secure remote testing platform

Perhaps this isn't the appropriate venue to stage this question, but others may have the same needs, so:

I'm developing and testing an opencart store collaboratively. For ease of access by all, I want to have the store set up at an obscure subdomain until deployment. This isn't the problem, apache's VirtualHost setup is easy enough. I'm still worried about limiting public access to the store until deployment; I'm envisioning an initial authentication page that would give blanket access to the subdomain. Is there an easy way to accomplish this, without needing to adding copious amounts of code in many pages, or ruining any relative links?

what about .htaccess with .htpasswd?

lepe wrote:what about .htaccess with .htpasswd?

That should do the job. I use the same method when setting up a demo for a client.