How can I temporary turn off a static page?

Question

I have a static web page that I need to turn off, I don't want to delete the file though because there is a good chance I will need to turn it back on in the future. How can I do this?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Rename / move it to a filename/folder that the web server will not serve (good point Richard)

Answer 2

If you want the page to no longer be served, why not just rename it to file.html.disabled or something? When you want to continue serving it again, rename it back?

Answer 3

You can use an .htaccess file to redirect it:

rewriteengine on
rewriterule ^static-page.html$ relocate-here.html [L]

Answer 4

You should be having it in your source control(?) then remove it and add it when you need it. Or Rename it as Rob said.

Answer 5

If the page you are wanting to temporarily 'hide' is a php page, you could do something like this at the top of that php file you want to 'hide'.

<?php 
header('Location: http://www.example.com/not_available.html');
die();
?>

Just replace the url after Location: to a placeholder page of your choosing.

There are other HTTP header tricks you could do, like returning a 404, 503, etc.

http://phpweby.com/tutorials/php/35

You could also use the .htaccess trick suggested by @andrew-g-johnson, using the .htaccess file shouldn't have much of an impact performance wise, especially compared to doing it inside PHP.