Users

Viewing Offline Pages

hearty fare

Client View Offline Page

How to let your client preview a page when the site is offline, without being logged in. This tip comes from the Sepia River Blog, via donshakespeare in a Slack conversation.

neoneddy asked...

Anyone know of a good way to share a preview URL in MODx without its being public?

The Solution:

sepiariver says...

For a "quick-and-dirty" method, use a plugin:

    if ($modx->context->get('key') === 'mgr') return;

    switch ($modx->event->name) {
      case 'OnHandleRequest':
        if ($_GET['my-secret-get-var'] === 'my-secret-value') $modx->config['site_status'] = 1;
        break;
      default:
        break;
    }
  

What's the Story?

The best place for a full explanation of what this does is the Sepia River blog post.

Basically, you give the client a link to the page including a specific request variable. When that URL is requested, it's checked to see if it has the correct variable, and if it does, the site_status setting is temporarily set to 1 - the site is taken online just for that page request.

P.S. Don't forget to check the OnHandleRequest checkbox in the plugin's System Events tab!