Taking the website temporarily offline

There may be occasions when you will make your Joomla! website completely unavailable to visitorsfor a short time. There is a simple switch in the Administrator back-end that enables you to take your website offline very quickly. It can be returned to service at a later time just as easily.

To take your Joomla! website temporarily offline

To make your Joomla! website unavailable to visitors, replacing it with a simple message, do this:

1. Log in to the Administrator back-end. To learn how to do this read: Logging in or out of the Administrator back-end.
2. Click on the Global Configuration button in the main Control Panel or click the Site > Global Configuration menu item.
3. There are so many configuration options that they need to be divided into separate groups or tabs. Click on the Site tab.
4. Find where it says Site Offline and change the radio button from No to Yes (see the screenshot below).
5. Optional: Change the Offline Message to give your visitors some explanation about why your website is unavailable.
6. Click the Save or Apply toolbar button to implement the new settings:
   • The Save toolbar button will save your changes and return you to the Administrator Control Panel.
   • The Apply button will save your changes but leave you in Global Configuration.
7. You should see a blue message: "The Global Configuration details have been updated." which confirms that your changes have been saved. Visitors to your website will now see a page with the Joomla! logo and your offline message.
   • If you see a red error message refer to Cannot save Global Configuration changes.

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To put your Joomla! website back online

1. Log in to Administrator back-end. To learn how to do this read: Logging in or out of the Administrator back-end.
2. Click on the Global Configuration button in the main Control Panel or click the Site > Global Configuration menu item.
3. There are so many configuration options that they need to be divided into separate groups or tabs. Click on the Site tab.
4. Find where it says Site Offline and change the radio button from Yes to No.
5. Click the Save or Apply toolbar button to implement the new settings:
   • The Save toolbar button will save your changes and return you to the Administrator Control Panel.
   • The Apply button will save your changes but leave you in Global Configuration.
6. You should see a blue message: "The Global Configuration details have been updated." which confirms that your changes have been saved. Your website will now be back in service.
   • If you see a red error message refer to Cannot save Global Configuration changes.

Note that you can display a customized page during the time that your site is offline. To do so, create a file called "offline.php" and place the file in the home directory of your template. For example, if you are using the rhuk_milkyway template, the offline.php file would go in the directory "<Joomla! home>/teamplates/rhuk_milkyway/".

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Using the htaccess method (cpanel)

You can limit access to certain resources of your website by password protecting the directories they are in.

To password protect directory with CPanel Hosting Control Panel:-

Login into your CPanel and click on Password Protect Directories

Once you click on Password Protect Directories, you will see a list of directories

Click on the directory that you wish to password protect

Fill in a Username and Password at the bottom of the page, and click Add / modify authorized user

Once user created successfully, just click “Go Back”

Now, Check the Directory requires a password to access via the web

Fill in Protected Resource Name, actually this is just the message that will show in the login window then, Highlight the user you just created from the Active Users list and click on Save button below the Protected Resource Name

To ensure you directory has been password protected, launch you browser and visit the folder, if browser prompt you to login, your directory has been protected by password!