Testing before launch - behind the scenes?

This is a basic question, that I have wondered about Joomla for some time and never figured it out.

How can I setup my products and shopping cart functionality on an existing site without anyone else finding it?

If I create a menu item (even in the footer) I am concerned that someone might select it. I thought I could publish it, then copy the url and then unpublish it, but it does not allow me to access the page unless it is published.

There has to be a way to do this.

Thanks.

Hi, I overcome this by creating a seperate menu for Hikashop items that is only displayed when I’m logged into the front end.

In the menu manager, create a new menu with desired Hikashop links to your shop
In the module manager, create a menu module for the new menu in the desired position and set it to “Registered” access (or special if you have users that regularly login)
In the menu manager, create another menu called say “TestingLogin” and add a User > Default login layout item to this menu. Do not create a module for this menu.

You should be able to get to the front end login screen by typing yourdomain.com/TestingLogin into your browser address bar. If you are using SEF urls or you don’t know the path to your menu, temporarily link the TestingLogin menu somewhere on your site – get the the url and then disable it.

Now when you login as administrator to the frontend you should see the Hikashop menu.

I email the URL to myself for convenience.

May help! cheers!