htaccess rewriting for an “under construction” page.

Quick post. Sorry for the terseness.

You’re running a site on Apache, and while you’re working on it you want the public to see an “under construction” page. The site is visible at a subdomain of your root host, (a typical scenario on Apache, with CPANEL and add-on domains)

Your normal redirection htaccess:
just the basic rule that canonicalizes the domain…



Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !www\.example\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301]

You “Under construction” htaccess:
slightly different. it only canonicalizes the domain with the “www” missing, but does not canonicalize the subdomain. Beware - this should be supplemented by some HTTP authentication… it’s not perfect for long-term use but it’s a great quick hack

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} www.example\.com$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/comingsoon\.html$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/.*\.png$
RewriteRule .* /comingsoon.html [R]