Session log — Medistage under-construction notice

26 May 2026 · Hasmukh with Claude · auto-published from the local journal entry. A polished narrative version can be requested in any future Claude session.

Summary

Hasmukh wanted visitors to know the site is still being built. He picked the slim top-of-page banner option. Banner now live on every page of medistage.medilearn.africa, using the brand name "Medilearn" (not "Medistage") in the wording, since the medistage URL is just the staging address for what becomes medilearn at launch.

Decisions

Chose option 1, the slim top-of-page banner, over the homepage-only note, first-visit popup, or "Preview" badge.
Final wording: "Welcome. Medilearn is still being built. Some pages and features are not yet finished or final. Thank you for your patience."
Brand-name in the message is "Medilearn", not "Medistage", because the site goes live as medilearn.africa.
Implementation kept CSS-only via body::before. No template or markup changes. Easy to remove or hide at launch by deleting one custom CSS block.
First pass used a soft amber background, which read as a warning sign and clashed with the site palette. Hasmukh asked for alternatives, picked option 1 of four: a dark band that matches the navigation, with soft white text and a thin brand-gradient underline (the opal blue and green already used elsewhere on the site). Final look reads as deliberate site furniture, not a system alert.

Changes made

Backed up the current compiled stylesheet to css.css.bak-20260526-pre-banner on the medistage server.
Created a new Medilearn_css_custom row in the medistage database holding the banner SCSS (a body::before rule with three responsive breakpoints, a --notice-h custom property, plus matching top-offset bumps on .nav, .page-main, and .hero so nothing on the page is hidden under the new strip).
Recompiled CSS on medistage via the HTTPS recompile endpoint. Compiler returned "CSS recompiled successfully".
Verified homepage, /past-events/, /speakers/ and /interview/ all still serve 200 and that the compiled css.css now contains the banner rules.
Confirmed no new PHP errors after the change.

Follow-ups

When the site is ready to launch, delete the Medilearn_css_custom option (or empty it) and recompile to remove the banner.
Current palette: var(--color-dark) (#1a1a2e) background matching the navigation, white text at 85% opacity, 2px gradient underline from #5dade2 (opal) to #27ae60 (green). All easy to adjust in the same custom CSS block in a future session.