Getting Perch could not connect to the database Error & Blog Content Not Visible

Someone or something has deleted the contents of that file. Did you sync up files from a local copy and overwrite it? The information in the config file is what Perch uses to connect to the database so you will need to put back the original content.

I imagine all your content is there in the database (you can always look to check) once you can connect to it again.

I'm giving you some actual help here. Perch won't overwrite your config file once it is written so if I were you I'd be finding out what did as you don't want it happening again.

9 times out of 10 if this happens it is because some tool you are using for development - Dreamweaver a common culprit - overwrites your live config with the blank one you have locally, which is why I suggested that as a possible cause. If that is definitely not what has happened then I'd be somewhat concerned about my hosting. There is no code in Perch that could do this.

Presumably you can log into the database on your hosting via your control panel if you know your login details? I suggested that so that you could confirm your content was still there so your mind was at rest that once you had replaced your config file your content would be there and you wouldn't need to replace it.

Just restore your config file from your backup would be the simplest thing. It's just a file that needs replacing. If you don't have a backup for some reason then the following is the content of the config file, you will need to replace the placeholders (beginning with a $) with your actual connection and user details.

<?php
    define('PERCH_LICENSE_KEY', '$licenseKey');

    define("PERCH_DB_USERNAME", '$db_username');
    define("PERCH_DB_PASSWORD", '$db_password');
    define("PERCH_DB_SERVER", "$db_server");
    define("PERCH_DB_DATABASE", "$db_database");
    define("PERCH_DB_PREFIX", "perch2_");

    define('PERCH_TZ', '$tz');

    define('PERCH_EMAIL_FROM', '$userEmail');
    define('PERCH_EMAIL_FROM_NAME', '$userGivenName $userFamilyName');

    define('PERCH_LOGINPATH', '$loginpath');
    define('PERCH_PATH', str_replace(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'config', '', __DIR__));
    define('PERCH_CORE', PERCH_PATH.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'core');

    define('PERCH_RESFILEPATH', PERCH_PATH . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'resources');
    define('PERCH_RESPATH', PERCH_LOGINPATH . '/resources');

    define('PERCH_HTML5', true);

?>

You would need to reinstall from scratch to get Perch to replace that file, but filling in the placeholders is exactly the same as that process (just not in a form). You need to know:

• license key
• database username
• database password
• database location (probably localhost)
• your email
• your firstname and lastname
• your perch loginpath (probably /perch if you haven't changed it)

All you need do is paste the above into your blank config file and replace each of those values with exactly what you put in the form when installing Perch.

The default is 'UTC'

Great! Glad you have it sorted :)