Can't connect to database

[HeleneWallis]

My hosting company is telling me that the reason my site still isn't working is that a wordpress database was deleted (at their request) and it's somehow involved in connecting to the zencart database. I have explained to them that zencart does not use wordpress databases, period, but they insist that they can't restore the site to normal operation without the missing wordpress database. So I'm dead in the water. Can anyone help?

[HeleneWallis]

Update to the above--my hosting company is saying they just can't figure out what's wrong. They want me to do a vanilla re-install of zencart in a different directory and then try to connect that to the existing database. I'm afraid that I may wipe out the database with all my data in it if I do that. I have a backup and will do another one, but I'm not convinced this is going to make any difference. Does anyone have any idea why the software wouldn't be able to connect to the database that's been in use all along?

[barco57]

sounds like you need someone who knows what they are doing to log in and lay eyeballs on it...

[HeleneWallis]

sounds like you need someone who knows what they are doing to log in and lay eyeballs on it...

I have no problem with that, but I don't think anyone can tell anything more than I can from just looking at what's available via ftp or via cpanel. The techs are telling me that there was some kind of connection through an old Wordpress database that was deleted. The only thing I can think of is that they somehow did that when I was moved to the VPS about a year ago. There was an old and unused Wordpress database on the site at that time, but there would have been no reason to make any connection with it, and I certainly did not. It took them four days to get my site up after moving to the VPS, and I wonder now what sort of workarounds they tried in order to get everything to work.

[barco57]

ok, cpanel... go in and remove the current user on the database, create a new user and attach it to the database and change the config files to use that new connection information for the new user.

[HeleneWallis]

ok, cpanel... go in and remove the current user on the database, create a new user and attach it to the database and change the config files to use that new connection information for the new user.

I'll try that, though I'm squeamish about removing anything at this point, lol.

[mc12345678]

Why's? Because they've manipulated any number of characteristics/parts of accessing the database, username, permissions, database name, server on which it is hosted, permissions of connecting from another location (did just move the site from where it was to the VPS), they've changed the DB_PREFIX within the database, etc... any of these and possibly others could be the cause. Making/keeping a backup of the database (which for other reading is a different backup than that of the files that serve the store) is a grand idea.

It may take creating a new database with credentials for a new user, to then have the contents of your existing database imported into that new database. Then of course to update the includes/configure.php and admin/includes/configure.php files as necessary to support using the old content in the new database.

As far as concerns from your side of installing as you go through the zc_install process, don't install to the working good database

[mc12345678]

Also should mention. When ZC identifies the inability to connect to the database, it typically starts off with some "cookie-cutter" message, but it's the last few bullets in the message that really get to the meat of the issue and should identify what the cause is for not being able to connect. If that can't be decyphered, then please post the entirety of the message protecting whatever nugget is now considered "personal" though it may have previously been published elsewhere.

[HeleneWallis]

Also should mention. When ZC identifies the inability to connect to the database, it typically starts off with some "cookie-cutter" message, but it's the last few bullets in the message that really get to the meat of the issue and should identify what the cause is for not being able to connect. If that can't be decyphered, then please post the entirety of the message protecting whatever nugget is now considered "personal" though it may have previously been published elsewhere.

No problem with doing that, but I'm not sure where to find it. Nothing is being logged in the zencart error file.

[mc12345678]

No problem with doing that, but I'm not sure where to find it. Nothing is being logged in the zencart error file.

Ok. There have been like 4 or 5 threads that seem related to this issue. In each there have been diagnostic suggestions offered to see what is loading within ZC. The current situation hasn't identified if a blank screen is involved, the FAQ to which has been previously provided. Considering that the configure.php files have been edited, I would repeat barco57's comment about checking those files for proper format and information. The fact that the front end gets started indicates that there is/was a database connection but then if there was a database problem logged at the server level it may be that they have some sort of database caching or other utility that is causing an issue.

All that plus there has been no discussion/answer about the file comparison(s) that have been requested. I know I still haven't gone back to review the presence somewhere in the file system for one of the issues that was reported in the server log and reportedly a server side only issue that supposedly was adjusted/corrected, but begs the question of how a server could be setup in that way to cause the issue(s) observed and still be considered a functional server...