I have a potential client who currently has a garden shopping site which needs revamping. Her website was originally done by a local generic web design company and I am unsure of the shopping cart which is driving her site so I have asked her for the login details so that I can take a look at the code. This is proving difficult to get a hold of.

 

What I am unsure of is whether I need to start from scratch and make a quote that includes integrating a shopping cart and merchant service (aswell as the design)? She is happy with the way the site works just that it needs a revamp so shall I just get her to ask the original designer which shopping cart she is using?

 

I think I may have to start from scratch anyway as I wouldn't want to upload new work to her existing host as the previous designers have the login details and I wouldn't want to go through a third party.

 

Any ideas on how I could tackle this would be very much appreciated!

Without knowing what the underlying code is like, just explain that you're unable to quote. It's like asking someone to give an estimate on fixing your car without seeing it in person.

Yes I agree!

 

I may just have to look at this as a complete rebuild and come up with my own solution for her site, gather requirements, research shopping carts and merchants and all of that would be an extra expense which may push her to get those login details.

Can we have a URL for the site, often a trained eye can spot what cart is being used.

Have you tried contacting this other design company yourself directly? In my experience from similar situations they people are usually very helpful and provide me with all the login detail etc, they may even tell you what system the website is running...

I have a potential client who currently has a garden shopping site which needs revamping. Her website was originally done by a local generic web design company and I am unsure of the shopping cart which is driving her site so I have asked her for the login details so that I can take a look at the code. This is proving difficult to get a hold of.

 

What I am unsure of is whether I need to start from scratch and make a quote that includes integrating a shopping cart and merchant service (aswell as the design)? She is happy with the way the site works just that it needs a revamp so shall I just get her to ask the original designer which shopping cart she is using?

 

I think I may have to start from scratch anyway as I wouldn't want to upload new work to her existing host as the previous designers have the login details and I wouldn't want to go through a third party.

 

Any ideas on how I could tackle this would be very much appreciated!

 

I would say to have the client ask the original designer or provide you with the contact info and you contact the old designer yourself. I've been in your position. It could be easy or hard to get any information from the old designer, some can be pretty mean because they're not working on the project this time around.

 

You may not need to start from scratch. You can download the source files and figure out how the site was put together, if they're on an open source cart script, it's usually noted somewhere. From there, you can get someone to either hack it if you can't do it yourself, find out how the encrytion for passwords works and you can get the password that way, or you can find the same script same version and reinstall and import theme files and test. All of which I have done.