Author Topic: Can the CSB file be recovered from my Website?  (Read 3293 times)

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Can the CSB file be recovered from my Website?
« on: September 12, 2009, 03:05:29 PM »
My computer and backup were lost due to what I'm
guessing was electrical in nature.

My CSB site is up and has critical 24/7 pages for
my clients.  Is there anyway of getting the CSB
file back...reverse engineering?  I'm grasping but
I had to ask.

I have CSB5 and my reg code...just hate starting from
scratch.

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  • Sami
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Re: Can the CSB file be recovered from my Website?
« Reply #1 on: September 13, 2009, 03:26:31 AM »
I feel terrible about your loss.

Before we do anything...
1) BEST CASE SCENARIO:  Having a copy of the design file.
Did you copy any of your tlx design files onto REMOVEABLE storage?
- CD
- DVD
- Zip Drive
- USB thumbnail drive
- ANYTHING removeable?
Or were all your backup copies on the drive that was damaged?

2) SECOND BEST:  CSB 4 & CSB 5 can make backups for you.
CSB can make a backup for you and send it to your host, just in case something bad happens.
If you had that option checked in the publishing options, it would have slowed your publishing, but you would have a complete backup of the tlx design file.  

When you published, did you ask CSB to make a backup copy when you publish?
MOST PEOPLE DO NOT ask CSB to make a backup.  It makes publishing take longer.
If you DID ask CSB to make the backup file, it will be easy to find on your website.

Use an FTP software to connect to your website.
Then go to where your home page is.
Scroll up and down through the window and look for a file name that ends in .cab
If you have a .cab backup file, you will be in luck.
If you have it, you can download it, and follow the instructions on this page to use it again:  http://kb.globalscape.com/article.aspx?id=10298&cNode=6T0V4B

(We have a thread all about backups. The second post discusses that CSB backup option in detail, with a screen shot of the option in CSB)


IF you DO NOT have the .tlx design file(s) or the .cab backup file for your website, you have limited options. And none are very good options or very fast!

Before we discuss them, let me stress this to you:
You MUST get a copy of everything on your website.   The way it is right now.
This is VERY important.    
Use FTP software or file manager/control panel at your host to download ALL PAGES, ALL FILES of your website to your own computer as a backup.
Make a backup of everything out there so if you mess up while rebuilding you can put something back up.   Depending on the size of the site this may take a long time but WELL WORTH THE EFFORT!!!!


You have the HTML for the site on the server.  That is what we see when we visit your website.
(I just told you to make a copy of it on your computer before you make any decisions/changes.)
There is no way to turn the HTML back into a .tlx file.
CSB is an HTML generator.  You do not directly edit the HTML files.  CSB makes the HTML for you.
If you want to continue to use CSB to build and edit your website, you will have a slow process.
1) You must either start over with a blank file and build from scratch. You can make a new design, new colors, new layout and make it fresh.
2) OR:  You can COPY/PASTE your content page by page back into a new tlx design file.
The only way to recapture a CSB site from the web is to go to your site online, open a new .tlx file, and copy and paste from the site into the .tlx file. Copy and paste the actual text, images, etc. - not the source code. If the site isn't too large, that can be easier than starting from scratch.  

If you want to edit the HTML directly you could start with your site's current HTML file and take it forward with a different program.  This would be a good time to consider switching to an editor.
 

WARNING:
If you republish a partial re-do of the site it will overwrite everything now online, unless you publish as a subdirectory.
 
But if you don't want to do the whole thing in one swoop, you can publish the redone pages to a subdirectory until you have everything ready. In fact, depending on the size of the site, this could be a great opportunity to publish different parts of it to different subdirectories to cut down on publishing time and to help organize your site.  

If you build a new .tlx file and then publish it to your site address where you already have pages built by CSB, you'll probably get a warning that you're about to overwrite the entire site and asking if you want to continue. If you're ready, say yes




(You posted the same question under another area of the forum...I deleted it so all answers stay on one thread for best response)
« Last Edit: September 14, 2009, 02:22:15 PM by Samrc »
-Samantha
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