This question is about a splash page.
I am using WP 3.4.1, and am hosted on hostgator, in case you ask.

I am defining a splash page as a page that a visitor will see when they first visit the site, and after that they won't see it anymore.
They will see the splash when they come to the domain name, or perhaps any of the pages on the site, but only once.
I have tried some of the plugins, read the codex at least minimally there...
I am pretty sure the plugins that say that splash pages are easy with their plugins - they are all broken - so having tried splashgate and wp splash ( any others please i will try them ) they are not very well supported.
So i think to be sure i can get it working i am going to have to go into the php files and add some code myself.
But where are some examples of this direction i need to take?
If you link me to a codex please make sure it is up to date and current and is relevant to the question.
thanks,
ed
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Hi Ed,

This is how WP recommends you do it.
codex.wordpress.org/Creating_a_Static_Front_Page

Or you could do it the easy way. Put wordpress in a a subdrectory and put a plain html page in your public_html directory that's linked to the blog.

As long as index.php isn't in the public.html directory the browser will only land on index.html.

Yo can just copy all your wp files to a subdirectory and you're pretty much done.

Ed

Thanks for your reply Ed. I did find a plugin that pretty much does everything i need. ( its a wpmu plugin ). One thing about creating the site in a sub directory is that it feels like the tail wagging the dog. I don't think i would want to do that, and besides it has the added detriment of an extra string in the path, which doesn't fit with a good seo principal.
& The Codex explanation doesn't seem to fit with my use of or definition of a 'splash page'; In order to have a visitor see it only on the home page, or not to see it when logged in, or some other rules that might apply, the static page definition in the Codex doesn't do the job quite as i need it to be done...However as i mentioned the wpmu plugin does all that and more. thanks though!

Hi Ed,

Glad you found that. When you have very specific requirements, it always involves some research, but usually "there's a plugin for that".

Do you mind sharing the name of the plugin with the forum in case someone else has a similar problem?

Good work.
Cheers,
Ed

Hi Ed, the one i found that i think will work for me is at premium.wpmudev.org/project/the-pop-over-plugin/

There you can find more details. I became a premium member a while ago so for me it was just a download, but i am not sure what the cost would be otherwise.

The plugin allows for several rules to be created to dictate when it will be shown. The one rule that appealed the most for me was to only show on the home page, and only when the user is not logged in. Other plugins failed to allow which URL to show the 'splash page' on, so that meant where ever you are on the site the page would show for example. Another rule important for me was that it won't show if you are logged in ( registered). Ordinarily i don't design with these types of interference, however a client wanted it... and he pays the bills...
The other nice thing about this plugin is that it is a normal wp page, so you can pretty much embed a video, raw html, use widgets in your theme on the page etc.
thanks again for your support.

Thanks for the follow up. I'm going to investigate that plugin.

Cheers,
Ed