NeatClubs.COM has a mode of operation called Maintenance Mode.
Maintenance Mode is intended to allow site administrators to change web-site content without the changes being visible to web-site visitors.
Maintenance mode is enabled (or disabled) by logging into the website as an administrator and selecting "System Setup" / "Preferences" / "Utilities".
Simply change the Maintenance Mode option under Site Settings to "Yes" as below and click "Save Settings" to place the site in maintenance mode.
Maintenance mode will come into effect for new website visitors immediately or for existing visitors only once they discontinue their current session with the website.
When a site is in maintenance mode, it will appear as below. Rather than the full site being visible, a logo and login area will be visible. The color scheme and logo displayed will depend on your Appearance Setup.
Only site administrators will be able to login when the site is in maintenance mode.
Once they do, the site will appear as shown below. Notice the red bar that advises that the site is in maintenance mode. The red bar will only appear however if your site is configured to display a "sub-header". The preference of whether to display a sub-header is also controller under System Setup / Appearance Setup from the side panel menus
In maintenance mode, a site administrator can make changes to the site, but the site will not be visible to non administrators (or search engines) until maintenance mode is disabled using the options under "System Setup" / "Preferences" / "Utilities". Once administrator mode is disabled the site will again become visible to all internet visitors immediately.
The session time-out governs how long a user will have a session maintained on the server. When sessions expire, idle users will be automatically logged out.
Advanced Site Settings
A number of advanced site settings are exposed under the utilities as well.
A debugging mode provides performance profiling information rendered at the bottom of the site. If putting the site in debugging mode it is a good idea to enable maintenance mode first so that users will not be confused by the various diagnostic messages.
Ajax techniques can be used to accelerate page loads. This should generally be set to "No" as there are many browser issues with this and this is still experimental
Deferring Javascript rendering until after page load might help avoid some IE specific bugs that can crash the Javascript run-time when timing issues result in Javascript referring to page elements not yet loaded.
Normally whenever PayPal Instant Notification calls are made, a summary is sent to NeatWorx. For clubs that are interested in monitoring IPN activity on their own, they can provide an e-mail address here and a short notification message will be sent. IPNs are triggered only when payments are received. There is something very comforting about receiving notifications of payment while sitting on the beach looking at your blackberry :-)
