How to Backup Your Site

Why Back Up?

No matter where you are hosting your data sooner or later, something will go wrong. Most inexpensive hosting plans do not include backup; and even if yours does, you should still have your own copy of the data. It's really the only way to be safe.

Where is My Data?

The Web Template site holds most of the data in a MySql database. Unfortunately, there are also quite a few other files that need to be backed up. They include:

• A few configuration settings are in four files that you can back up separately. The settings in the files don't change very often, so you needn't worry about backing them up as often as the database.
• There are also email forwarders that send mail addressed to the administrator or webmaster. You can back these up too, if you like, although they are easy to recreate.
• Images used in your articles are in the .\images\stories\ directory.
• Images and configuration data for the Expose photo gallery are in three directories.
• Images used in user profiles.

The configuration files that contain data are:

configuration.php in the root directory of your site. It contains the basic information such as the name of the site, the name of the database and where to access it, and information on how the site can send email.

ue_config.php in the .\administrator\components\com_comprofiler directory of your site. It contains configuration information for Community Builder such as the text of the email messages used during registration.

cbmailing.config.php in .\administrator\components\com_cbmailing. It contains configuration settings for the mass mailing component.

passhash.inc.php in .\components\com_exposeprive\expose\manager\amfphp\extra. It contains the password you need to access the ExposePrive album manager. The password is in a hashed form, so it is not a security risk if the file becomes exposed.

Uploaded images:

Images you've uploaded to your site are in .\images\stories\ directory

The Expose photo data is in:

albums.xml in .\components\com_exposeprive\expose\xml. I contains the description of your albums in the photo gallery.

alb_1.xml in .\components\com_exposeprive\expose\xml. There will be one xml file for each photo album that you define. It contains the titles, file names, and descriptions of the photographs in the album. (alb_1.xml is the default album with pictures of Harvard Square.)

all directories in .\components\com_exposeprive\expose\img. These directories contain the photographs and videos used by your photo albums.

Profile images:

Profile image" uploaded by users are in .\images\comprofiler

How to Backup

The following instructions assume that you are hosting your site on a Linux server and have access to cPanel for the site. If not, check with your system administrator for information on how to back up. (Unless you have installed the template yourself, you can almost certainly use these instructions.)

1. Log into cPanel. If you don't know how to do this, check with the system administrator or the person who installed the template. (NOTE: If you are using Siteground, you access cPannel by clicking on the 'My Account Section' of the home page, then on 'Manage' to the far right of your site uri, and finally on the 'Go' button next to Access cPanel.)
2. Select 'Backups' in the 'Files' section of cPanel;
3. Click on the name of your database in the 'Databases' section under Partial Backups. (Note that the Full Backup is both large and harder to move to your local machine. We don't recommend that as a regular procedure.) The name of your database will probably be hr##_hrclass##, where hr## is the url of your site.
   1. After a few seconds you will be asked if you want to open or save the file. Select 'Save', then select a location on your computer to save the backup file. (These instructions assume that you are using Windows. Anyone using a Mac might contribute the equivalent instructions here!)
4. If you want to back up your Email Forwarders you can do so using the 'Forwarders' section of the backup page just below 'Databases'.
5. Finally, to back up ue_config.php, configuration.php, cbmailing.config.php, and passhash.inc.php you have two choices: First, you can use the backup page to make a backup of your "Home Directory". This will result in a file of 30 or more MB. The second choice, which is more work but will take up less space, is to use the File Manager as follows:
   1. Click on 'Home' in the top left of the Backups page to return to cPanel.
   2. Click on 'File Manager' in the 'Files' section;
   3. If asked, select the Web Root (public_html/www);
   4. Click on 'configuration.php' in the list of files, then click on 'Download' in the tool bar. When asked, select 'Save' the file and supply a file name and destination;
   5. Once configuration.php is saved, double click on the 'administrator' folder at the top of the list; then on 'components', then on 'com_comprofiler';
   6. Now you should see ue_config.php; Click on it to select it and click on 'Download' in the toolbar to save a copy to your computer.
   7. Follow the same procedure to browse to .\administrator\components\com_cbmailing and backup cbmailing.config.php.
   8. Follow the same procedure to browse to .\components\com_exposeprive\expose\manager\amfphp\extra and backup passhash.inc.php.
   9. Then back up all the files in .\images\stories
   10. Finally, use the same procedure to back up all the data for your photograph albums and video.

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