Maintenance Mode Plugin for SynaptikCMS
Puts the site in maintenance mode for visitors while logged-in admins can keep browsing and working normally.
What it does
When enabled, every front-end request from a non-admin visitor is intercepted early — before routing, before the data layer runs — and replaced with a self-contained 503 maintenance page. Admins logged into the back-office pass through untouched and see the real site.
How it works
The block logic hooks into the core's early_request event, fired as early as possible in index.php, right after functions.php loads. This means a blocked visitor never pays the cost of template rendering or database reads.
The maintenance page is fully self-contained HTML — no theme header or footer, no external stylesheet. This is intentional: if maintenance is triggered by a broken theme file, the page must still render correctly.
Exempt paths
Two categories of requests always bypass the block regardless of maintenance mode:
- Admin panel — the admin directory (read from
config.json, supports custom names) is never blocked, so the admin can log in and turn maintenance off. - Plugin endpoints — anything under
/plugins/passes through, same as the Redirects plugin's own exemption pattern. - Static assets — files with an extension (
.css,.js,.png, etc.) are passed through so the maintenance page can load the fonts or images it references.
Admin session detection
The plugin uses the same $_SESSION['admin'] flag that the CMS core sets on login. An admin browsing the front-end while logged in always sees the real site.
Configuration
Settings are stored in data/config.json and editable from the admin panel.
| Field | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
enabled | false | Turns maintenance mode on or off |
title | (empty) | Page <h1> and <title>. Falls back to "Under maintenance" |
message | (built-in) | Body text shown to visitors. Supports line breaks |
bg_color | #0f172a | Page background color |
text_color | #e2e8f0 | Text color |
accent_color | #4fa75c | Icon/accent color |
logo_image | (empty) | Relative path to a logo (files/logo.png). Replaces the default wrench icon |
Logo
The logo field accepts a path relative to the CMS root (e.g. files/logo.png). It can be set by uploading a new image directly from the admin form, or by picking an existing file from the media library. Allowed formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, SVG. The image is displayed at a maximum of 240×120px, fitted with object-fit: contain — no cropping needed regardless of aspect ratio.
When no logo is set, a wrench SVG icon is shown in the accent color.
HTTP response
The maintenance page always returns HTTP 503 with a Retry-After: 3600 header so search engine crawlers know the downtime is temporary and don't deindex the site.