Author and the public instances run the same Magnolia CMS web application, they are just configured differently. Here are the settings you need to change when changing an author to a public.

Magnolia 3.5 and later

Author to public

1. Set /server/admin to false.
2. Grant permissions to the anonymous role:
• In the website workspace, grant read-only access to all website content.
• In URL space, grant Get & Post permission to URL /* but deny access to .magnolia, .magnolia/* and any protected (members only) areas of your site.
3. Set /modules/adminInterface/virtualURIMapping/default/toURI to your start page. The system does not know which page, or which site in a multisite configuration, visitors should be directed to by default. Set toURI to the site root page or a page you want visitors to land on. For example, in the demo-project toURI is set to redirect:/demo-project.html. See Can't resolve link to: /technical-guide/virtual-uri-mapping for help.

Public to author

1. Set /server/admin to true.
2. Deny permissions to the anonymous role:
• In the website workspace, deny access to all website content.
• In URL space, deny access to URLs /* and .magnolia/*.
3. Configure subscribers: To make the activation mechanism work, configure public instances as subscribers.

Before Magnolia 3.5

Author to public

1. Set /server/admin to false.
2. Secure AdminCentral URI. Set /server/secureURIList/0001/URI to /.magnolia/*. This requires authentication for AdminCentral only. You can secure other content by adding other URIs to the config.
3. Activate cache. Set /server/cache/level1/active to true.

Public to author

1. Set /server/admin to true.
2. Secure all URIs. Set /server/secureURIList/0001/URI to /*. This requires authentication for everything.
3. Deactivate cache. Set /server/cache/level1/active to false.
4. Configure subscribers. To make the activation mechanism work, configure public instances as subscribers.