Fantastico Upgrade trashed frontpage

[Garratt Campton]

Hey guys,

So I'm not a web developer so to speak, I have a couple blogs so know basic html,css, and know how to copy/paste php/mysql (also did 1 semester at uni in c++/java about 5 years ago). I work at a small hardware wholesaler, who is using zencart. Our website developer costs far too much to call when something goes wrong, so usually it's my job to fix it which has been OK in the past but now I'm stuck as I've never used ZC before.

I accidentally 1 click upgraded (on purpose) zencart/phplist/support/etc via Fantastico, when I was going to install a WordPress blog.

Not so bad, just the title/description meta tags have changed and the homepage for the site (from what I can tell).

I have figured out how to change the meta tags, however I can't figure out how to get our homepage back.
The menu's sidebars etc are all still there, just the main page content. Instead we have a "Congratulations for upgrading Zencart" message in place of what should be a web page.

I have found where Fantastico saved the backups, but no idea if this homepage was a database setting or a template file.
I went to the frontend admin saw the area where I can add the homepage html. Then went to look in the backend admin area, which looked like a Zencart install script. Asking me for user-pass mysql details. So I simply hit the back button as I didn't want to break anything.

Can anyone help us please?

[DrByte]

Since it's impossible to guess (without consulting them or doing an inspection of all the files including backups) whether the person who designed your site did it by correctly putting all their customizations into override folders (which would prevent them from being replaced blindly by any 1-click upgrade script), your best course of action is to restore both database AND files from backup, and then plan a proper upgrade (ie: one done without those dangerous 1-click things like Fantastico)

[Garratt Campton]

Thanks Dr.

Just to make sure I'm on the right track as I've always just used "Vaultpress" for wp in the past (and haven't needed to use it).

I go to "Backup Wizard" in CPanel, and restore the files and database that way?

Since it's impossible to guess (without consulting them or doing an inspection of all the files including backups) whether the person who designed your site did it by correctly putting all their customizations into override folders (which would prevent them from being replaced blindly by any 1-click upgrade script)

Possibly not impossible to guess

I make a big fat guess at no... trust me the backend looks like a truck hit it, there's about 5 installations of zencart from what I can tell, all clones of each other? and there's also about 15 different templates where "custom" should be. Looks like an experimental dev to me. (as in he gots nfi what he's doing, but charges like a professional)

[DrByte]

I go to "Backup Wizard" in CPanel, and restore the files and database that way?

Disclaimer: That's a pretty broad sweep, as in it restores your entire account, beyond just Zen Cart. Be sure that the date of backup you're restoring is as recent as possible, because *everything* done on your site since that backup will be lost.

[Garratt Campton]

Disclaimer: That's a pretty broad sweep, as in it restores your entire account, beyond just Zen Cart. Be sure that the date of backup you're restoring is as recent as possible, because *everything* done on your site since that backup will be lost.

It's just a "catalog" backup which is the folder that zencart was installed to. It also has a database file within it. Should be fine yeah?
The backup which fantastico created.


Is there no way to tell if this homepage was a file or DB?

[Garratt Campton]

Or would it be better if I just extract the tar file in file manager and overwrite the previous catalog folder and then backup the database?

I'm just not sure which method, or how I go about restoring so if you have any idea which would be best, and I won't blame you if I happen to break it. You've directed me as best you could.

[DrByte]

With a cPanel "full site backup", it's a tarball which contains both your file directories and an export of the databases. I have on one occasion taken the extracted files and put them back in their expected place and also restored the database from the exported backup, thus putting both the files and database back in sync.

Remember, this is all time-sensitive, and if your cPanel backups are being rotated out, remember that they will eventually be deleted at some point, thus you will lose the backup file and be unable to restore.

[Garratt Campton]

It's not a Cpanel backup it's a Fantastico backup for Zencart Only. It also created backups for other cms's when the update was performed.

By your answers I'm assuming the Cpanel backup wizard is Fullsite backup only, so my only other option is to extract the tar file and somehow restore the database file in phpmyadmin.

Is that right or is there some other way of restoring I'm missing?

[DrByte]

I imagine the same principles would apply: unzip it, replace the files, and restore the database.