This plugin is simple but quite effective. I had never worked with Dropbox, but as a result of installing the plugin, I signed up and am really liking it. (Yes, I used your referral link — you’re welcome!) It’s quite cool to click the backup button on the plugin page and almost instantly see the files downloading to my local computer (and knowing they’re on Dropbox as well).
Now, I haven’t had to put the restore procedure to the test, but just having the backup is reassuring.
So there are only 2 things I can think of that would improve the tool:
- Backup wp-config.php — but this may be a security issue which might be addressed in the plugin docs, which I should re-read.
- Add an interface to schedule a recurring backup. I realize this could be done manually with cron jobs etc., but I’m sure many people would appreciate the feature.
Really great work here — simple and elegant, but does the job. Thanks!
— abrupt
http://www.abrupt.org
abrupt,
Thanks for feedback (and Dropbox referral sign up).
I will add a note about wp-config.php to the documentation. My recommendation is to back that up to Dropbox or S3 manually or maybe not at all. That’s a pretty critical security issue that I’m treading lightly on …
Scheduling is on the list, too.
As well as “time stamped” backups, meaning an option to have 7 daily, 4 weekly & 12 monthly backups available …
Paul
I cannot get the content files zip to open as it says there Error 1 operation not permitted.
blitz999, this was most likely resolved a few revisions ago (I was able to reproduce it).
Please let me know if you try the plugin and again & whether or not the issue still occurs.
Paul
Hi there Paul, yes looking good now – all working. Thanks for letting me know.
One question, why does the the zip file contain another zip file inside? On the server I use the folder structure ends up about 20 folders deep.
It isn’t a problem, just a lot of directory navigation!
blitz999,
The ‘layers’ have been peeled back a little …. now only the wp-content archive has the nested directory structure which actually mirrors the directory structure from your host — this is done so that expanding the archive can actually restore to the right place …
Paul
I’d love to see multisite support. The ability to backup and restore a single blog on multisite would be ideal — especially to backup a single blog from one multisite installation and restore it into another multisite location. No plugin out there is doing it, so I’m sure it’s fraught with danger and intrigue. 🙂
Advanced support for multisite backups and restoration would be an excellent Pro feature for which I’d gladly pay. (I’ve even set up a Google alert to monitor cyberspace for me so that I can know the moment a product is released to handle that sort of thing.)
Dropbox
Dropbox limits files to 300Mb. You could split the .zip or .tar.gz into multiple 300Mb chunks before uploading. At least, a filesize check in the uploader loop, to let you know if this was the issue or not.
It wasn’t immediately apparent, but since it defaults to Dropbox my browser thought the email/password was for logging in and automatically filled it out with incorrect credentials. Maybe add a fieldset legend that says “Dropbox” and it’d be obvious. Not really important, as I figured it out a few seconds later, but thought a first-time user feedback would help in this case.
Scheduling would be great. I like wp-dbmanager and it has a way to add scheduling for 1 week for example. Of course, it’s easy enough to use the curl method.
I would love to see a “manual backup”… so I can download a file directly.
Just tried out the plugin for the first time – a quick note…
The show/hide links for the instructions and plugin options do *not* seem to work on the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox. The plugin does work though – I was able to enter my user/pass/folder info and it backed up to Dropbox just fine. Am I missing additional options, or do those links just not work?
Mostly, I’d just like to be able to schedule backups so I can set it and forget it – so to speak. Is that in the current functionality or coming soon?
