For Website Developers

Placeholder Page

Show a generic "coming soon" page with r2ware.toml

Placeholder Page

Every website can show a minimal fullscreen placeholder page instead of its real content — a generic "coming soon" / "under construction" screen with a heading and an optional subtitle. You control it from your own source repo with a r2ware.toml file, so the decision lives with your code and ships with your commits. It's simple to put up and tear down and this article will walk thru how it works.

r2ware.toml

The live domain serves the placeholder page when it is enabled in r2ware.toml.

r2ware.toml is a small, platform-level config file that your source repo declares for itself — think of it like netlify.toml. It lives at the root of your website's source folder (the same folder that holds _config.yml):

src/
├── _config.yml
├── r2ware.toml      ← here
├── _layouts/
├── _includes/
└── index.html

If your Jekyll source is in a subfolder rather than the repo root, put r2ware.toml in the subfolder next to _config.yml.

The file is read-only from the platform's side — you edit it in your repo, commit it, and the platform reads it. There's no dashboard editor for it.

The [placeholder] section

r2ware.toml supports a [placeholder] section:

# src/r2ware.toml
[placeholder]
enabled = true
title = "Coming soon"
subtitle = "We're putting on the finishing touches — check back shortly."
Key Type Default Meaning
enabled boolean false Force the placeholder page on, even when the website has a live build.
title string "" The large centered heading.
subtitle string "" Smaller text pinned to the bottom of the screen.

All keys are optional:

  • title left blank → the heading falls back to your website's primary domain name (e.g. example.com).
  • subtitle left blank → no subtitle is shown.
  • enabled = false (or the section omitted) → the placeholder only appears until your website's first build deploys.

Minimal example

Turn on the placeholder and let the heading default to your domain:

[placeholder]
enabled = true

Disabling it again

Set enabled = false (or remove the [placeholder] section / the whole file). A website with a live build goes straight back to serving it.

[placeholder]
enabled = false

What the page looks like

The placeholder is a self-contained fullscreen page:

  • A looping background video with a darkening overlay so light text stays readable.
  • The r2ware logo in the top-left corner, linking to r2ware.dev.
  • Your title centered in the middle (or the domain name by default).
  • Your subtitle, if set, along the bottom.

title and subtitle are plain text — any HTML you put in them is escaped and shown literally, not rendered.