Ok, so we're in a delema. We paid someone to make a website for us and host it. Well the website has been up and running for a few years. Well a few weeks ago, he died. His company, which hosts the website as well as designed it, still is hosting the site. (BTW, he's a one man show... he had no other employees.) We don't know where the server physically is... we just know the site is running until the server crashes and there will be no one to turn the server back on.

We don't have access to the ftp site to access the files and we don't have access to the SQL server. (Well we do have the file manager inside of the cms made simple admin site.)

So, we know we have to move the site to a new host. I went and registered a new domain name and started setting up a new cms made simple site from scratch. I'm trying to duplicate everything he did, but so far not having a lot of luck.

Here's the old site... http://www.lakeviewschools.net.
Here's the new site... http://www.lakeviewschoolsnewwebsite.net

So far, the formatting is way messed up. I duplicated all the stylesheets and themes, but things just don't seem to be working right yet.

I have the wildcat in the upper left corner that I can't find on the old web server...

I'm hoping someone just replies and says I'm doing this way too hard... there's a simple utility out there that will do everything I need to do... copy the site off and then we'd just upload it and then do something to the SQL server to re-initialize the database or something... I don't know. Anyone have any ideas on how to simplify this? Or maybe I could just transfer each file out one at a time using the file manager inside of the cmsms site and upload it to the new site...

I haven't looked at it in a while but the Site Pusher module may be what you need.

http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/projects/sitepusher

Not sure if it works with newer versions of cmsms though.

1) Did you attach the stylesheets to the templates?
2) Did you replace the {stylesheet} tag with {cms_stylesheet} in the templates?

That would be awesome if that worked. Can I install that without FTP access?

Not sure how to do either of those? I copied the template from the old website to the new website. I went into stylesheets and created identical stylesheet names and copy and pasted the code from the old site to the new site. I don't understand how all of that code worked. I just figured if I copy and pasted and named everything the same thing, it should work.

Usually when it comes to programming, if I look at something long enough, I'll figure out how it works... but I didn't want to give this project that much time... We're consultants that I'm not sure if we're even getting paid to do this for our client... actually our client doesn't even know he died yet and doesn't know that their website that they paid mega bucks is sitting on a server that has no human behind it now... if the server crashes, the site is down forever.... we recommend the previous consultant to build the site. Right before he died, our company hired him long term for a project. So that's how we knew he died.

But I was hoping if I named the sylesheets the exact same name and the template exactly the same, however they link between eachother would stay the same on the new site. Is my thinking correct at that?

Ok, I guess I have myself in a position that if the web server turned off today, I'd be OK for the short term. I found a utility called WinHTTrack Website Copier and it was able to copy the whole website locally. I believe it just has it working like an HTML only website though now, so I'd have no way to administer it anymore (if I had to take my local copy and upload it to the new server if the old server turned off today). But I'm able to browse the website offline. I just can't get to the admin login of CMS Made Simple.

One thing I was thinking, when I setup the new CMS Made Simple site, I just named the SQL server and database whatever I came up with... very unlikely the SQL server name is the same as the old server. Don't know if that's why copying the template and the stylesheets don't seem to be working in harmony together like the old site.

I believe that you just need to input the connection info for the destination server into the module on the source server. You do have admin access on the old server right? So if you install the Site Pusher module on the old site and have a new hosting location without an install of cmsms but with ftp access and an empty MySQL database, the site pusher module will copy the old site files and database into the new location.

As I said before, I have not used it in a while so you might want to do some testing on a test install before trying it on your main site.

Yes I do have admin access to the CMS login page. I'll have to take a look at that. I just remember a while back having to have a module added to the website and I had to call the previous tech to have him put it on because I believe it needed direct file access. But I'll give this a try. Thank you!

It should work indeed, but first you have to attach the stylesheet to the template, or it wont be loaded. You can do that by going to the templates page, clicking the blue "css" textballoon behind your template and selecting the right stylesheet.

Once you have done this, you should open the template and look for the {stylesheet} tag. If you find this, change it to {cms_stylesheet} and click apply to save the template. If the template already has {cms_stylesheet} in it, you're already good to go.
(this step is necessary because this tag is changed in CMS 1.10. If your old website is using an older CMS version, chances are big the templates use the old {stylesheet} tag)

If you have done this, most of your website should be working. You also have to check which modules your old website is using. You might want to tell us which so we can give detaild advice about how you can set them up. It'll basically come down to matching all the settings and module templates with your old website.
The site admin -> system information page shows a list of installed modules.

ok, it's working better but not quite right with that tip. It just looks like, to me, the images are missing... which made since about 15 minutes ago... but I found the images and uploaded them to the same spot on the new server and it's still not working...

I found this in the template code...

div#header {
height: 150px; /* adjust according your image size */
background: url(uploads/template/header.png) top center no-repeat;
position:relative;

I downloaded the images off the old website and uploaded them to a folder I created on the new ftp server from the root /uploads/template/

I verified the permissions are correct... rwx for owner and rx for everyone else. (At least I think that's right.)

