I am doing a total makeover of my site. Besides finally switching to one of the advanced designs, I am deleting pages, revising or totally replacing some existing pages and adding new pages. Although the pages look good in preview mode, I would like to test them and be able to have my root admin view them “live” without making them available to the class.

Is there a “test mode” where I can make the site only available to me and my root admin for short periods of time? I suspect not, but I thought I would ask anyway.

Jim

Unfortunately no. You do have the Preview In New Window or Tab option, but that is all we have at this time. Alternatively, you could build a page in the in active mode that you save a link to so that you can get to it during development and then simply swap out the pages when ready.

One can't have the links "hot" but one can share the page content though merely by giving the other admin the LINK URL (the one in the edit link). Doesn't have to be active.

That's what I do even for myself

(P.S. that's sort of what Scott said - I'm just explaining that functionally that gives your admin a full view of what you are doing.)

Thanks Scott for your quick reply.

Unfortunately, I do not understand your proposed alternative. Sounds like my best bet is to go live during the middle of the night when nobody is likely to log on, then go back to the current pages.

Jim

I also want to experiment with alternate site design in a test mode. Preview a single page does not seem sufficient. This would be a useful feature as I learn to use more features.

Jim and phm,

I have been one to test site designs. I had someone on the phone and as I switched designs, they refreshed the page. That is how I managed that one. It may not work for all, that is understood.

In regards to pages, what I suggest - no matter who has the root role:

1) Go ahead and make your page.
2) Do NOT make it active.
3) Your admin then comes into Edit Site Pages and clicks on PREVIEW. This is how they can view the page.

This is the easiest way for each of you to proof the others' work, which is a good idea!

Jim, do you see a difference between the Preview mode and live when viewing a page?

Original post edited to include site design. - gwen

I get the feeling that my explanation is not being understood?

Here's what I mean by just giving the LINK to the page that is NOT active. No need to preview or make it active/inactive. It will show up the same as 'active'.

That's actually how I refine pages on CC. I do NOT use preview since it's clumsier.

1. I'm in the editor for some page making changes.
2. I open another tab, paste in the link of the new page and open it.
3. I make edit changes and save
4. I refresh the other tab and see how it looks.

This avoids a lot of back and forth paging.

Here's an example of a page that I did a long time ago for this forum for how to put image inside of an image click LINK (note this doesn't work if you are not logged in as an admin atm, but that's really a bug on CC's part - see below)

That's exactly the sort of link you would send to another admin or classmate you wanted feedback from. It is also much safer since it avoid accidents.

You can do that for ANY page active or not. Gallery too. And now even Surveys. IOW, you can create your work and then send LINKS to all your pages that are easily then previewed directly.

(Hold on a second - CC made this not work if not on site as an admin - so none of you can see this, but my admins can. Let me check - I know galleries still work - and Surveys were fixed.)

Here's a SURVEY that is not active

Here's a GALLERY page that is not active

So that's a bug in my book

Gwen,

I have composed all of my pages in MS Word, then sent them to my root for review and comment. That works well, except some graphics do not work in Word. I have already created some of the new website pages to match the Word documents and made them inactive so that the root will be able to go in and preview them at her convenience. I should have all website pages created in a few days.

Going live gives us the following capabilities that we do not have using the Preview Mode:

1. See the entire home page at once as it is composed of separate announcements which can only be previewed one at a time.

2. See how the home page layout looks with the addition of items in the right column that are not currently active and, if necessary, make adjustments.

3. View an entire page with the new advanced design. I did send her the top of the page as a jpeg file.

I do not mind going live to accomplish these items, but I do not want to be live when a member logs in. That is why I was hoping that there was a test mode. Like I said above, I can do this in the middle of the night.

Jim

I see, there are announcements involved. Different solution - one that can do all 3 by doing the following:

1. Go Live with all the stuff you want to show
2. Use the Source Mode of the editor (I meant BROWSER - sorry) to see the page (with everything active).
3. Turn off Live so nobody sees your work in progress
4. From the source shown, select All (Ctrl+A) and then copy (Ctrl+C).
5. Open notepad and Paste (Ctrl+V)
6. Save As TestPage.htm (or similar) now for safety
7. Insert the following after head near the top of the page<base href="http://www.classcreator.com/" target="_blank">
8. Save again.

Now just send this file to anybody you want to show it to. You could even upload it to your file vault and send a link.

They will see the page exactly as shown.

Once past the initial first time drill takes about 1 minute to create this sample page. I'll post a link showing the result in a sec

And here's the LINK showing what I mean.

Hi Jim,

I understand. How about adding an "Under Construction" sign or notice at the top of your home page? Make it an announcement you can turn on and off... and continue to do so until you are done. That way IF a member happens onto the site when a test page is active, there is an explanation when there is another change.

You could include visitors in this by adding a survey to the announcement. If they log in when the test is active, let them weigh in on what they see.... or not. Since you are not the root, the idea may not be a good one for your site.

Back to an UNDER CONSTRUCTION sign... I'm going to use this next time. It takes away the thinking you have to rush to hide the page before a member logs in.

I got 12 of them too. Must be very important

I'm sure it was a 'gremlin' in the system. I got them too.
CC was down for a few minutes it appears, then things were back to normal.

Life Is Good!

The only notification I received today regarding this thread was for Debbie's post at 2:14 PM (PDT). I should have receive notifications for the two that followed.

Jim

There is a grey cat prowling around CC. It must have gotten into the system.

Jim - You appear to be showing up properly now in the forums.

Thanks, Scott for fixing that problem, but I have a bigger problem with my e-mail. I try contacting you again.

Jim