Temporarily Close a Site for Maintenance

[Miko]

Is'nt the simple solution to just simply change the menu page to read something like contact the restaurant for updated menu, or words to that effect. This way the site stays live without issues.

[Egg Bramhill]

Yes but remember regular visitors will not be automatically be downloading the latest site, but one from their computers cache. So unless these visitors press Ctrl+F5 they still get the old version. At least that's my understanding ...

[Miko]

When I visit a regular site I don't press Ctrl+F5 each time. What would be the point in updating your site if all that everyone got was an old version? When I visit a regular site I get an updated version.

[Acorn]

When I visit a regular site I don't press Ctrl+F5 each time. What would be the point in updating your site if all that everyone got was an old version? When I visit a regular site I get an updated version.

The changed page can include an HTML META to force a refresh for everyone.

Acorn

[Egg Bramhill]

The changed page can include an HTML META to force a refresh for everyone.

@ Acorn: Agree Acorn but how many Xara users know how & why to do this?

@ Miko:

When I visit a regular site I get an updated version.

No you don't necessarily, you would normally load a cached version of the site from your local computer from your previous visit. So unless you change the meta info as Acorn suggests the old site will be rendered.

[Miko]

So, yesterday I needed to add some information to my site. I opened Xara, I then added some information to one page. I saved the site to a local folder. I then uploaded just the changed page to my server. I then opened my web browser and went to my site. I then went to the page that I had updated and low and behold there was the updated page. I would suggest that the OP do just the same.

[Acorn]

So, yesterday I needed to add some information to my site. I opened Xara, I then added some information to one page. I saved the site to a local folder. I then uploaded just the changed page to my server. I then opened my web browser and went to my site. I then went to the page that I had updated and low and behold there was the updated page. I would suggest that the OP do just the same.

If you are making changing that you know will only affect the page HTM than yes that is possible. Add an image or change an NavBar or repeating object and you are sunk.

Acorn

[flip]

Yes but remember regular visitors will not be automatically be downloading the latest site, but one from their computers cache. So unless these visitors press Ctrl+F5 they still get the old version. At least that's my understanding ...

But isn't this always a problem? I maintain a school website and if users don't load the latest version of say the school diary, and the old one is cached, they just see the old information. Trouble is that not many users even know how to refresh and work round the cache.

Philip

[Egg Bramhill]

That's when .htaccess expire headers come into their own. Something like a diary needs a very short shelf life. So if the diary was a pdf file:

ExpiresByType application/pdf "access plus 1 day"

Or place the following on the page head placeholder as suggested by Acorn:

<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate" />
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" />
<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="0" />