Please help - how repair a partial old installation?

[Webdongle]

Wamp is a virtual server ... it is installed on a PC like any PC software and allows your PC to act like a server.
By creating folders in Wamp's /www folder you can have several sites on your PC.

Unzip the Joomla full package to your www/newfolder
Start Wamp
Point your browser at localhost/newfolder
Fill in the fields during installation
It's that simple.

Points to note during installtion
* Database Host change localhost to 127.0.0.1 (often makes the localhost server run faster on Windows).
* On localhost the Joomla installation will create the database to the name you put in the 'Database name' field. (If it fails to connect to the database then check all 3 Wamp services are running).

[Scorpio47]

Thanks for the short guide. I have already installed before using XAMP which is more or less the same...

Once this is all installed, can you give my an "economic" method to import the existing (old) php files over to this new installation on localhost?

I hope there is a better way than just copy and paste....

Thank you and take care,
Juergen

[Webdongle]

... I have already installed before using XAMP which is more or less the same...

No they are different. With Wamp you can change php version on the fly. And you can add new php versions as they come out.

...
Once this is all installed, can you give my an "economic" method to import the existing (old) php files over to this new installation on localhost?...

NO, NO, NO, you do NOT copy the old files to the new Joomla installation. The old files are not your old site ... they are old Joomla files that are no longer used !!!

Once you install Joomla in www/newfolder you then
go to www/newfolder/administrator
login
then add content to the new Joomla installation.

The new Joomla installation will have the new Joomla files do NOT touch those files !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Scorpio47]

NO, NO, NO, you do NOT copy the old files to the new Joomla installation. The old files are not your old site ... they are old Joomla files that are no longer used !!!

Once you install Joomla in www/newfolder you then
go to www/newfolder/administrator
login
then add content to the new Joomla installation.

The new Joomla installation will have the new Joomla files do NOT touch those files !!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello Webdongle,
thank you for the warning!

So all I can do then is to copy text (and text only) from the old files into newly created ones, transfer the images and link them in those new files, right?

Lots of work ahead, I am afraid.....

Thanks for everything and have a great day
Juergen

[sozzled]

So all I can do then is to copy text (and text only) from the old files into newly created ones, transfer the images and link them in those new files, right?

If you don't have a database there won't be any text to copy. There may be one or two salvageable images but little else. Joomla does not store text content in the file system; text content—99.5% of it—is stored in the database. The 0.5% of text that is not stored in the database is scattered among the 30,000 files you may find; for example, the website name is stored in the file configuration.php (but the site name is missing from your configuration.php file posted earlier in this topic).

Unless you knew what the original J! 1.7 website was used for, how it looked, what it contained and how it fitted into the overall site design I believe you're wasting your time (based on the information you've given us). If it was my J! website and I didn't have the database (or a site backup) I would give up immediately.

[Webdongle]

...
So all I can do then is to copy text (and text only) from the old files into newly created ones, transfer the images and link them in those new files, right?...

Wrong!!! ...

The new Joomla installation will have the new Joomla files do NOT touch those files !!!!!!!!!!!!
Means you do not copy into them. It means that you do NOT do anything to them.

Once you install Joomla in www/newfolder you then go to www/newfolder/administrator and log in to joomla's 'backend'. That has interactive input screens that PUT data into the database. Then in the 'frontend' (www/newfolder) GETs the data from the database and displays it on the screen.

[Scorpio47]

Hello Sozzled and Webdongle:

thank you for your warning and clarification again.

I think I should probably follow sozzled´s suggestion and simple give up this idea, just too bad, but the harsh reality seems to beat a dream

I do not know if you have ever opened this URL http://nato-virtual.com/ to get an impression how the old webpresence looked like?
When you know the file names and path, it is possible to display many pages and I do not understand how the text comes into those displays if there is no database. That should not be possible, if I understand what you say.....
http://nato-virtual.com/startup/intro.php is another example, with text and pictures displaying correctly....

Could it be therefore that there still IS a database somewhere and we just have not found it (neither has the fpa assistant)?

This will be my last attempt to find out if there really is NO CHANCE to get this website resurrected and if your advice as experts is to give up, then that will be it I guess.

Thank you all for your patience with a complete newbie like me as well as for the time you invested in giving me answers, I appreciate it that VERY MUCH!

Kind regards
Juergen

[Per Yngve Berg]

Those two links are not Joomla.

[Webdongle]

Even though those aren't Joomla sites, you can use Joomla to create a site like that.

[Scorpio47]

Even though those aren't Joomla sites, you can use Joomla to create a site like that.

Hello Webdongle, I am sure it is possible, the only question is what kind of effort that would require....

But as I said, I am hesitating to say the least and might wait for cooler days first and longer nights to spend in front of that little screen....

Thank you for your support and the motivation to try some day.

Have a great week and take care
Juergen