WbBackup
Questions answered by this recipe
How can I backup my wiki using a browser?
Description
WbBackupΔ allows you to store all the dynamic data in your wiki or wiki field into a zip file and download it in one step. It also allows you to manage your existing backup files. (Which means, you can delete the files you don't need any longer using your browser.)
I wrote this backup recipe because I had some problems using the available ones with my wiki farm. When developing this one, I also added some configuration options I found useful for this task.
Please note that the backup is always done for only one field in a farm, not the whole farm!
For information in German language, please see http://www.webbird.de/PmWiki/WbBackup
Installation
You need to install pclzip (see http://www.phpconcept.net/pclzip/index.php) for this recipe to work, which itself requires zlib to be installed. (See your phpinfo().) Just copy the wbbackup.phpΔ into your cookbook directory, then add a 'pclzip' sub directory and copy the pclzip.lib.php into this directory.
../cookbook
|- wbbackup.php
../cookbook/pclzip
|- pclzip.lib.php
As for the most recipes, you include this one by adding the following line to your config.php or farmconfig.php:
include_once( "$FarmD/cookbook/wbbackup.php" );
Configuration
Most of the configuration options can be left 'as is', as I tried to set them to comprehensible defaults. Except $wbBackupAction and $wbBackupDelAction, all options can be changed for the whole wiki farm in the farmconfig.php and overridden by the wiki fields by setting them in the field's config.php to different values. This is tested at least for $wbBackupDirs, $wbIgnoreDirs, $wbBackupOverwrite and $wbBackupTrace, but it should work for the others, too.
$wbBackupAction
Default: wbbackup
Can be used to change the action name for the backup. (...URL...&action=wbbackup) Please note that this must be set _before_ including the recipe! So, if you'd like to include the recipe in a wiki farm, you can only change the backup action for the whole farm.
Example: $wbBackupAction = 'mybackup';
$wbBackupAuthLevel
Default: admin
Can be used to change the authorization level necessary for the backup. Please note: As the backup will be called in a page context, the authorisation level given here will be checked for the current page! That means, if you set the level to 'edit' and a user with edit rights for only one page calls the backup action for this page, he can backup and download all the data! This is not necessarily a security risk, but please remember this when you decide to change the level.
Available settings: read, edit, attr, upload, admin
(Not all make sense...)
Example: $wbBackupAuthLevel = 'admin';
$wbBackupDelAction
Default: wbbackupdel
Can be used to change the action name for the delete action for backup files. (...URL...&action=wbbackupdel) Please note that this must be set _before_ including the recipe! So, if you'd like to include the recipe in a wiki farm, you can only change the backup action for the whole farm.
You will get a page with all available backup files you can choose to delete.
Example: $wbBackupDelAction = 'mybackupdel';
$wbBackupDelAuthLevel
Default: admin
Can be used to change the authorization level necessary for the delete action for backup files. Please see $wbBackupAuthLevel for some further advice.
Example: $wbBackupDelAuthLevel = 'admin';
$wbBackupFileName
Default: wiki-backup-<dd-mm-yyyy>.zip
Name of the ZIP file to create.
Example: $wbBackupFileName = 'my-wiki-backup.zip';
$wbBackupDir
Default: ./__wiki_backups
Directory where the backup files are stored. The recipe will try to create the directory if it does not exist.
Please note: By default, this directory is located in the current wiki field. (At the same level as the wiki.d directory.) That means, it will be accessible from outside. This is the default, because it is meant that you can directly download the backup file with your browser, without having to switch to your FTP client or such. If you'd prefer to store the backup files outside the directories accessible from the Web, please change this setting according to your needs.
$wbBackupDirs
Default: local, pub, cookbook, wiki.d, uploads
List of directories to backup. As you can see, the names are _relative_ to the wiki base directory.
Please note: You can exlude directories (or even subdirectories) with the $wbIgnoreDirs option described below!
Example: $wbBackupDirs = array( "local", "pub", "wiki.d" );
$wbBackupFile
Default: $wbBackupDir/$wbBackupFileName
It is not necessary to change this option; you should set $wbBackupDir and $wbBackupFileName instead!
$wbBackupBaseUrl
Default: $ScriptUrl without script file name
Base-URL for the download link. You can change this if your backup directory is located outside your wiki. (But still accessible from the web.)
$wbBackupUrl
Default: $wbBackupBaseURL/__wiki_backups/$wbBackupFileName
Complete download URL. You should prefer to set $wbBackupBaseURL to change the download location. As '__wiki_backups' is hardcoded here, you will have to change this if your backup directory is set to another name.
$wbBackupShowLink
Default: TRUE
Set this to FALSE if you don't want a download link on the backup summary page. (E. g., if your backup files are not accessible through the web.)
Example: $wbBackupShowLink = FALSE;
$wbBackupOverwrite
Default: FALSE
Set this to TRUE if you wish to automatically overwrite existing backup files. You should prefer to leave this FALSE and delete the files you don't need any longer using the 'wbbackupdel' action.
Example: $wbBackupOverwrite = TRUE;
$wbBackupTrace
Default: FALSE
Prints some further information about what the recipe is doing to the summary page. Useful only for testing and debugging purposes.
Example: $wbBackupTrace = TRUE;
$wbBackupIgnoreDirs
Default: pub/skins, pub/guiedit
List of (sub-)directories to skip. Can be used if the data amount is too large. (Most servers kill long running scripts after a while, and only allow a certain amount of memory usage.) The names are _relative_ to the wiki base directory.
Example: $wbBackupIgnoreDirs = array( "pub/skins", "pub/guiedit", "uploads" );
$wbBackupSendToBrowser
Default: FALSE
Set this to TRUE if you want the recipe to send the ZIP file to the browser automatically. (You will get a download window without having to click on the download link.)
Example: $wbBackupSendToBrowser = TRUE;
Known issues
An empty window appears when calling the backup action
Most webservers are configured to kill long running scripts after a while (e. g. 30 seconds), and restrict the memory usage to a certain amount (e. g. 8 MB). If your wiki has lots of data (many images/uploads, for example), the script may be killed before it gets done.
The ZIP file created in this case is corrupted and cannot be used.
Please try to except some directories by using the $wbIgnoreDirs option.
The backup seemed to proceed, but I cannot find a ZIP file, or the download link provided doesn't work
Possible reasons:
- You have set some options (regarding download URLs or paths) incorrectly
- The directory the backup files are stored is not writable, or it can't be created by the script. Check the path and permissions. (Must be writable.)
Abort pclzip.lib.php : Missing zlib extensions
You need PHP compiled with zlib extensions to use this recipe. See your phpinfo() output before installing this recipe. (There should be a table with caption 'zlib', which gives you some version information.)
Notes
Please feel free to submit your suggestions or questions below!
The recipe is called 'WbBackup' because of "Webbird's Backup". ;)
- This recipe was last tested on PmWiki version: 2.1.27
- This recipe requires zlib and the pclzip library to work!
Release Notes
- 2008-01-17
- First release.
- 2008-01-22
- Mod: renamed $wbIgnoreDirs to $wbBackupIgnoreDirs to unify variable names
Fix: Text outside php was sent to browser - 2008-10-11
- Mod: added error handling for PclZip (print out error message if creating the archive fails)
See Also
Contributors
Comments
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