Using Create Synchronicity to Backup Local Joomla Sites

Create Synchronicity is a Windows backup/synchronization tool that can help you protect your files, and keep your data up-to-date. You can use it for pretty much everything from copying your documents, pictures, music and videos to your USB Key or backup drive, to scheduling server backups with regex filtering and DST compensation.

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Sharing Your Joomla Website on a USB Stick or Portable Hard Disk with Server2Go

If you have ever wondered how to share a copy of your website on a USB stick or an external hard disk without the need to install additional software such as WAMP, than Server2Go is the way to go. The following practical steps will produce an identical copy of the site on your USB stick or (portable) hard disk on your home computer without the need to install a WAMP server.

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Importing a Joomla Site to Your Computer

Ever wondered how to export a copy of your Joomla site hosted by a hosting company to a home computer? The following practical steps will produce an identical copy of the site on your home computer.

A Joomla website consists of two separate components: 1) the databases and 2) the scripts and codes that make up the Joomla package. As a content management system or CMS, Joomla stores the data in mysql databases. In order to make a copy on your home computer, you will need to make a copy of the 1) codes, 2) the scripts and the database and 3) install the operating environment on your Windows computer Joomla understands. Although this may look complicated, it is not so difficult once you know what you are doing. As such, please visit our disclaimer before you to delete or otherwise render your website useless.

Step 1: Download WAMP from www.wampserver.com Please ensure you download the package from this website since there are many other versions of similar packages on the internet. These are not necessarily inferior to WAMP, but we use WAMP for our example.

Step 2: Disable SKYPE temporarily If you use SKYPE, you need to change a setting first before you install WAMP. Go to Tools and Options in SKYPE and click on Advanced and Connection and disable the option: "Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections." This will avoid a conflict with WAMP later.

Disable port 80 in Skype:

Step 3: Restart the computer We like to restart the computer after we made the change to SKYPE in step 2. This way, we know for sure there will be no conflict with the WAMP program that by default uses port 80.

Step 4: Install WAMP on your home computer You install the webserver like any other windows program. Make sure you close all programs. If you have SKYPE installed, make sure you log-out Skype and stop its services temporarily. With Skype running, WAMP may have a problem installing.

With WAMP, we install a working environment on your Windows computer Joomla understands. Joomla does not run on windows directly; it runs on an Apache, PHP and MYSQL environment. These are the building blocks of the operating system Joomla needs to be able to work.

• PHP, or PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, is a widely used, general-purpose scripting language that was originally designed for web development, to produce dynamic web pages. Its original meaning was Personal Home Page.
• The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache, is web server software notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web.
• MySQL is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases.

WampServer or WAMP is a Windows web development environment that allows you to run web applications like Joomla with Apache, PHP and the MySQL database. It also comes with PHPMyAdmin to easily manage your databases which we will use later to install your Joomla copy on your home computer.

The wamp server is installed correctly if you see a white indicator in the Windows toolbar (like the one on the left in this picture right of the arrow):

If the indicator shows a red flag or is yellow, you have a problem with the wamp installation, most likely a conflict with another program that uses port 80.

Step 5: Export a copy of the database Assuming you have access to the CPANEL for your website (provided by the Internet provider), you can export a copy of the databases. For this, you go to PHPMyAdmin, select the database you want to export, select Add Drop Table, select the option save as file and select go. The system exports a copy of the database. If you do not have access to the CPANEL, use LazyBackup to make a copy of your databases.

Click on phpMyAdmin in the CPanel:

Click on the database you want to export. You can ignore the information_schema database - this is an internal MYSQL database:

Click on the select all, select Add Drop Table, select Save as File and click on Export:

Step 6: Copy the database to the WAMP directory Once WAMP is installed, you will find a directory called WAMP on the hard disk (normally on the C:\ drive). Open the www directory inside the WAMP directory and create a new directory with the name of your Joomla website: NEW_JOOMLA for example, and copy the database in the directory: C:\wamp\www\new_joomla\

Step 7: Import the database using PHPMyAdmin Once WAMP is installed, type localhost in your web-browser and the WAMP start page will pop up. Make sure the wampserver is running. It is running if you see the white icon in the toolbar (see step 4). Click on the option phpMyAdmin and create a new database and give it a name. In our example, we will use NEW_DATABASE. Once you have a new database created, select the database and select the option Import. Import the database that you copied to the directory in Wamp (see step 6).

