Follow the steps below to create a .htaccess file to redirect your visitor to an upgrade page during a website upgrade
- Create an .htaccess file with the following commands
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/maintenance.html$
RewriteRule $ /maintenance.html [R=302,L]
- Once the file is created, put it in your root directory. (This will be in http://www.yourdomain.com/.htaccess)
- Create another file name it upgrade.html (just put what message you want to show to your visitor during the upgrade) and put it at the root directory too. (This will be in http://www.yourdomain.com/upgrade.html)
- Now you can try to browse your site and it should now redirect you to upgrade.html
- Since you are going to perform the upgrade, you have to able to browse the site. So you have to exclude your IP in the .htaccess file. Now you have to add a line in the .htaccess file as below:
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} !^888\.888\.888\.888
Please change the fake ip (888.888.888.888) to your own IP
Your visitor should be redirected to maintenance page by the .htaccess we set just now and you should be able to browse your site and perform your upgrade.