Give clients a magic link to preview your live site, then collect feedback and live on-page annotations — no extra tools.

Erdo Client Preview – Magic Link Access, Live Annotations & Client Feedback

<p><strong>Erdo Client Preview</strong> goes further than a typical coming soon or maintenance page. Most &#8220;coming soon&#8221; plugins stop at hiding your site behind a countdown timer. Erdo Client Preview adds the three things agencies and freelancers actually need when working with clients on a live site:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Magic links</strong> — a private, password-free URL per person that bypasses the gate</li>
<li><strong>Visitor feedback</strong> — clients leave messages directly on the page they&#8217;re viewing, no email back-and-forth</li>
<li><strong>Live annotations</strong> — clients click any element on the site and pin an exact note about it, like a built-in design-review tool</li>
</ul>
<p>Everyone without a link sees your custom coming soon / under construction page. Everyone with one browses the real, live site — and can tell you exactly what they think while they&#8217;re there.</p>
<h4>Magic Links: Per-Person Access, Not a Shared Password</h4>
<p>Unlike standard bypass systems that share a single password with everyone, Client Preview gives each person their own named link:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Label each link</strong> — know exactly who has access (e.g. &#8220;John &#8211; Client&#8221;, &#8220;Anna &#8211; Designer&#8221;)</li>
<li><strong>Individual expiry</strong> — 24 hours, 48 hours, 7 days, 30 days, or never</li>
<li><strong>Per-link redirect URL</strong> — send each visitor to a specific page after bypass</li>
<li><strong>Revoke a single link</strong> without affecting others</li>
<li><strong>Usage counter and access history</strong> — see how many times, and when, each link was used</li>
<li><strong>Email notification</strong> — get alerted the moment a link is used, with the visitor&#8217;s IP and timestamp (optional, off by default)</li>
<li>32-character cryptographic tokens, stored only as <strong>HMAC-SHA256 hashes</strong> — the raw token is never saved in the database, and the bypass cookie is signed, <code>HttpOnly</code>, and verified with <code>hash_equals()</code> to prevent timing attacks</li>
</ul>
<h4>Visitor Feedback: Messages Straight From the Page Being Reviewed</h4>
<p>No more chasing clients over email for feedback. A built-in widget lets anyone — a visitor on the coming soon page, or a client browsing the live site through a magic link — leave a message with no account required.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Reply from the admin</strong> — answer directly from the Feedback tab; the visitor sees your reply automatically next time they check</li>
<li><strong>&#8220;Past Feedback&#8221; history</strong> — visitors see their own previous messages and status (in progress / completed)</li>
<li><strong>Email alerts</strong> — get notified the moment new feedback comes in</li>
<li><strong>Bulk actions</strong> — select multiple entries to mark as completed or delete at once</li>
</ul>
<h4>Live Annotations: Pinpoint Feedback on the Exact Element</h4>
<p>This is the feature that turns Erdo Client Preview from a gate into a review tool. With Visual Annotation Mode enabled, a magic-link visitor can click any element on the live site and pin a note directly on it — &#8220;move this button,&#8221; &#8220;wrong color here,&#8221; &#8220;fix this typo&#8221; — right where it belongs, not in a vague email.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Persistent pins for admins</strong> — every note left on a page shows up automatically as a numbered pin the next time you (the admin) visit that page, logged in, no special &#8220;view&#8221; link needed</li>
<li><strong>Click a pin to reply</strong> — answer directly in the same details popup the visitor sees</li>
<li><strong>Status tracking</strong> — mark notes as in progress or completed</li>
<li><strong>Email alerts</strong> — get notified the moment a new annotation is submitted</li>
<li><strong>Bulk actions</strong> — select multiple notes to mark as completed or delete at once</li>
</ul>
<h4>Two Modes</h4>
<p><strong>Maintenance Mode (HTTP 503)</strong><br />
For active deployments, migrations, and updates. Returns a proper HTTP 503 with a <code>Retry-After</code> header calculated dynamically from your countdown timer — the correct signal for search engine crawlers to return later without penalising your rankings.</p>
<p><strong>Coming Soon Mode (HTTP 200)</strong><br />
For new site launches. Returns HTTP 200 so search engines can discover and index the page, building domain authority before you go live. Pair it with the built-in email subscription form to grow your audience from day one — no Mailchimp, no API keys, everything stored in WordPress.</p>
<h4>Scheduled Activation</h4>
<p>Set a start and end date for your under construction window, or set up a recurring weekly schedule (e.g. every night between 2 AM and 4 AM for routine maintenance) and let WordPress handle it automatically. If the server&#8217;s WP-Cron fails to fire, a real-time fallback evaluates the schedule on every request — the site is never accidentally left open or stuck behind the page.</p>
<h4>Customizable Page</h4>
<ul>
<li>Upload your logo</li>
<li>Background color, text color, and accent color with a visual color picker</li>
<li>Full-screen background image with automatic dark overlay</li>
<li>Animated countdown timer with progress bar (uses site timezone)</li>
<li>Live visitor counter — show how many people are waiting for launch</li>
<li>Social links: X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube</li>
</ul>
<h4>Access Control</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>IP Whitelist</strong> — bypass the coming soon / under construction page for specific IP addresses; your current IP is auto-detected with one-click add</li>
<li><strong>Admin bypass</strong> — logged-in administrators always see the live site (configurable)</li>
<li><strong>Page &amp; post type exclusions</strong> — keep specific pages, posts, or entire post types publicly accessible while the rest of the site is gated</li>
<li><strong>Developer-safe</strong> — XML-RPC, REST API, WP-Cron, WP-CLI, and wp-login.php are always bypassed; your background tasks and API integrations are never blocked</li>
</ul>
<h4>White Label for Agencies</h4>
<p>Replace &#8220;Erdo Client Preview&#8221; with your own agency name and logo on the settings page and admin menu — what your client sees stays branded to you, not to a third-party plugin.</p>
<h4>Emergency Rescue URL</h4>
<p>A secret URL you save in your password manager. Visit it from any browser to disable maintenance instantly — no login, no database access required. Regenerate it from settings at any time.</p>
<h4>Admin Tools</h4>
<ul>
<li>Admin bar status indicator — red/green dot visible on every page</li>
<li>One-click toggle directly from the admin bar</li>
<li>Live preview button — see exactly what visitors see without disabling the page</li>
</ul>
<h4>Who Is This For?</h4>
<p><strong>Web agencies and freelancers</strong> — put a client site under maintenance during updates, share a private magic link so the client can review live progress at any time, collect feedback and pinpoint annotations directly on the page instead of email threads, then revoke the link the moment the project is delivered. No shared passwords, no confused clients, no accidental exposure.</p>
<p><strong>Site owners launching a new project</strong> — collect email subscribers in Coming Soon mode while building domain authority. No third-party subscription service needed.</p>
<p><strong>Developers and DevOps</strong> — schedule maintenance windows for database migrations and deployments without manual intervention. WP-Cron fallback ensures the site never stays accidentally open.</p>


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