Type in NEW_DATABASE in the field under Create new database and use utf8_general_ci (is the default) connection collation and click on create:

Select the new_database from the list on the left and select import:

Browse to the C:\wamp\www\new_joomla\ directory and select the database you exported earlier in step 5 and click on Go:

Please note that the maximum size of the database is 2,048 KB by default. You can change this in WAMP in case you have a large database. Click with the left mouse on the wamp icon in the toolbar. Select PHP and php.ini. Note book will open and search for the following code: upload_max_filesize = 2M and change it to 8M and save the file:

Please also note:

You may also run into the following problem related to the MySQL server:

You can change this in WAMP in case you have a large database. Click with the left mouse on the wamp icon in the toolbar (as we did above for the PHP.ini). Select MySql and my.ini. Note book will open and search for the following code: max_allowed_packet = 1M and change it to 100M and save the file.

Step 10: Export a copy of the scripts, codes and other Joomla files Assuming you have access to the CPANEL for your website, you can make a copy of all files on the server. For this, you go to Files in the CPANEL, select all files in the public_html folder and select the option compress. The system now will ask you for a name of the file and where to copy it on the server.

In the CPanel, select File Manager:

The File Manager opens. Select all and click on compress:

This is the compress menu. Select an archive type (zip for example) and click compress files. A zip with the entire website will be copied to the public_html directory on the server. In this case, the file is called Administrator:

Step 11: Copy the scripts, codes and other Joomla files to the WAMP directory Assuming you have access to the FTP site for your website, you can make a copy of the zip file your created under step 10. For this, login the FTP and open the public_html folder and look for the zip file. Copy this zip file to the C:\wamp\www\directory with the name of your Joomla website -  C:\wamp\www\NEW_JOOMLA for example, and unzip the file in the same directory. We recommend you use 7ZIP (opensource for free and available here) which is much faster than the Windows unzip facility. If you do not have access to the CPANEl, you can check out the Joomla component Joomlapack that is available in the JED.

Step 12: Rename configuration.php After you have unzipped the file in step 11, look in the public_html folder in the C:\wamp\www\NEW_JOOMLA folder and look for the file configuration.php. Save this file as configuration_original.php

You now have two identical files: configuration_original.php and configuration.php. The next step is to make changes in configuration.php

Step 13: Edit the configuration.php. We need to tell the system to make a link between the database we imported in step 7 and the scripts, codes and other files we copied to C:\wamp\www\NEW_JOOMLA. We need to make a few simple changes to the configuration.php. Open the configuration_original.php and configuration.php files in JEDIT, notebook or other plain text editor. They will look exactly the same. Look for the following variables and enter the following values in the configuration.php file and save the configuration.php file:

var $dbtype = 'mysql';

var $host = 'localhost';

var $user = 'root';

var $password = ''; (please ensure you delete any password in the quotes if you have had any otherwise you will get an error)

var $db = 'name of the databse you created in step 9 = NEW_DATABASE'; so it should read var $db = 'NEW_DATABASE';

var $dbprefix = 'jos_';

var $log_path = 'C:\\wamp\\www\\NEW_JOOMLA\\logs';  (please note the double back slashes - keep these)

var $tmp_path = 'C:\\wamp\\www\\NEW_JOOMLA\\tmp';

The other settings do not need to be changed.

Step 14: Rename the .htaccess file In case you find a .htaccess file in the C:\wamp\www\NEW_JOOMLA folder, you will have to rename it into htaccess.txt to avoid 500 errors. Go to C:\wamp\www\NEW_JOOMLA and look for the .htaccess - if it is has the extension txt, you do not have to do anything. If it does not have the txt extension, click on it and rename it with the txt extension.

Congratulations, your website should be working!

Type in localhost in your web-browser and under "Your Projects" you should see a link to your copy of the webpage.

Or type in the browser:

http:\\localhost\NEW_JOOMLA

Step 15: Disable notices. If you start up the new website, you may see strange codes - or notices: To avoid these, you need to change the php.ini file. There are many php.ini files in WampServer, so it important to find the right one. You will find it in the following directory:  C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.11\bin Open the php.ini and change the following code: error_reporting  =  ALL into error_reporting  =  E_ERROR - save the file and restart WAMP and open your website. The notices should have disappeared.

Please note that we have Apache2.2.11 installed and as a result our php.ini is in the C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.2.11\bin folder. You may have a different Apache version and look for the php.ini in the Apache folder you use.

Step 16: Moving Joomla websites to other home computers. You may want to copy a website from one WAMP server to another on home computers.  Please keep in mind that you have WAMP installed on the computer on which you want your website to run on. Copy the folder that contains the website in C:\wamp\www to the www folder of the other WAMP server and do not forget to also copy the corresponding database to the other WAMP server. The database can be found in the following folder: C:\wamp\bin\mysql\mysql5.1.36\data\...name of your website (your mysql may be a different version).

