We have a lot of protocols / applications that are deployed using protocol links. Not infrequently we encounter a situation where we would like applications in our environment (PP and otherwise) to be available to a maintenance team for testing, without being available to the general user base.  

For truly critical protocols / issues, we have occasionally accomplished this by means of various nefarious methods. But they are all a lot of overhead. For instance, one method is to put a component at the top of the protocol that displays a message to the user and then executes HaltProtocol() when the "maintenance mode" (which is set by means of a server variable) is detected. But it becomes painful maintaining that system, and it's hardly foolproof to all types of access we might like to block when it's turned on.

It would be great to have an actual official maintenance mode that we could turn on from the admin console, with some selections about activities that would be allowed / not allowed when turned on. Examples of such selections might be: block/allow webservices, block/allow webport access, block/allow client access -- these would allow some needs-based tailoring. The ability of individual users to get through during maintenance mode could be handled using groups and permissions in the admin console.