ParseError due to own code bricked my site.

  • Hello.

    I’ll start with the TL;dr.

    Added code, didn’t worked, bricked the site, can’t access admin dashboard.
    Site is: https://Www.Zinzorgboerderij.nl (Dutch site)

    For the last half year I (a social worker without any site experience except posting) got entrusted to maintain and improve my jobs website. This website was set up back in 2013-2014 by someone who knew what he was doing.

    So through google and small trail and error I was finding my way around the site and even adding small bits of code here and there I found online. In my hubris I added a bit of code which i did too little research on. The result was that I get a ParseError:
    ParseError thrown
    syntax error, unexpected ‘px’ (T_STRING)

    I couldn’t revert it back and now I can’t access the admin dashboard. I googled for what seemed like an entire day and mainly FTP came up. So I installed filezilla and quickly learned that I was in way over my head and did not manage to get it up and running.

    I tried contacting support by phone but since I did not set the site up and the owners of the company did not keep any documentation from when the site was created I was not able to provide a support pin and there was little they could do for me.

    Now trough digging I found a mail adress from the guy who set the site up and send mail asking if he could provide any documentation and or account info, however i do not know if he still uses his that mail adress anymore.

    The only silver lining is that two weeks ago I made a backup from the export site option from the admin dashboard.

    Is there anything I can do to fix the site?

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  • In my hubris I added a bit of code which I did too little research on. The result was that I get a ParseError:
    ParseError thrown
    syntax error, unexpected ‘px’ (T_STRING)

    I suppose you added this code to one of the theme files? If so, you can either:

    Temporarily switch to one of the default themes so you can get into the dashboard and reverse the change… OR

    Grab a copy of the theme file you edited, reverse the change, and save/upload it.

    Either option will require some form of access to your WordPress files on the hosting server, as you’re unable to access the dashboard now.

    That’s where the FTP comes in. You use an FTP program like FileZilla to connect to the server, browse to locate the offending file, download a copy to your computer, open and edit it using a text editor, and push it back to the server with FileZilla. You’ll need some credentials to be able to connect to the FTP server though, which you get from your hosting company (sometimes you can generate this yourself in your hosting control panel).

    An alternative to using the FTP is using the “File Manager” utility that’s included in your hosting control panel. Most hosts provide some sort of web-based File Manager in their control panel. From here, you can navigate to the appropriate file, and open, edit, and save it — all in the browser — without using FTP at all.

    I tried contacting support by phone but since I did not set the site up and the owners of the company did not keep any documentation from when the site was created I was not able to provide a support pin and there was little they could do for me.

    If this is free hosting, then I understand. If you’re (or your company is) paying for the hosting, then I wouldn’t be so forgiving and conclude there’s little they could do. At the very least, they could direct you to where to get the support PIN.

    The support PIN in question has nothing to do with the setup of the WordPress site. It’s something to do with the hosting provider. And this support PIN is usually in the host’s customer portal.

    So if someone is paying the hosting bill, that someone should have the login access to the customer portal on the hosting provider’s website — where they can retrieve the support PIN.

    The only silver lining is that two weeks ago I made a backup from the export site option from the admin dashboard.

    What did you use the create this backup? That will tell how you can restore the backup. Note that WordPress itself doesn’t have a backup utility, so you definitely used some 3rd-party tool or plugin.

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