suggestions and quick responses. I initially tried the conversion of the splash page...but due to my noob status and relative complexity of the "splash page"
(sounds silly as i write this) I couldnt get that to work initially. I think it resulted from issues with headers, i had php code prior to any html. I decided that it wasnt worth the investment of time to do the conversion on something i was just going to toss in the garbage at site launch.

Next modX install i will follow cipa’s suggestion on using a staging area. In this instance however, I am going to pursuit OpenGeek’s suggestion and have apache load spash.php via .htaccess until launch. Why didnt i think of that!!

Thank you so much for your suggestions!!