My company's website used to be hosted locally, but was redesigned and later recoded by a marketing company to be more search engine optimized etc. The marketing company started hosting our website at this point and currently still is. (Potential) Problems have recently come up between us and the marketing company and I fear (because it will be entirely up to me to fix everything) that ties may end badly and leave our website in an unusable state.

I can login to the current host's server to find several folders i.e. public_html etc. Within that folder are several php files and other folders for tools such as clickheat--things you'd expect. There are no html files anywhere within what I have access to with my ftp login.

The site is: http://www.midbrook.com

To make this post easier to respond to:
1. In terms of filetypes, what do I need to obtain to put the site up at a new host
2. Am I SOL without cooperation from the marketing company
3. What information do you need from me to help answer these questions?

Thanks in advance!

Seems to me like they are using just using PHP files throughout the site rather than HTML files (of course, the user only sees the HTML at their end, but the files themselves are PHP).

Example - this is where the link goes (presumably they are using mod_rewrite or something):

http://www.midbrook.com/equipment

However, if you type in http://www.midbrook.com/equipment.php, it loads the same page.

However, this might be another mod_rewrite trick by directing anyone visiting the page name with a different file type to the same page.

I would recommend viewing the source of the HTML pages you want, and copying that locally. I'd also recommend downloading all images and placing them locally in folders the same as on the server. You should also download the CSS files. All of this can be done via a browser if necessary, if you can't access the files using FTP.

Once you've downloaded everything, then if relations do deteriorate, you'll have backups of the main files and you can upload them to a new web host and keep the site running smoothly. I'd also recommend having the domain hosted somewhere else than with the marketing company (if it is with the marketing company), as companies can be quite aggressive when they aren't getting paid!

Dan

Originally Posted by whym

Seems to me like they are using just using PHP files throughout the site rather than HTML files (of course, the user only sees the HTML at their end, but the files themselves are PHP).

What about a database? The source of the main page in the browzer shows up nowhere in the index.php file (or in any of the php files I have access to).

Thanks again

Originally Posted by lrobinson

What about a database? The source of the main page in the browzer shows up nowhere in the index.php file (or in any of the php files I have access to).

Thanks again

Ideally, yes download the database. I think you can do this through cPanel if you are using it. Also download the PHP files.

This is the ideal solution. However, you could simply view the HTML source code and save that as individual HTML files on your computer as a backup. At leas then you'd have the content and the images (you'd have to download these too), so if they stopped access to the site, you'd have everything backed up.

Dan

I can login to the current host's server to find several folders i.e. public_html etc. Within that folder are several php files and other folders for tools such as clickheat--things you'd expect. There are no html files anywhere within what I have access to with my ftp login.

You will also need cPanel access if of the site is database driven. If not simply downloading all the current files in the public_html and cgi_bin may be enough.

First rule when making a change like this is to backup everything to your hard drive before you notify the current party you are making a change. Most people are honest and fair but some will cripple the site in some manner to haunt you.