Is there a way to temporarily "close" the store? Looking for the ability to simply "flip a switch" and have everyhting redirect to effectively a "store is temporarily closed/offline" page. during this time the admin section would still fully functional for modifications to the catalog, etc.
 
Am I just missing this in the admin somewhere, or should this be submitted as a feature request?
 
thanks for any pointers.

Hello,
 
At present, it is impossible to do such changes via the Admin panel.
 
We can recommend you to edit the index.php file and insert the necessary information there.
 
With regards
ViArt Support Team

IMHO that would not work. If you have successful search results most of the customers will be sent directly to a product page.
 
I think that editing products.html may be better?

much easier - make an index.html file with a message that the shop is temporary closed and put it in your main folder - all browsers will firstly look for this file to open, when someone goes to your website. Change attributes on all other files to admin only access, so that users do not go there through history option.
Hope that helps

! could be index.htm too.

Kami, I am a little cautious about this.
Certainly from my viewpoint.
I have most of my hits coming from search engines straight into the product pages. It takes a lot of work and time to build SEO and a good web presence and I fear the idea of interrupting this.
Perhaps I worry unnecessarily but I would prefer to leave pages visible and put a bold message across the page. My site, which is not yet live, has a box that drops down the page everytime that it is opened explaining the situation - I can remove this again within a few minutes. - malikstores .co .uk

Just a thought but I'd rather give customers the ability to continue to search & use the site while I'm temporarily closed.
 
I like to let customers "window shop" for those people who browse before they buy anything anyway. besides, there are a lot of features customers could still take advantage even when I'm not processing CC's
 
I wouldn't let customers know we're closed until they actually try to pay. I'd have a message on the Shopping Cart page and possibly suspend it's use.
 
IMO
whittfield

wecreateyou - yes makes sense.
Close the shop and you may find customers just go away.
I probably would not leave the 'suspended' message until the customer gets to the checkout as it may cause real frustration if a customer has spent some time in product selection to find that they cannot actually checkout.
I guess it depends upon the reason to be down - one option is to have a 'phone us' message (or use a contact form) to call if you want to place an order some other way?

Don't know I always feel it is the worst thing to have a shop available for visitors, where they can not buy - most of frustration this way for me, as it leaves the impression I bumped into a half-working/not-working site, which I never wish to come to again. I'm much more content with "shop closed for modernization - will be back by_insert date here_"

As an old Oscommerce user, the ability to close the shop 'for maintenance' and still have the option to work on the store was very useful.
 
Particularly so when I messed up a modification and didn't want to either show a load of php on the access page or a 404. IMHO the customer respects the need to maintain sites and will return after the allotted time.
 
I am going to nip over to OSCommerce and see if adjusting their code would be of any use here. Don't hold your breath, I am not a coder.