Upgrading website

[monkey44]

My wife has a go-daddy website for her art. It took her a lot of hours to build it, as neither one of us is very tech-savvy. She pays an annual fee to host there.

Go-daddy just sent her a notice that Go-daddy will no longer support her template (A older Go-daddy template) after six months. And wants to charge her $300 to transfer it over to a new template.

Understandably, she's pretty upset. Can anyone tell us if there is a way to migrate one complete website into a new template without her re-doing every photo (she displays photos of her art, lots of them) and she knows it will take lots of time to re-do all the website ...

Not sure if I can give the site here, but if anyone wants to see it, to know if it can direct transfer, please PM me. Go-daddy says there is not a way to transfer her site, but then again, it wants $300 to do it, so there must be a way to simply flip it ...

Thanks ... Bill & Genie ...

[mich800]

Web hosts are like vehicles, insurance, etc. You do not need to look very far for someone that has had a bad experience or good experiences with every single one. If you are looking for a consensus on which one to use it just is not going to happen. If you use someones proprietary web builder instead of building yourself whether is is wordpress or any of the other CMS type builders you are taking some of your control away to make changes to either your template or moving to a different host easily. If it was me I would move to a platform that is more easily transported to a different host if you ever become unhappy with your current service. It may be more work initially but you will not need to worry about something like this occurring again in the future.

[wa8yxm]

Sounds like a bait and switch scam to me.

Sorry, I do not do website design.

[Goostoff]

I too use hostgator and have been very happy with customer service and everythig. Been with them since 2009. I started it using seamonkey to build the pages and then filezilla for FTP to upload the site. It is very simple stuff to use and work with.
I also use coppermine on that site for loading all photos into one place.

All of this stuff is free to download on the internet and hostgator is about $119 a year and cpanel makes it much easier to maintain yousite.

[joebedford]

I've been joomla for a site I created / maintain. Once you set up your template, it's easy to add / maintain content.

[1492]

There is one key lesson that I would take to heart. Be wary of using any type of proprietary system without thoroughly evaluating its future viability. The Open Road Forums is a good example? Custom coded solution due to some unique feature requirements, it apparently relied more on patching over the years, then a concerted migration plan as it was no longer supported by its original developers.

I went through a similar situation last year, when our proprietary enterprise system became so outdated, though cutting edge in early 2000s. Yet no longer supported by its developers, nor compatible with current Windows Server OS, as previous OS versions no longer supported with MS security patches. Worse, with no easy way to extract archived files as it used a proprietary system storing raw data in its own format.

Can't really comment on your situation, as need to see your site? Though looks like you've determined the need to upgrade to a different system?

Would a blogging (or CMS) system work such as Wordpress or Blogger.com? You can add/edit/delete content on the front-end from a browser, without having to do so from back-end if using HTML? Another advantage being you don't have to install these yourself as they are available ready to use.

[Gene_Ginny]

Some more thoughts I will post here rather than a PM as others may be following this issue.

I saw where Go Daddy was changing their "Website Builder" from version 6 to version 7 (your pages have v6.2.5) and there was a way through their interface to build pages with their new version 7. I don't know how complex is is to do that or if it is a drag and drop operation. :h That may be a short term solution.

It could be that older templates were based on an older version of PHP code embedded in the templates which the users can not see. I had an issue many years ago where the hosting company was going to upgrade from PHP4 to PHP5 and they told users that any pages written in PHP4 needed to be updated to PHP5 code statements within 6 months. With my VPS boxes I decide which version of code to install and run.

An option for building sites on your own computer are programs like Dreamweaver. You compose the layout, Dreamweaver creates the code and then lets you upload the whole shebang to a normal host.

... still looking for a way to get all your stuff from Go Daddy ...

[monkey44]

x96mnn wrote:
Been with GoDaddy 2 yrs and have not been approached with this issue. It may be in the mail to me so to speak! If it is I have had 2 years through and know it will cost me more anywhere else I go so will pay it, have two sites.

Completely understand you not though! If I had did my sites 6 months ago and got hit with this then I may feel the same!

When she got the message, she called/chatted (?) with Go-daddy, just to be sure it was not a mistake, or a scammer ... Go-daddy told her the HER specific set of templates was going defunct - so it might not be the entire site, only specific templates they're deleting

That makes it even worse because Go-daddy is picking and choosing who to dismantle. Maybe they are specifically dismantling the 'self-build' parts ... and in this case, she'll have to start over and re-build the entire website. That's a lot of hours, even if she was a tech savvy person ... altho she does have some skills, she not nearly a technician.

