The way I would proceed would be to clone the site using a backup of the files and database – installing it locally on a laptop using XAMPP or something similar and perform an upgrade on that, then an alternative way of achieving the same functionality as provided by the core hack can be investigated.
Thanks for the reply. I have approached one or two web designers but they seem “scared” to touch it! To be honest my thing is content writing and SEo and the site was managed, and uploaded , by someone else so i have never done anything like that before. Can you recommend anyone who would do it for me?
Its a rule of the forum that you can’t use the forum as a job board, so it wouldn’t be allowed to recommend anyone or offer to take on the job, however you can post a job at jobs.wordpress.net.
If the backend of the site is a bit of a mess, the best way to approach it might be as a new build based on the existing layout with a few improvements rather than patching it up.
Like the people you’ve spoken to, neither would I work on a site someone else built on a themeforest theme with hacked core files – not so much as being scared to touch it as a professional would always work on a clone of a live site rather than cowboy code a live site, but because it would be more efficient and sustainable int he long run to rebuild on a solid foundation with a proven framework such as studiopress genesis.
Hi thanks for the reply. I see what you mean ref jobs, sorry i shouldnt have posted it here!
And yes i think cloning the site with a fresh Wp core and then taking it from there is better than trying to patch up what is in effect a total mess. The site cant be offline for any period though, so would need new version of site built offline or in some sort of “sandbox” environment, i presume this is how you do it? I dont fancy having to deal with around 3,000 301 redirects!
I am angry that we paid this fella 3 thousand euros to build what was supposed to a super site. It still works, but just not very well!
I use XAMPP as a local server for development – which is from available for Mac, Win & linux from http://www.apachefriends.org
