small business website issue - help please!

zoobee

I hope this is the right forum, thanks for reading:

Background: We have a very small business and had a website developed a couple of years ago - just a basic site, no ecommerce aspect to it. The hosting company took the site down about 6 months ago due to it being flooded with spam on the blog/latest news section.

Issue: We have changed to a new hosting provider in the last few days and I have uploaded everything I had from a zipped file (I was under the impression this was a back-up of the website). However they tell me they also require an sql database which is not in the zipped file.

The web developer is now not in business so I have no comeback there. The previous hosting company say they have no copy of the site. Also I am not technically-minded so I'm at a loss.

Can someone in the know please advise me what I can do? Is our website useless now? the hosting company say it will not work without this database. Can such a thing be recreated? Any advice welcome. Thanks.

maxmarmalade

Do you know what the site was built in? Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal?

jimmycrackcorm

If it is a basic site then you'd be better off setting up a new site. Some of the off the shelf templates are simple enough for non-technical people to edit.

COYW

zoobee wrote: »

I hope this is the right forum, thanks for reading:

Background: We have a very small business and had a website developed a couple of years ago - just a basic site, no ecommerce aspect to it. The hosting company took the site down about 6 months ago due to it being flooded with spam on the blog/latest news section.

Issue: We have changed to a new hosting provider in the last few days and I have uploaded everything I had from a zipped file (I was under the impression this was a back-up of the website). However they tell me they also require an sql database which is not in the zipped file.

The web developer is now not in business so I have no comeback there. The previous hosting company say they have no copy of the site. Also I am not technically-minded so I'm at a loss.

Can someone in the know please advise me what I can do? Is our website useless now? the hosting company say it will not work without this database. Can such a thing be recreated? Any advice welcome. Thanks.

Do you know the database that was used for the website? Did the developer leave you with any documentation in relation to the site at all (eg: site maintenance)? What type of software is used in the site (php, .Net )?

Who provided you with the zip file of the site?

zoobee

COYW wrote: »

Do you know the database that was used for the website? Did the developer leave you with any documentation in relation to the site at all (eg: site maintenance)? What type of software is used in the site (php, .Net )?

Who provided you with the zip file of the site?

Thank you for all the replies,

The site was built in wordpress, I was given general site updating info, for adding images, posts etc. The zipped file was given to us by a graphic designer who worked with the web company. It contains .php files but apparently not the necessary sql database.

If we do have to build a new site can anyone recommend an affordable/good quality template provider?

Thanks for all the assistance everyone.

COYW

Joomla is good but I am a no expert on the out of the box sites as I work from scratch myself.

I would try and make contact with that web designer if I was you. Databases can't just vanish into thin air like that.

blue4ever

I'd go for Joomal, its a decent backend to it and easly updated. Plenty of extensions and modules you can add.

I personally think it makes a better site for a business than w/p.

This time round you might want to block comments or at least moderate them!

C

deco_b

The database should still exist on a server from your old hosting provider. They normally provide a web based login to the database. You can find the connection details in wp-config.php
You can then do an export of the database with a few clicks

Trojan

zoobee wrote: »

The web developer is now not in business so I have no comeback there. The previous hosting company say they have no copy of the site. Also I am not technically-minded so I'm at a loss.

Can someone in the know please advise me what I can do? Is our website useless now? the hosting company say it will not work without this database. Can such a thing be recreated?

The original site can't be created exactly as it was without that database. You at least have a copy of the front-end (the theme), so you have a good starting point to start re-creating it.

It might be possible to re-create the site quite closely if it was archived by archive.org or elsewhere (Google cache, etc). If the site is small (1-20 pages) it might be quicker to simply rewrite the content.

There's a chance your web developer might have setup email backups of your site - check your email for anything to do with backups.

zoobee wrote: »

If we do have to build a new site can anyone recommend an affordable/good quality template provider?

If you want to get a new design template ("theme" in WordPress parlance) then I'd recommend ThemeForest. But you already have a WordPress theme so if you're happy with the original look and feel then there's no point in getting a new one.

B1gft

I would, as suggested by others, do it again. reason being, is for security. You do not know if the site has being compromised. if there was a lot of spam on the site and plugins, themes and script were not kept up to date, walk away. You could be bringing more trouble with you.