I have a client request when a product is discontinued to make it so that product is not visible in catalog or search but the url and product still exists and you just can’t order the product.
The only visibility options are catalog,search, catalog and search, not visible individually. If I just set the value to blank will it not be visible in catalog and search but still exist?
Is there a better way to do this?
UPDATE
As Clockwork says below as long as you have it set in the configuration to not show out of stock products this is default functionality to keep the url and not show up in categories and search.
Reduce it’s stock to 0 and make sure it is ‘Out Of Stock’. In System > Configuration > Inventory > Stock Options make sure ‘Display Out of Stock Products’ is ‘No’. That will allow the page to display without being purchasable.
If you must have ‘Display Out of Stock’ on then set the product’s visibility to ‘Catalog’ and remove it from all categories. It will then have no more links to it without being completely disabled.