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.

What do I Need to Back Up?

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.
• 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.
• Images and configuration data for the Expose photo gallery are in three directories.
• Images used in user profiles.

How to Backup using cPanel

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 'Home Directory' to download a copy of all the files in your Web site;
4. Click on the name of your database in the 'Databases' section under Partial Backups. The name of your database will probably be hr##_hrclass##, where hr## is the url of your site.

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!)

1. If you want to back up your Email Forwarders you can do so using the 'Forwarders' section of the backup page just below 'Databases'.

(Important Note: The Full Backup is both large and harder to move to your local machine. Furthermore, you cannot restore it on your own, you would need the help of the hosting company. We don't recommend that as a regular procedure.)

How to backup using Site Backup CP

There is a $29.95 program called Site Backup CP that allows you to back up your site from your home PC. (I don't know of an equivalent Mac-based program.) With Site Backup you can schedule backups, you can specify which portions of your site you want to back up and you can specify how many copies of your backup to keep. This is a good solution that requires a minimum of effort on the Webmaster's part.

Where is My Data?

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, 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 the .\images\comprofiler directory

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