How can I work on a WordPress theme already installed in the root directory?

Posted by Isaac Lubow on Pro Webmasters See other posts from Pro Webmasters or by Isaac Lubow
Published on 2011-01-13T11:49:47Z Indexed on 2011/01/13 11:58 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 311

Filed under:

Wordpress

|

htaccess

I have WordPress installed at the root level of a website. I thought it would be easy enough to have a "coming soon" page called default.html and edit the .htaccess file as follows:

AddHandler php5-script .php
DirectoryIndex default.html index.php
# BEGIN WordPress
# END WordPress

...so that visitors to the site are sent to the default page, and I could manually specify index.php as my destination for testing. (This isn't a high-security job.) But index.php is redirecting me to the default page. When I remove the DirectoryIndex line, the index.php file is found automatically by visitors to the site root, but... that's the page I was trying to hide.

What am I doing wrong with .htaccess and how can I get it to behave the way I want?

© Pro Webmasters or respective owner

Related posts about Wordpress

Add Your Own Domain to Your WordPress.com Blog

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
Now that you’ve got a nice blog on WordPress.com, why not get your own domain to brand your site? Here’s how you can easily register a new domain or move your existing domain to your WordPress site. By default, your free WordPress address is yourblog’sname.wordpress.com. But whether this… >>> More
Moving from wordpress.com to self-hosted wordpress blog

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello, I have been writing articles on the wordpress.com blog, now i am looking to move it to self-hosted wordpress blog but i wonder: 1) Should i move all my articles on the new blog or just put an article on my last blog that more articles will be posted on my new blog?* 2) If i move all articles… >>> More
Include WordPress Content Outside of WordPress

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm looking to build a mobile version of a WordPress site and have most of it built in static files, but am trying to get access to the WordPress content from inside an external PHP file that the mobile site will run from. How can I get access to the loop or database without manually writing SQL queries… >>> More
What is the difference between theme making process using Wordpress Theme and Wordpress Theme Framew

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
What is the difference between "Wordpress Theme" and Wordpress Theme Frameworks? In terms of technicalities, Custom theme making workflow, File and folder structure, Anatomy. Wordpress default theme Vs Wordpress theme's framework's Child theme >>> More
Integration of WordPress With WordPress bbPress

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
bbPress is a powerful and fully featured forum software that can be integrated with blogging tools like WordPress. A first glance at the software, gives the impression that it is simple and devoid of any complicated structure, but one has to use it in order, to believe that it is a very powerful tool. >>> More

Related posts about htaccess

Seeking htaccess help: Converting multiple subdomains (both http and https) to www.domain.com using .htaccess

as seen on Pro Webmasters - Search for 'Pro Webmasters'
I've been trying to get an answer to this question on other forums (the folks at SuperUser thought this was the place I needed to post) and via my connections, but I haven't gotten very far. Hopefully you guys can help me find an answer: I've got a dozen old subdomains that have been indexed by Google… >>> More
Disable .htaccess or disable some rules from .htaccess on specific URL

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have Kerberos-based authentication and I want to disable it on only root url: mysite.com/. And I want it to works fine on any other page like mysite.com/page1. I have such things in my .htaccess: AuthType Kerberos AuthName "Domain login" KrbAuthRealms DOMAIN.COM KrbMethodK5Passwd on Krb5KeyTab… >>> More
.htaccess Permission denied. Unable to check htaccess file

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi, I have a strange problem when adding a sub-domain to our virtual server. I have done similar sub-domains before and they have worked fine. When I try to access the sub-domain I get an 403 Forbidden error. I checked the error logs and have the following error: pcfg_openfile: unable to check… >>> More
.htaccess Permission denied. Unable to check htaccess file

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a strange problem when adding a sub-domain to our virtual server. I have done similar sub-domains before and they have worked fine. When I try to access the sub-domain I get an 403 Forbidden error. I checked the error logs and have the following error: pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess… >>> More
Permission denied: /home/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
This domain was working this morning, now I get a 403 error and the message above in my error log. I'm not using .htaccess files but I have been doing some copy on the server so may have messed things up but no changes to this domain (unless by accident!). What is this pcfg_openfile thing anyway? Done… >>> More