This article covers how to set up, activate, and monitor Crisis Mode in Composer, including preparing the emergency message page and reviewing admin activity.
⚠️ Important Note: Crisis Mode vs Retiring or archiving a site
- Crisis Mode: A temporary emergency measure. All visitors see one emergency message until Crisis Mode is switched back to Inactive, and the site returns as it was.
- Retire, archive, or sunset a site: A planned, permanent change for a school closure, merger, or name change. The old site goes offline and its address redirects to a new site or page.
For closures, mergers, and name changes, see Archive or retire a school site: Plan for closures, mergers, and name changes.
💡 Quick answers
- What does Crisis Mode do? Diverts all front-end site traffic to a single emergency message page, blocking the rest of the site, until the toggle is switched back to Inactive.
- Who turns on Crisis Mode? Finalsite. In an emergency, contact the Client Success Manager to activate Crisis Mode and give the admin team access.
- Where is Crisis Mode set up? In the Composer left navigation; configure the header, message, and colors before an emergency occurs so the page is ready to activate quickly.
- How is Crisis Mode enabled? Click the Inactive toggle at the top of the Crisis Mode screen; for multi-domain sites, choose whether to enable it for all domains or specific ones.
- How is the Crisis Mode page previewed before activating it? Save the changes and click the eye icon in the bottom-right corner to see a preview.
- Where are changes to Crisis Mode tracked? Open the Audit Log tab at the top right of the Crisis Mode screen to see which admins made changes and when.
In this article
Crisis Mode allows admins to create a single page that visitors see when visiting the site, replacing the rest of the front-end site in the event of an emergency. It helps prevent heavy traffic from causing a server crash and is reserved for extreme emergencies. When Crisis Mode is activated, all back-end administrative functions remain accessible to admins.
Step 1: Set up Crisis Mode
Prepare the Crisis Mode page before something happens, to save time in a high-pressure situation.
Add a header
Navigate to Crisis Mode in the CMS module menu.
In the Settings left-hand panel, upload a header logo and choose a header background color, so visitors recognize that they have landed on the school's website. This section is for simple branding: a logo and a header color.
Write the message
Enter a title and content for the Crisis Mode message in the fields provided. The title appears as the page title in the browser window. A limited version of the editor is provided for simple formatting of the content.
⚠️ Important Note
Saving a new Crisis Mode message discards the previous version.
Preview the page
Save the changes and click the eye icon in the bottom-right corner to see what the Crisis Mode page will look like.
Step 2: Enable Crisis Mode
- Crisis Mode is turned on by Finalsite. In an emergency, contact Finalsite Support to activate Crisis Mode and give the admin team access.
- Once access is in place, click the Inactive toggle at the top of the screen to enable Crisis Mode.
- For school districts, or organizations with multiple domains, a prompt asks whether to enable Crisis Mode for all domains or specific domain(s).
- Crisis Mode then diverts traffic from the website to the message until the “Active” toggle is changed back to “Inactive.”
Step 3: Monitor admin activity
Because Crisis Mode is an extreme action for the website, restricting permissions to a few members of the team is a good practice. Change the permissions for Crisis Mode by clicking the gear icon at the top of the screen.
Changes to the Crisis Mode configuration, and each time Crisis Mode is enabled or disabled, are tracked in the “Audit Log” section. Click the tab in the top right of the screen to see which admins made changes and when.