Deadman Switch: automatically protect your PrestaShop store when you're away

Your PrestaShop store runs around the clock. But you don't. A holiday, sick leave, a personal emergency — and nobody logs into the back office for several days. Orders pile up, customers grow impatient, negative reviews follow. You discover the problem on your return, when it's already too late.

Deadman Switch is a free PrestaShop module that monitors your admin back-office activity. If no administrator logs in for the number of days you have configured, it automatically activates catalog mode — your store remains visible but stops accepting orders. As soon as you return, it reopens by itself. No manual action needed.

A simple principle borrowed from industry

In rail and aviation, the deadman switch is a safety device that activates automatically when an operator stops responding. If a train driver releases the control, emergency braking kicks in.

This module applies exactly that principle to your online store. As long as an administrator logs in regularly, everything is fine. If activity stops for too long, the module reacts automatically to protect your reputation.

How it works

1. Silent monitoring — On every back-office visit, the module records a last-activity timestamp. No configuration needed: tracking starts as soon as the module is installed.
2. Automatic trigger — Once an hour, the module checks on the front end whether the configured inactivity delay has been exceeded. If so, it activates catalog mode through PrestaShop and logs the event.
3. Automatic recovery — As soon as an administrator returns to the back office, catalog mode is deactivated automatically. A warning message tells them what happened during their absence.

Everything relies on two native PrestaShop hooks — displayBackOfficeHeader and displayHeader — with no overrides and no core modifications. The front-end check is throttled to once per hour to avoid unnecessary database writes.

Detailed features

Configurable inactivity delay

You freely set the number of days without admin activity before the trigger fires. The default is 7 days, which suits most situations (a week's holiday, an extended weekend). You can reduce it to 2–3 days for a high-volume store, or increase it for a seasonal business.

Status dashboard

The configuration page always shows the current protection status: date and time of the last admin activity, days remaining before trigger, and the current catalog mode state. Colour-coded indicators (green, orange, red) give you an instant read of the situation.

Manual controls

Two manual actions are available from the configuration page:

• Reset the timer — Marks the current moment as the last activity, pushing the trigger forward by the same amount. Useful before leaving if you do not want to wait for a natural logout.
• Deactivate catalog mode — If catalog mode has been triggered, you can deactivate it manually without waiting for the back-office hook. The timer is reset at the same time.

Event logging

Each automatic catalog mode activation is recorded in the PrestaShop log, including the number of inactivity days elapsed. You retain a full trace of all triggers for auditing your store's protection history.

Visual alert on return

If catalog mode was activated by the module while you were away, a warning banner appears at the top of the configuration page as soon as you log back in. It clearly explains what happened and lets you deactivate catalog mode with a single click.

Use cases

Solo merchant on holiday — You manage your store alone and are leaving for two weeks. By setting a 10-day delay, you know that if you do not log in before your return, the store will secure itself automatically. No unprocessed orders will pile up in your absence.

Seasonal store — You sell Christmas products from November to January. Outside the season, you rarely log in. With a 14-day delay, the store automatically switches to catalog mode as soon as you disengage, without you having to think about it.

Agency managing client stores — You maintain several PrestaShop stores for clients who do not log in regularly. Deadman Switch ensures that no store continues accepting orders if a client goes off the radar for several weeks.

Reduced team during a crisis — An unexpected sick leave leaves your store without a manager. The module triggers catalog mode after a few days, automatically protecting your reputation while you find a solution.

Before & After

Technical specifications

• PrestaShop compatibility: 1.6 to 9.x
• PHP compatibility: 5.6 to 8.3+
• Architecture: 100% native hooks, no overrides, no database table created
• Configuration: stored as JSON in ps_configuration
• Multistore: supported
• Included languages: 17 (EN, FR, DE, ES, IT, NL, PT, PL, SV, DA, FI, ET, HU, RO, SK, BG, EL)
• Licence: AFL-3.0 (Academic Free License) — free and open-source module

Installation

1. Download the module and install it from your PrestaShop back office (Modules > Module Manager).
2. Open the configuration page and adjust the inactivity delay to suit your needs.
3. That's it — the module starts monitoring back-office activity immediately. No further configuration is required.

Conclusion

Most problems caused by unexpected absences come down to one thing: forgetting. You leave without switching on catalog mode, you fall ill without thinking about the store. Deadman Switch removes that risk by making protection automatic.

Its logic is simple, its potential impact is significant. For a module that requires no database table, no override and less than five minutes of configuration, the effort-to-benefit ratio is unbeatable.

Protect your store, even when you're not there

Download Deadman Switch for free on PrestaToolBox and run your store with complete peace of mind, even on holiday.