need some help / insight on Joomla

Hello all,

Quick recap:

Helping a friend with his website (previous website guy died in 2018, we know nothing of how the website was maintained).

Domain provider only works with ftp for file transfer. Used filezilla to connect via FTP. Can't see the files i was expecting to see.

However, the directories are peppered with Joomla readme.txt, index.txt and other php files. (dated 2018 and much earlier)

Looked at Joomla, seems like another CMS program.

If i create a website with Joomla, then download everything and upload it through ftp into another domain provider, shouldn't each page (html, css, java) be present in the domain?

Am confused

Ralphy

If the website was built with Joomla, the actual content and pages are likely stored in a database. Uploading Joomla files via FTP won't necessarily transfer the entire website. Consider exporting the Joomla database and importing it into the new hosting provider along with the necessary files for a successful migration.

Not really.

Joomla is a PHP Content Management System much like WordPress.

The files you see via FTP are PHP files + Styling files (JS and CSS) and media files (Images et al)

These files link to a database. This database has all the information (your post, your login credentials, every configuration detail of the site (categories etc.)

So you'll need to find a way to backup this database.

The database + files can then be moved to a different provider.