Any ideas why the images aren't showing?

Your link gives a 403 Forbidden...

Which stylesheet call are you using, the old {stylesheet} call uses the url(****) that you show, the new {cms_stylesheet} uses url([[root_url]]/***) ...

_________________
Extensions » Modules/Tags click the name of the module/tag or Help to the right to get its parameters.
Right click and view source is a great way to see what you have to work with.
Check ver. CMSMS, PHP, server OS, in System Information page.
Default content http://multiintech.com/defaultcontent/
Ever wonder what happened to the Album module? Well it is alive and well.
http://album.multiintech.com/

sorry, i deleted the ftp site and deleted the sql server and started over trying to use the cms plugin that copies from the old site to the new site... don't know if it's working yet. seems to be taking forever and creates a few files but doesn't seem to make any more progress. does anyone know how to tell if that tool is working? I was watching it pretty closely and wondering if I just need to give it all night, so I just walked away.

Ok, like I do many things, I jumped in head first on this one. I deleted my new ftp site and new sql server and started new. I'm trying to push the site over and not having any luck. It seems to copy over a few files from the old ftp site and then just hangs. I've tried messing around with the setting that says how many files to copy over at a time and it doesn't seem to help. It seems as soon as I start copying the site, my admin tool logs out not too long after. I think that's the problem at least. Any suggestions?

(It isn't a huge deal I deleted the site. I can get myself back to the point I was earlier probably in a fraciton of the time it took me the first time.)

I think you were almost there.

Use the advice from Dr.CSS to get the images working. That's probably the last step. If anything is not working then, it's probably modules or tags that you can also quite easy reinstall.

Tip for the next time: make a full backup before you delete (or change) anything.

Can someone help me with that? This is my main stylesheet... I don't see anything wrong. The links look right.

/*****************
browsers interpret margin and padding a little differently,
we'll remove all default padding and margins and
set them later on
******************/
* {
margin:0;
padding:0;
}

/*
Set initial font styles
*/
body {
text-align: left;
font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 75.01%;
line-height: 1em;
}

/*
set font size for all divs,
this overrides some body rules
*/
div {
font-size: 1em;
}

/*
if img is inside "a" it would have
borders, we don't want that
*/
img {
border: 0;
}

/*
default link styles
*/
/* set all links to have underline and bluish color */
a,
a:link
a:active {
text-decoration: underline;
/* css validation will give a warning if color is set without background color. this will explicitly tell this element to inherit bg colour from parent element */
background-color: inherit;
color: #0f86c8;
text-decoration: underline;
}

a:visited {

background-color: inherit;
color: #0f86c8; /* a different color can be used for visited links */
}


/* remove underline on hover and change color */
a:hover {
text-decoration: none;
color: #31346e;
}

/*****************
basic layout
*****************/
body {
background:url(uploads/template/bodybg.png) top center repeat-x #fff;
color: #333;
}

/* center wrapper, min max width */
div#pagewrapper {
margin: 0 auto; /* this centers wrapper */
max-width: 80em; /* IE wont understand these, so we will use javascript magick */
min-width: 60em;
color: black;
}


/*** header ***
we will hide text and replace it with a image
we need to assign a height for it so that the image wont cut off
*/
div#header {
height: 150px; /* adjust according your image size */
background: url(uploads/template/header.png) top center no-repeat;
position:relative;
}

div#header h1 a {
/* you can set your own image here */
background:url(uploads/template/logo.png) no-repeat center center;
display: block;
height: 150px; /* adjust according your image size */
width:150px;
text-indent: -999em; /* this hides the text */
text-decoration:none; /* old firefox would have shown underline for the link, this explicitly hides it */
}


div#address {
position:absolute;
left:140px;
top:23px;
font-size:14px;
font-weight:bold;
color:#686868;
line-height:1.2em;
}

#address h1 {
color:#30307a;
font-family:"Times New Roman", serif;
font-weight:bold;
font-style:italic;
font-size:19px;
line-height:1.4em;
}

div#news {
width:290px;
position:absolute;
top:20px;
right:240px;
height:130px;
overflow:hidden;
margin:0px;
}

#buttons {
position:absolute;
right:0px;
top:30px;
}

#buttons li {
list-style-type:none;
padding:10px 30px;
}

#buttons li a {
font-size:18px;
font-weight:bold;
color:#fff;
text-decoration:none;
}

#buttons li a:hover {
background:transparent;
color:#303079;
}

#buttons li.blue {
background:url(uploads/template/buttonblue.png) center center no-repeat;
}

#buttons li.green {
background:url(uploads/template/buttongreen.png) center center no-repeat;
}

#buttons li.orange {
background:url(uploads/template/buttonorange.png) center center no-repeat;
}

/* position for the search box */
div#search {
padding:20px 0px 20px 20px;
}

#search .label {
color:#a6a6a6;
text-align:left;
padding:5px 0;
}

#search input {
border:1px solid #cbb204;
color:#8c7802;
background:#fffce8;
padding:4px;
}

