help, I need a quick full-site replacement page!

You know, like the one Apple does during a keynote or whatever?

It’s easy with mod_rewrite – just add the following in a .htaccess (if your host supports that…)

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/backsoon.html$
RewriteRule ^.*$ /backsoon.html [L]

and every page that is not /backsoon.html will be temporarily replaced with the contents of backsoon.html

Don’t forget if you have images/css linked into backsoon.html, you’ll need to add a RewriteCond to except the rewrite.

RewriteCond ${REQUEST_URI} !/images/yourheader.png$
RewriteCond ${REQUEST_URI} !/css/yourcss.css$

Here’s the whole thing :

RewriteCond ${REQUEST_URI} !/images/yourheader.png$
RewriteCond ${REQUEST_URI} !/css/yourcss.css$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/backsoon.html$
RewriteRule ^.*$ /backsoon.html [L]

Enjoy, and thank Mike for prompting me to write this up!