This fine blog is destined to disappear in a few short days, probably by the end of this week or the next. But maybe you -- yes, you! can save it.
No, I don't want your money. (Let me amend that. I do want your money, but now I'll have to think of another devious way to part you from it. Curses!)
Here's what's happening. I'll shortly be changing my hosting package at 1&1. When that occurs, I am warned:
Please be aware all data will be lost when transferring to another package. It is the sole responsibility of the customer to backup any information in a timely manner before requesting an upgrade.
I'm guessing that the new account will be created on a different server. Whatever, this blog would seem to be toast once that happens.
I've backed up all my templates and entries, of course. So what's the problem, you ask. You would ask that. It's just that, er, um, well . . .
My name is gnotalex, and I . . .
Hello, gnotalex!
I . . . I've never installed Movable Type before.
"B-b-b-but," you exclaim, "is this not an MT blog?"
Indeed it is, and I'd recommend you seek treatment for that stuttering problem. It was originally set up for me by the estimable King of Fools (actually twice, when he had to reinstall it after I accidentally locked myself out of the admin permissions).
I've been working with computers for a long time, and I'm sure that I'm more computer-literate than most. It's just that I have a limited aptitude for programming them; a disability that extends to working with HTML and CSS (yes, I did more or less "design" this blog, but that was just trial-and-error tinkering with default MT templates); as well as, I fear, installing Movable Type.
I was looking at the MT installation documents the other day, in the hope that they'd gotten simpler over the last few years. No such luck. They still are as dense and mysterious to me as Revenue Canada tax schedules.
Also, if I have to start from scratch, I may as well move to the latest version of MT. I've been wanting to change to a 3-column format, but my difficulties with HTML and CSS (see above) have precluded that. I see that MT has several new styles that look like they'd fit my needs.
That's all that'd be required. A fresh install of MT 3.2 (and if it wouldn't be too much time and trouble, a separate blog in a subdomain for testing purposes). There's no change of domain or other complications. I would also feel much more secure if there was someone out there that I could rely on for technical advice. I've only had a few problems with this blog and I was eventually able to puzzle them out -- it would be nice, though, in the event of a real emergency, to be able to talk with someone who actually understands how this conglomeration of Perl scripts and MySQL ju-ju majik operates.
And the reward for all this? Not much. My eternal gratitude, and a spot forever on my blogroll, if you aren't already there.
Yes, I am a cheap bastard, now that I think about it.
But don't you worry about me. I'll somehow (sniff) muddle through. It shouldn't take longer than two or three months. (Sniff!) See you then. (Boo-hoo!)
So! Any volunteers? Leave a comment or email me here. (And do let me know when in the next week would be best for you.)
Comments (4)
Its a bitch. One way is to save each page as an html document in a folder, and later reload it into your new site.
Posted by Eugene Plawiuk | September 13, 2006 6:18 AM
Posted on September 13, 2006 06:18
Good decision to move to MT 3.2. It's spam protections, while not complete, stop 99% of the crap I had before. But it is a pain to switch.
I went through a similar thing recently, so I'll give you my story. I can give you some help, but first let me describe what I did.
You have to first export your current site to a file. You can find this function on your MT interface. Unfortunately this process doesn't work too well. What happens I think is that the web server will cancel the process because it's taking too long. This results in a export file that is truncated, and only holds part of your complete archives. What I had to do was delete the entries that made it into the archive, and then export again. A tedious process, but maybe you'll be lucky and it won't happen to you.
Then build your new site and import the old archives. And fix all the templates. Actually start the templates over from scratch because the new MT won't work with the old templates. Another pain, I know.
Here's what I suggest you do. Do the export thing with your current site. If you have to do it the incremental way I described, do it, but don't rebuilt your site. All your entries will still be there, but just your database will be changed. Then once you have all entries in archives, you can import them in your old site and nothing will have changed.
Then set up what will be your new site on 1&1 (which is the host I use). Don't switch your DNS. (I hope you know what I'm talking about here because I don't want this post to get even longer.) Work on the new site in parallel to your old site still functioning. Getting a quick plain site is easy, but you'll probably be fine-tuning it for awhile. You'll be able to look at your work through a placeholder URL (mine is http://s93877300.onlinehome.us, for example) until you get it the way you want it. Then you switch your DNS.
I'm not an expert at this by any means, but being able to do a handoff like this makes the transition easier. Basically, you can't wreck anything, and your site never goes down or looks like a disaster zone. And you have to time to break the problems down and deal with them.
If you need more info, feel free to call me. I'm home most weekdays and will be home tomorrow (today, ugh). Hell, I never go anywhere anymore. I'm in the book.
Good luck, and don't let your blog die!
Posted by Bruce Gottfred | September 16, 2006 10:28 PM
Posted on September 16, 2006 22:28
Oops. Just reread your plea. You're upgrading your package, not switching providers. Well.
The stuff about the archives is the same. Just create a subdirectory and install 3.2 there. Play with it until you're happy, import the archives, then change the 'site URL' in the settings to your base address in the new install, and redirect the 'site URL' in the old install and rebuild.
I could write more but I gotta go to bed. Good luck.
Posted by Bruce Gottfred | September 16, 2006 10:36 PM
Posted on September 16, 2006 22:36
Ah, thanks for that, Bruce. I've put off the change until the week after next, so I'll have some time to experiment.
The entire blog will disappear once it happens, though. But if I can successfully set up a blog in the meantime in a subdomain, I should be able to repeat the process from scratch.
Posted by gnotalex | September 17, 2006 8:13 PM
Posted on September 17, 2006 20:13