#search input.submit {
background:#cbb204;
color:#fff;
border:0px;
font-weight:bold;
}

div.breadcrumbs {
padding: 1em 0 1.2em 0; /* CSS short hand rule first value is top then right, bottom and left */
font-size: 90%; /* its good to set fontsizes to be relative, this way viewer can change his/her fontsize */
margin: 0 1em; /* css shorthand rule will be opened to be "0 1em 0 1em" */
border-bottom: 1px dotted #000;
}

div.breadcrumbs span.lastitem {
font-weight:bold;
}

div#content {
margin: 1.5em auto 2em 0; /* some air above and under menu and content */
}


div#main {
margin-left: 29%; /* this will give room for sidebar to be on the left side, make sure this space is bigger than sidebar width */
margin-right: 2%; /* and some air on the right */
}

div#sidebar {
float: left; /* set sidebar on the left side. Change to right to float it right instead. */
width: 26%; /* sidebar width, if you change this please also change #main margins */
display: inline; /* FIX IE double margin bug */
margin-left: 0;
}

div#footer {
clear: both; /* keep footer below content and menu */
color: #5a5954;
background-color: #eae9e2; /* same bg color as in header */
border-top:2px solid #dad9d0;
}

div#footer p {
font-size: 0.8em;
padding: 1.5em; /* some air for footer */
text-align: center; /* centered text */
margin: 0;
}

div#footer p a {
color: #5a5954;* needed becouse footer link would be same color as background otherwise */
}

/* as we hid all hr for accessibility we create new hr with extra div element */
div.hr {
height: 1px;
padding: 1em;
border-bottom: 1px dotted black;
margin: 1em;
}

/* relational links under content */
div.left49 {
width: 49%; /* 50% for both left and right might lead to rounding error on some browser */
}

div.right49 {
float: right;
width: 49%;
text-align: right;
}




/********************
CONTENT STYLING
*********************/
div#content {

}

/* HEADINGS */
div#content h1 {
font-size: 2em; /* font size for h1 */
line-height: 1em;
margin: 0;
color: #31346e;
}
div#content h2 {
color: #31346e;
font-size: 1.8em;
text-align: left;
line-height: 2em;
font-family:"Times New Roman", serif;
font-style:italic;
}
div#content h3 {
color: #31346e;
font-size: 1.3em;
line-height: 1.3em;
margin: 0 0 0.5em 0;
}
div#content h4 {
color: #294B5F;
font-size: 1.2em;
line-height: 1.3em;
margin: 0 0 0.25em 0;
}
div#content h5 {
color: #294B5F;
font-size: 1.1em;
line-height: 1.3em;
margin: 0 0 0.25em 0;
}
h6 {
color: #294B5F;
font-size: 1em;
line-height: 1.3em;
margin: 0 0 0.25em 0;
}
/* END HEADINGS */

/* TEXT */
p {
font-size: 1em;
margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; /* some air around p elements */
line-height: 1.4em;
padding: 0;
}

blockquote {
border-left: 10px solid #ddd;
margin-left: 10px;
}
strong, b {
/* explicit setting for these */
font-weight: bold;
}
em, i {
/* explicit setting for these */
font-style:italic;
}

/* Wrapping text in <code> tags. Makes CSS not validate */
code, pre {
white-space: pre-wrap; /* css-3 */
white-space: -moz-pre-wrap; /* Mozilla, since 1999 */
white-space: -pre-wrap; /* Opera 4-6 */
white-space: -o-pre-wrap; /* Opera 7 */
word-wrap: break-word; /* Internet Explorer 5.5+ */
font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;
font-size: 1em;
}

pre {
border: 1px solid #000; /* black border for pre blocks */
background-color: #ddd;
margin: 0 1em 1em 1em;
padding: 0.5em;
line-height: 1.5em;
font-size: 90%;


}

/* Separating the divs on the template explanation page, with some bottom-border */
div.templatecode {
margin: 0 0 2.5em;
}

/* END TEXT */

/* LISTS */
/* lists in content need some margins to look nice */
div#main ul,
div#main ol,
div#main dl {
font-size: 1.0em;
line-height: 1.4em;
margin: 0 0 1.5em 0;
}

div#main ul li,
div#main ol li {
margin: 0 0 0.25em 3em;
}

/* definition lists topics on bold */
div#main dl dt {
font-weight: bold;
margin: 0 0 0 1em;
}
div#main dl dd {
margin: 0 0 1em 1em;
}

div#main dl {
margin-bottom: 2em;
padding-bottom: 1em;
border-bottom: 1px solid #c0c0c0;
}


/* END LISTS */

#above_content {
padding:5px 10px 25px 10px;
font-size:1.3em;
font-weight:bold;
color:#ff0000;
line-height:1.3em;
}

#above_content a {
text-decoration:underline;
}

#above_content p {
display:inline;
}