[x96mnn]

Been with GoDaddy 2 yrs and have not been approached with this issue. It may be in the mail to me so to speak! If it is I have had 2 years through and know it will cost me more anywhere else I go so will pay it, have two sites.

Completely understand you not though! If I had did my sites 6 months ago and got hit with this then I may feel the same!

[Gene_Ginny]

2012Coleman wrote:
Go to Hostgator.com and look halfway down the page. It states:

Transferring From Another Host?
Our dedicated Migrations Team is standing by to transfer your existing content from your prior host and configure it to perform optimally on our platform. We can also transfer domain registrations from other registrars in order to provide you complete management of your entire online portfolio all in one place!

...

That only works when there is some kind of control panel where they access the site and zip it to transfer it as one zipped file. The "Website Builder" on Go Daddy doesn't give you access to the underlying PHP scripts that deliver the HTML pages.

[monkey44]

Genie and I thank you all for your input - as it appears now, she will have to move to a different host as she now does not trust this host site ...

She has six months to make the change before the site fails (crashes, deletes - whatever happens?) and will try to figure out the best way to resolve this.

In fact, we only have two months because we're heading out on a cross-country trip end of May, so she wants to do it before we get on the road, for obvious reasons. We value the input from all our RV friends across the nation - and will stay tuned here for any info you all can offer to help.

She's investigating other host sites now, especially after reading the link Gene sent ... and hope we can find a way to transport all the work shes already done. Never easy, is it? Thx guys B

If anyone wants to look at the site to see the issues (if it helps) you can search jlacycouglan and find her site ... if that's not against the RV.net rules to post her name ... never know??

[Gene_Ginny]

I looked at Bill's Wife's website and came away with some observations. It is built using Go Daddy Website Builder from Starfield Technologies. This is different than hosting most people are used to using cPanel (Linux) or Plesk (Windows) control pannels to upload and manage a site. It seems, from what I can find so far, that the only access is through the "Website Builder" interface on the Go Daddy website. They have pre-built templates that you can modify and then drag and drop pictures and stuff. The user CAN NOT build a whole page with HTML but can insert small bits of HTML. The Website Builder then wraps it all in server side PHP code that the user can not see. The PHP code then delivers HTML code using bits and pieces (text, pictures, layout) gathered on the fly as a person looks at the webpage. It is a good system for artists that know design but don't need to waste time learing learning all the "tech" stuff.

There is some interesting reading about Starfield Technologies HERE

I would also be "upset" at having to throw down $300 for something the hosting company does. Sounds almost like ransomeware. I think Go Daddy is very good at the Gotcha stuff.

I am still looking at ways to retrieve the content. Linux programs like WGET or Curl can get the content in HTML form. more later ....

[2012Coleman]

Go to Hostgator.com and look halfway down the page. It states:

Transferring From Another Host?

Our dedicated Migrations Team is standing by to transfer your existing content from your prior host and configure it to perform optimally on our platform. We can also transfer domain registrations from other registrars in order to provide you complete management of your entire online portfolio all in one place!

Note the part about transferring your existing content - this includes pictures. I believe this is your answer.

Hostgators rates are very reasonable and usually cheaper than GoDaddy. Their customer support is unmatched - you can call them directly or do a chat session. I have several Drupal sites with them, and I'm blown away by the help I get with them.

Transfer your domain away from GoDaddy as well. They are really not top notch as your current dilemma proves.

Good Luck!

[monkey44]

Part of the 'p....s off" is she's been building it and modifying it for a couple years. Now, the host is forcing her to re-do everything or charge $300 ...

It's not the value of charging $300, maybe that's reasonable ... but Go-Daddy is charging her because GO-Daddy made a change, not that she made a change. She's been paying them every year as host and believes they should not charge her because Go-daddy suddenly makes her work obsolete. As one (both of us) lack tech skills, it becomes more difficult.

It's not specifically the price / value of the change - it's once again the tech world forcing a person change something she does not choose to change. She's perfectly happy with what she has now.

[ReadyToGo]

Just because they are "not supporting her template" does not mean it isnt usable. That would usually mean there aren't any more updates to the source. She could possibly keep on updating pictures.
As someone posted, go to the forum and find out.