Maintenance Mode plugin – an unknown gem?
There are times when you may need to take your blog temporarily offline. You may have made some slight changes to the CSS file and everything has gone horribly wrong, or perhaps a newly installed plugin has broken your site. There may be other reasons too…
One of the better ways to stop people accessing your site at such times is through the use of the Maintenance Mode plugin.
The Maintenance Mode plugin is very simple and very useful. You might not use it often, but it is a good plugin to know about and I recommend you have it pre-installed on your blog in the hope that you never need to use it in an emergency.
What does it do?
It stops people who are not logged into your site from accessing it, and places a splash page on the home page saying the site is currently undergoing maintenance (see the image at the top of the post). The home page message is completely customizable, so you can tell people about your CSS deficiency or plugin horror if you wish.
The default message on the home states the site will be back up in one hour (and it specifies the time). If this is unlikely and you have regular readers, you can change it to something more suitable – three hours or two days; whatever you want.
The two images below show the options for how long you would like the site to stay in maintenance mode and the customizable text for the home page. Click on them for a better view.
Once activated, test the plugin is working with a different browser to the one you are using. Because you’re logged in, the site looks like it is still live. Alternatively, log out for testing, then log back in.
When the site is in maintenance mode it works normally for all admin users. You can create posts, add tags and fix problems. At the top of the WordPress admin area there is a message reminding you to deactivate the plugin when you’re done, which is quite handy as it is easy to forget the site is in maintenance mode if you have been working on it for a while.
All in all, a really useful plugin that you tend not to see on peoples’ Top Ten Essential WordPress Plugins lists.
Plugin author – Michael Wöhrer
Maintenance Mode plugin – homepage
More plugins by Michael Wöhrer
Hey Stephen,
This is just exactly what I’m looking for, though I’m not sure how to search for it through wp plugins :) I was planning to change my personal blog’s theme and someone mentioned to me before that there’s a plugin that can allow administrators to do extreme changes from the backend of the wp blog while the frontend is still visible to visitors (though it will display the unchanged version of the blog). Not sure what the plugin’s name is, but I’ll try to search it over :)
By the way, what theme are you using? I kinda like it.
Regards,
Jason
Hi Jason,
If you search for “Maintenance Mode” from within WordPress it should show up at the top of the list – it’s a really handy plugin to have.
Glad you like the theme! It’s actually Twenty Ten; the new default WordPress theme. I’ve made a few changes to the CSS code, but not many. Mostly font sizes, background colours, link colours, the menu etc.
Wow, I didn’t notice that this was Twenty-ten. I may have to try tweaking that myself.
Do you think it’s possible to add a border on this theme? like on most thesis theme?
Thanks for the awesome idea Stephen :)
Regards,
Jason
Yes, I would have thought so. I haven’t looked into the possibilities of adding borders, but I don’t see why that should be a problem.
Give me a shout if you need any help.
Definitely an unknown gem! Maintenance mode is a must for all of the serious bloggers out there.
Hi Alex,
Thanks for commenting – absolutely agree!