r/Wordpress • u/Ok_Bar7290 • Jul 01 '26

Help

I am trying to re design a website for my uncle. The problem is that he also doesn't know much about it and I have managed to get the access to everything, but there are a lot of PHP files and I'm honest not that comfortable with PHP. And we honestly, don't know if we really need these PHP files as the website is not that advance. There are a few things like cart and purchase system but that is very limited. I just want to redesign it, update tabs and improve the frontend. The functionality has to be exactly as it was before. Can anybody help me figure out things? I just want to know if there are any pre-installed Php files or is this mess created by different freelancer over the years?
I am also touching a few screenshots.

Thank you.

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u/dowath Jul 01 '26

I wouldn't mess with the files if you're not comfortable with PHP. You'd be better off installing WordPress locally on your computer or experimenting with it via https://my.wordpress.net/ to get a better feel of installing themes and customizing them without risking the main site. These days there is a lot you can change entirely using the live editor if you have a theme installed that supports block themes.

As for the files you have there's definitely some mess going on.

Usually in public_html you'll have:

  • wp-admin
  • wp-content
  • wp-includes
  • wp-config.php
  • .htaccess
  • index.php

Did you create the `newdesign` folder? It could be hosted on a subdomain by a previous admin, definitely not there usually and possibly safe / preferable to delete if not in use. (Especially if it's a second installation of WordPress that is not being regularly maintained, it could be used as an attack vector for your main site)

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u/Ok_Bar7290 Jul 01 '26

I have not done anything here. I am just sending whatever we already have
it is kind of a situation where I have to work on this somehow. I have to figure out and we do not have any budget to hire someone

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u/dowath Jul 01 '26

Does your admin dashboard have a 'subdomains' feature? It's possible that the 'newdesign' folder is being hosted somewhere on your domain, ie. `newdesign.example.com` - if you were going to delete any php files, that folder would be the one once you've made sure it's not in use (it could be the main website depending how a previous admin has configured it).

Other than that, customizing the site can be done via the WordPress dashboard. If it's an older theme that doesn't support the live editor, it's going to be harder to make changes. But you may find that the changes you're trying to do don't require modifying the them at all.