Maintenance Mode: All about, how to

Introduction

Maintenance Mode is an included plugin that lets you disable your site and put up an "under construction" message instead.

Features

Testing

In 2.3, Maintenance Mode makes the site viewable by you, as long as you are logged in, which is great if you want to make changes to your theme or update your portfolio and test it out before going live.

Customization

Also new in 2.3 is the ability to customize the message. You now get full control over how the page looks - simply create a file called layout_maintenance.php in your theme's folder, and Maintenance Mode will use this layout. You can use any template tag in this layout, so you can pull in content if you want.

Features in 2.2

In version 2.2, Maintenance Mode simply disabled your site and displayed the message, "Down for maintenance! Will return shortly." This was not customizable in any way without modifying the plugin.

How to turn on Maintenance Mode

• Go to Settings > General Settings and scroll down to the Site Settings section.
• Check the "Turn on Maintenance Mode" checkbox
• Click save and you're done!