Omeka install not connecting with existing database

Our 1.4.1 installation died on us, so we had Dreamhost install Omeka 2.1.4 for us, but it is not engaging with our existing MySQL database even though I've entered the correct values in the db.ini file. SO we've got 2 collections, over 1000 items, many item types, and none of them are accessible right now.

Also, our custom theme, coded by an Omeka developer, is not working any more...giving us fatal errors. But I'm primarily concerned with getting connected with our existing database.

It might be worth double-checking the db.ini values. If you used Dreamhost's one-click install of something else that they did, it might not actually be the same values as before. The one-click installs, I find, often end up giving non-obvious database settings.

For the theme, anything built for Omeka 1.x will need updates for Omeka 2.x. Most of the updating steps are covered here.

My db.ini values appear to checkout:

Feel free to give it a try yourself because we are dead in the water right now. Hoping to hire someone to really help us fix this. Any interest?

Out of caution, I've taken the liberty of deleting the db credentials from your post, since it would make quite a security vulnerability to have them posted to the public.

Without having access to all the stuff on Dreamhost, we can't really do much to check things.

patrickmj: UPDATE: I found a new MySQL database on the Dreamhost server that must have been created on the fly by Omeka. Now I want to import my existing data into this new database, but I see that the structure of the tables is different in the two databases. Can you help explain how I should map my old data into the new table structure? (I'm guessing Omeka 2.1.4 has a different table structure from 1.4.1) Many thanks!!

Omeka doesn't create any databases itself. Most likely, it was created by Dreamhost's 1-click installer. I suspect also that that 2.1.4 database is what your db.ini credentials are pointing to.

So, I'd say the safest course of action is to double-check with Dreamhost which credentials go with which database, and make sure the correct ones are used on the new Omeka site. That is, you want the new Omeka2.1.4 code to use the old 1.4.1 database. Omeka will then see that there is an update to do, and the update will make the changes to the database structure as part of the update.

Thanks so much, Patrick!! I'll check with Dreamhost and get back to you. If Omeka could manage the upgrade of the database, that would be huge!

It should do it okay. Make sure that you have a backup of the database first

Yep. I've got several backups.