Re: shutting down a web app for maintenance

Hi Jon, Thanks for the response. What would these solutions mean in regards to users who are active at the moment that the .htaccess file is added? Would it be wise to force some kind of logout, destruction of open sessions, etc. I guess there is no simple, graceful way to allow users to complete whatever they are doing and then kick them off while preventing new users from logging in. I was thinking for example, what if someone is in the process of uploading a file to the web app host or filling out step 2 of a 4 part membership form or something that requires multiple steps. - Ben On 6/20/06, Jon Anderson <jon@gamingsolutions.ca> wrote:

Assuming you're using a web server that supports htaccess files, you could easily just pop in a .htaccess file that denies access to everything. You could even add a PHP ini directive like: php_value auto_prepend_file "maintenance.php" where maintenance.php could contain something like: <html><head><title>Down for Maintenance</title></head><body>Site down for maintenance!</body></html> <?php exit(0); ?> (Or, to be sure, you could do both.) jon Ben Liu wrote: Hello All, I'm not sure this is strictly a PHP related question or perhaps a server admin question as well. What do you do when you are trying to shutdown a web application for maintenance (like a membership or registration-required system)? I understand that you can temporarily upload or activate a holding page that prevents users from continuing to login/use the system, but how can you insure that there are no ongoing sessions or users still in the process of doing something? What's the best method for handling this, especially if you don't have full control of the server hosting the web app? Thanks for any advice, - Ben