I am getting ready to develop a new site with a new domain name. I don’t want the "new" site to be seen to the public, and want an easy transition to move it live when it is ready.
What is the best way to develop this site so that I can easily see it, but not have it visible to the public? Put it in a subfolder and password it? Any suggestions or experiences you can pass along?
Thanks!
I usually just password-protect the whole domain using .htaccess. That keeps people who don’t have the password (and search engines) from accessing it until you’re ready and it allows you to set up al of the URLs exactly as they will be in the final site. However you need to be sure that the URL isn’t already being indexed by search engines if you do this, since if they try to index your site and fail several times they might remove it from their index altogether.
I usually develop it locally on Xampp and then move it to the remote site when it’s good enough to be seen. It takes fewer steps to use ZAP’s method and you don’t have to go through the pain of dumping the database and exporting it to the remote site. But the development and testing goes a little faster on my local machine. I think it’s really a matter of personal preference.
The subdirectory route is good if you already have a non-MODx site there that you’re replacing.
Bob
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You can also use the "site unavailable" settings in the Configuration. A logged in manager user will still see the whole site, anyone else will only see the page you specify as the "site unavailable" page.
Great tips guys and gals!
I already have the site about 1/2 way complete locally with XAMPP, and want to move it to the server for further testing and completion.
How would I password protect it with .htaccess?
@Sottwell, once I am logged in to the manager, would I just need to use the preview feature to open a new tab in Firefox to continue working while the "unavailable" page is up for public access?
Thanks!
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Take your pick...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=password+protect+htaccess&btnG=Google+Search
Most hosting control panels offer a quick way to protect directories. In cPanel it is under Web Protect.
As to the second question, yes, once logged in as manager you can have full access to the site...however with the quick edit toolbar and any quick edit ’buttons’ that may be active.
Setting the site to unavailable is probably the easiest way if you only need manager users to be able to review the site before launch. I don’t usually like to give our clients manager access unless they’re actually planning to help maintain the site, so that’s why I tend to use .htaccess instead. That way anyone who wants to can review the public site during development as long as they have the temporary username/password.
Thanks to all for the insights! The people of the company have seen the site mockup, I just need to move it over to their server and finish up with content and a few tweeks.
Thank you all, again for you help! Looks like the site unavailable option will work best for me.
