Back up and restore a Dolphin website

What do you need to save?

Dolphin is a script for building a community or dating website. A script is a ready-made program that runs on your web space. A Dolphin site has two parts. The first part is files, such as pictures, videos and program code. The second is the database, which is a filing cabinet that holds members, messages and settings. A real backup needs both parts.

Back up the files

1. Log in to your hosting control panel.
2. Open the File Manager.
3. Go to the folder that holds your Dolphin site.
4. Select all the files and folders.
5. Choose Compress and make a zip file. A zip file packs many files into one.
6. Download the zip file to your computer.

You can use FTP instead. FTP is a tool that copies files between your computer and the server.

Back up the database

1. In your control panel, open phpMyAdmin. It is a tool to manage databases.
2. Click the Dolphin database name on the left.
3. Click Export at the top.
4. Keep the Quick method and the SQL format.
5. Click Go. A .sql file downloads.

If you forgot the database name, find it in the file inc/header.inc.php in your Dolphin folder. Dolphin 7 stores its database details there.

Restore your site

1. Upload your zip file to the site folder and extract it. Choose Extract in the File Manager.
2. Create an empty database and a database user in your control panel, if the old ones are gone.
3. Open phpMyAdmin and click the empty database.
4. Click Import.
5. Click Choose File and select your .sql file.
6. Click Go.
7. If the database name, user or password is different now, open inc/header.inc.php and fix those values.
8. Open your site in a browser and test it.

Hostvento hosting may also include backup tools in your control panel. Ask support what is on your plan.

Quick recap

• A Dolphin backup needs files and a database.
• Zip the files. Export the database in phpMyAdmin.
• To restore, extract the files and import the .sql file.
• Fix inc/header.inc.php if the database details changed.