To take down a forum completely, but just for a week...

Started by kennethm, December 12, 2012, 02:21:48 PM

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kennethm

Do you delete the index.php file off the server then upload it when you need the site to become operational again?

Jeremy M.

Quote from: kennethm on December 12, 2012, 02:21:48 PM
Do you delete the index.php file off the server then upload it when you need the site to become operational again?

There's more to that. If you have databases, you will need to transfer the databases to the new host, and make sure your Settings.php has all the new information so it will read to the new host. I'm sure there is more, also.

kennethm

not moving to a new host, just want to make the main page of the forum disappear for a week, the reappear in a week after the overall website (not the forum) undergoes some changes.

Kindred

rename index.php to be index.BAK

write a new index.php which says something like


<html>
<head>
<title>Site is currently offline</title>
</head>
<body>

<p>The site is down for maintenance for this week. We'll be back up next week after we finish all the great changes and upgrades</p>
</body>
</html>
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Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Jeremy M.

Quote from: kennethm on December 12, 2012, 02:30:42 PM
not moving to a new host, just want to make the main page of the forum disappear for a week, the reappear in a week after the overall website (not the forum) undergoes some changes.


Make sure you backup the index.php file. . . But, this is what i get on my website when i delete the "index.php" file in the main directory:


QuoteIndex of /

    Champions/
    PortalStandalone.php
    SSI.php
    SSI.php~
    Settings.php
    Settings_bak.php
    Smileys/
    Sources/
    Themes/
    agreement.txt
    avatars/
    cgi-bin/
    index.php~
    license.txt
    news_readme.html
    readme.html
    ssi_examples.php
    ssi_examples.php~
    ssi_examples.shtml
    ssi_examples.shtml~
    subscriptions.php
    test.txt
    warning.php
    warning_css.css

Apache/2.2.23 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.23 OpenSSL/1.0.0-fips mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_qos/9.74 Server at free-information-help.com Port 80

kat

Why not just put it into maintenance mode and edit the message it gives?

Antechinus

^ This. Just change maintenance mode to 2, and compose a page for the message. You can use any HTML and CSS, and call any files and/or images on your server.

You'll have to do this directly in Settings.php but it's not hard.

kat

Even easier, go to "Server settings" check "Maintenance mode" and edit the messages in the "Subject for display:" and "Message for display:" boxes, just below that.

Piece o' cake. :)

Antechinus

Yes but that admin input has a short limit on content, and no styling to speak of. If you want a professional-looking maintenance page, and if you want the site completely offline (db included) then editing Settings.php is the way to do it. Example I used recently:

########## Maintenance ##########
# Note: If $maintenance is set to 2, the forum will be unusable!  Change it to 0 to fix it.
$maintenance = 2; # Set to 1 to enable Maintenance Mode, 2 to make the forum untouchable. (you'll have to make it 0 again manually!)
$mtitle = 'Maintenance Mode'; # Title for the Maintenance Mode message.
$mmessage = ' <div style="box-shadow: 0 4px 6px rgba(0,0,0,0.35); background: #e0bc98; border: 1px solid #eee; border-radius: 8px; width: 42em; margin: 0 auto; padding: 1em;">
<div style="background: #fff; border: 1px solid #cfcfcf; border-radius: 6px; padding: 0 20px 20px 20px;">
<img src="http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/Themes/Test_theme/images/Outline/logo_2.png" alt="CEMB forum" style="border-radius: 8px; margin-left: -16px;" />
<h4 style="color: #444;">Update</h4>
<p style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.5em;">
Yes, we are offline again, after being on briefly. We have been in email contact with our host.
They think they have diagnosed the problem with the other site, and want to have one more try at fixing it.<br />
They will be contacting us as soon as this database repair run is complete.<br />
It shoud not take too long, and then we will put the forum back online.
</p>
<h4 style="color: #444;">
Please follow our Twitter for updates.
</h4>
<p style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/CEMB_forum" target="_blank" title="CEMB forum on Twitter" style="margin: 0 10px;"><img src="http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/images/Forum_Link_Icons/twitter_small.png" alt="Our Twitter" /></a>
</p>
<p>
The problems have been going on far too long, and as we are as annoyed as you are.<br />
There is nothing we can do though, so it is just a matter of being (extremely) patient.<br />
To keep you entertained in the meantime we are providing a row of our famous parrots.
</p>
<p style="padding: 20px 0 10px 0; text-align: center;">
<img src="http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/Smileys/custom/parrot.gif" alt="parrot" />
<img src="http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/Smileys/custom/parrot.gif" alt="parrot" />
<img src="http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/Smileys/custom/parrot.gif" alt="parrot" />
<img src="http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/Smileys/custom/parrot.gif" alt="parrot" />
<img src="http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/Smileys/custom/parrot.gif" alt="parrot" />
<img src="http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/Smileys/custom/parrot.gif" alt="parrot" />
</p>
<p>
If you get bored with the parrots we would suggest checking again in another hour.
</p>
<p style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.5em;">
Sorry for any inconvenience, but fixing this is up to our host.
</p>
</div>
</div>'; # Description of why the forum is in maintenance mode.

kat

Yeah, of course.

I was working on "Quick, simple and effective is best", for this. :P

Antechinus


kat


kennethm

whoa lol doesnt look as simple as i thought. Yeah i could go into maintenence mode but dont want to, WHAT i want to do is simply kill off the main page of the forum for a week or so. I didnt want to go imto an involved coding or file deletion, db etc etc.

So can i do as suggested by kindred? Just rename the index.php on the server (i have a copy on my computer) then when i want to reactivate the forum just upload the index.php from my computer to the server and all will be fine?

kat

Sure. But, anyone accessing your site is just gonna think it's dead. If you leave some kind of message, they'll try, again. ;)

Kindred

you seem to have missed PART of my instructions.

If that's what you want to do, then you can rename index.php - but you should put a placeholder file in its place.


However, it seems like a stupid way to handle it, since maintenance mode does exactly what you WANT while leaving the forum intact
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

kennethm

right i will make a dummy page index.php page to say the site is down temporarily.

Maintenence mode leaves the main page still viewable, i want to get rid of it totally for a week.

Kindred

not if you set maintenance mode to "2" in Settings.php
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

kat


kennethm

even if i log out and appear as a guest the main page still shows and just says what i typed into the maintenence mode box when i was signed in as the admin. Yje catagories, rooms etc dont show but my logo and ads i have on the main page do.


Kindred

kennethm,

you do not seem to be fully reading what we type.

Setting maintenance mode from the admin panel sets it to condition 1. mostly there, but disabled.

You can open settings.php and change the maintenance mode to "2". This completely disables the forum
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

kennethm

Quote from: Kindred on December 12, 2012, 04:11:48 PM
kennethm,

you do not seem to be fully reading what we type.

Setting maintenance mode from the admin panel sets it to condition 1. mostly there, but disabled.

You can open settings.php and change the maintenance mode to "2". This completely disables the forum

youre right, i was speed reading while at work  ;D

i will open the settings.php and change that to a "2"

thanks for all the help


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