[support] Development Site -- Keep the Public Out

[Earl Miles]

Shai Gluskin wrote:
> So I'm working with an organization on a site rebuild. I have a test 
> site set up on my domain.
> 
> My problem is that the "Welcome to your New Drupal Site" page is showing 
> up on the home page for anonymous users.
> 
> I've installed the Content Access module 
> (http://drupal.org/project/content_access) to make it so that the staff 
> and I can all work on the site and the content won't be available to the 
> public till we launch (and change the access settings).
> 
> I created a block with permissions set to "anonymous" and display set to 
> "only on <front>"; it displays in the center of the page (thanks to 
> LiteJazz Theme) telling anonymous folks that this is a development page, 
> with a link to the old/live site.
> 
> When I (role=webmaster) or staff (role=staff) log in, everything is 
> fine, just like I want it -- the block disappears and all the content 
> appears.
> 
> I just want the "Welcome to your New Drupal Site" to disappear for 
> anonymous users.
> 
> I tried making the "You are on a test site" a node instead of a block. 
> That makes the "Welcome to your New Drupal Site" dissappear for 
> anonymous users, but the "You are on a development site" node, continues 
> to appear after staff or I have logged in. I've tried in Content Access 
> to just check "anonymous" -- but it seems that module doesn't work the 
> same way as the blocks code does.

Install the Views module.

Enable the 'frontpage' view, and then 'Add' it so you can override it. 
Set the Empty text to what you want your users to see.

Then go to administer >> site configuration >> site information

Change the 'default front page' to 'frontpage'. This will make the 
frontpage view the default. The view that ships with Views behaves 
exactly like the normal Drupal frontpage, except for the 'no content to 
display' case, so the only difference you'll see is that the page you're 
talking about will disappear and never be seen again.