Examine and Print Joomla Directories and Files With Karen's Directory Printer (Windows Users)

Once you have made a backup of your Joomla site, you may want to print the entire directory structure or a list of files. If you use Windows, you seem to be out of luck since explorer does not have a print option. Well, there is hope with Karen's Directory Printer, a free opensource program that allows you to print directories and lists of files.

Karen's Directory Printer prints the name of every file on a drive, the file's size, date and time of last modification, and attributes (Read-Only, Hidden, System and Archive)! The list of files can be sorted by name, size, date created, date last modified, or date of last access. A real handy utility for Windows users.

You can download Karen's Directory Printer here along with other useful tools (Windows users only).

Include an Easy File Repository in Joomla Articles

One of the best and useful plugins is the jsmallfib Joomla! plugin that allows you to include into a Joomla! article a fully functional file browser. Files and folders within specified repositories can be browsed and, depending on user- and/or group-based access rights, modified.

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Manage Your Joomla Data with FireFTP

Managing your website without an FTP client is nearly impossible. We recommend that you use FireFTP, a Mozilla Firefox extension. FireFTP is an excellent Mozilla Firefox extension. You can transfer your Joomla files quickly from your computer to the server.

It comes with advanced features including directory comparison and syncing directories SFTP, SSL encryption, search/filtering, integrity checks, remote editing, drag & drop, file hashing, and much more! It is also a very useful tool to change the permissions of files and directories.

You can find FireFTP in the extensions repository of Firefox Mozilla.

Download Your Entire Joomla Website with DownThemALL

DownThemAll is a Mozilla Firefox extension that enables you to download your entire Joomla website with one mouse click.The plugin for Firefox downloads all links or images in the Joomla site and offers many other great tools. It is easy to define the downloads by setting download criteria. Below is a screenshot of the extension downloading pages from our site.

You can get the extension from the Firefox extension repository.

Saving Your Joomla Database Automatically

The LazyDbBackup Plugin is a must have for all Joomla website administrators. It will save you time and the trouble of backing up the databases manually. The plugin will email a copy of the database automatically and emails you a copy of the database as often as you want. It is the easiest automatic database backup solution for Joomla websites.

What is does:

* Automatic MySQL database backups sent by email to single or multiple recipients;
* Scheduled intervals: How many days or how many times a day ;
* No need for server side configuration through cron (unix servers) or scheduled tasks (windows servers) ;
* gzip file with optional password protection ;
* MySQL compliant database dump file, for easy recovery through PhpMyAdmin import function ;
* Easy installation, 30 seconds or less to configure the plugin.

The next step is to import the database to your Joomla site on the home computer if you have one. Please see our tutorial on setting up a copy of your Joomla production site.

LazyDbBackup is based on LazyBackup by Stefan Granholm. (GNU/GPL 2 or over license). This plugin was "internationalized" (for Joomla! 1.5 and 1.6) and modified to run with Joomla! 1.6 by Robert Gastaud.The LazyDbBackup Plugin is available in the JED.

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In case you were wondering where Lazybackup is, you are not alone. A good number of people are searching the web and the developer seems to have disappeared. The JED, as of January 2010, has no longer a link to the plug-in because the developers' website is down.

In the hope we will hear soon more about Lazybackup, we have posted the plug-in we use for our production sites till it is available in the JED. You can download the plug-in below and read more about this brilliant plugin here.

Update 1: The link has been restored in the JED - please download the plug-in through the JED (but we will keep a backup on this site for a while in case the link disappears again).

Update 2: LazyBackup 2 has disappeared again: "This extension has been unpublished for the following reason: * UR1-Broken Links."

Update 3: LazyDbBackup has been introduced on January 29, 2011 and is based on LazyBackup by Stefan Granholm. (GNU/GPL 2 or over license). This plugin was "internationalized" (for Joomla! 1.5 and 1.6) and modified to run with Joomla! 1.6 by Robert Gastaud.

Message from Stefan Granholm, on 09/15/2010:

Im very happy to hear its been updated for 1.6 :o)
And am very happy to see your work too, and I think it is a very good thing to Joomla, if not the best extension ;o)
This is what sharing is about, helping each other and make it free for all. Very good day to you.

Regards,

Stefan granholm

The LazyDbBackup Plugin is available in the JED. We have added the two latest versions to the repository below, just in case the plug-in is delisted again.

[This line is replaced by a file repository when the article is viewed]

PDF Your Entire Joomla Website

A method to back up your website is to PDF the entire site. We use Adobe Acrobat 9.0 professional since we are not aware of an open source alternative that automatically indexes the pages in the PDF. Please leave a comment if you know of an open source program that PDFs an entire website.

We download websites in PDFs to give a backup to our clients who can easily review and proofread the site. Below you see a screen shot of a PDF we made earlier of this site. You can also install a copy of a production site on your client's computer using this tutorial.