With each backup, plugin is saving the log file with backup job details and backup progress and status. This file can be included in the archive file. Running backup now is not creating one time only job, but it’s running job in the background, and plugin is waiting for the response on the job process and if the backup is successful it’s adding it to the list without reloading the page. Scheduling jobs allows you to set how many old archives to keep, so you can set daily backup job that will keep last 7 archives only, and remove backups older than that.

Backup works for normal WP installations and with multisite/network installations allowing super admin to backup everything, and individual websites admins can only backup their own files and database tables. GD Press Tools is the only backup plugin for WordPress that supports backup in multisite environments!

List of archives is displayed on the image below. You can now delete and download archive, you can upload it to CDN or FTP manually and you can see the log file.

Backup Archives

If you use job scheduling, all schedules for backup you make will be available on the Jobs tab. For each job you will see list of job tasks, next run date and time, schedule interval. You can delete jobs in the list.

Backup Jobs

Backup for files is unlike anything seen in any of the WP backup plugins (both free and commercial). You can backup full installation, only files belonging to individual blogs (in multisite environment), or you can do partial backups. There are several predefined partial backups: only plugins, only themes, only htaccess and wp-config, wp-contents folder. Using filters, more partial backup tasks can be registered. Also, exceptions can be defined (name of files and folders to match, like SVN or CGI-BIN folders), list of exclude files and folders to skip during backup (no need to backup W3 Total Cache plugin cache storage, or similar folders).

New backup is fully functional already, but if you have any suggestion for it, you can leave comment here or in the forum. There is still time to make more improvements to Backup system.

I always hated McAfee AntiVirus software. At one point I used it, and I can’t remember any other program that gave me so much problems, performance issues not to mention great many false virus reports. Well, today I have one more reason to hate it. Few days ago, with latest update to McAfee, main JavaScript file in GD Star Rating is marked as Trojan by McAfee. McAfee seams to have a lot of trouble detecting content of the packed and compressed JavaScript files compressed using great algorithm developed by Dean Edwards. So, GDSR main JS file is now compressed using YUI Compressor.

If you find anymore bugs, please report them via comments or in the forums.

GD Star Rating: http://www.gdstarrating.com/

Because plugin now uses third party libraries for database backup, all used libraries require PHP5, so that is now set as a minimum plugin requirement. Also, PHP needs cURL extension active because, once again, all libraries for uploading to CDN require cURL for authentication and uploading of files.

If you don’t have the license for Pro version already, check out the bottom of the post for 20% discount coupon.

Important: New backup system is tested, but I expect some bugs to be found due to wide range of changes, so please report any problems you find, and include version of WordPress, use of network (multi site) mode and what you tried to do exactly. With so many changes in a single version, bugs are unavoidable. But, I will fix them as soon as possible.

What’s new?

Support for Amazon S3 is added, and can be used to upload backup archives. You need Amazon AWS account (keys for access) and bucket created on S3. New Plugin Tools panel is added where you can remove plugin settings and restore them to their default values.

Number of bugs are fixed, including problems with loading CDN settings in multi site environments, setting initial capabilities, some minor backup problems.

Next CDN to be supported is NetDNA based system (MaxCDN is very popular service). I hope to work on that one during this week, for the next week release. FTP upload of archives is also in work.

Promo coupon

Until the end of September, a coupon is available that will give you 20% discount. Coupon can be used with GD Press Tools and Dev4Press Bundle purchases. This coupon is: GDPT38PRO.

There are a lot of changes in this version, and for a full change log check out the plugin changelog page. And if you don’t have the license for Pro version already, check out the bottom of the post for 20% discount coupon.

Important: New backup system is tested, but I expect some bugs to be found due to wide range of changes, so please report any problems you find, and include version of WordPress, use of network (multi site) mode and what you tried to do exactly. With so many changes in a single version, bugs are unavoidable. But, I will fix them as soon as possible.

Improvements

Plugins dashboard widget has a new element displayed: Google Page Rank. It will be refreshed every week, since Google is not updating public values of Page Rank that often. Great deal of code is optimized and cleaned, old and unused code removed, some functions merged. All forms for all plugin panels are now secured using nonce protection. Maintenance mode is moved to separate class and improved with new fixes and filters for exceptions to the mode.

Old user levels used for displaying panels are replaced with capabilities, and defaults are added to administrator roles. There are options to control what is available to which user role. Because of that, a lot of old level selecting settings are removed, so check Access tab on the Settings panel.

Global settings got new panel called Multisite. Currently there is only one options: prevent access to wp-signup.php, and redirect to home page. This is useful if you want to prevent creation of new blogs and prevent this file being loaded at all.

Backup Panel

Database panel is now split into two panels. One is still called Database and it can be used to review the database tables and database tools, including mySQL settings. Backup is now moved to a new panel called Backup. New backup will have only database backup moved, but with 4.0 you will be able to backup whole website (all or selected files and folders). New backup files will be created as zip archives, so your server needs to have zlib extension for PHP enabled. Backup will be able to move files to CDN also. First CDN that is supported with this version is RackspaceCloud.

New database backup panel with several backup tasks

Backup allows you to create single backup with multiple tasks, and it works with normal WordPress installation and Multi site. Depending on the mode, administrator can backup whole website, individual blogs, only shared network tables or tables you select. Options you see depend on user role.

Before 4.0 is released, CDN services Amazon S3 and VPS.NET will be supported also, and other CDN’s will follow. In the next few minor versions log files for backup files will be added with all details about the process. Email confirmation emails will be improved also. New jobs tab will have a list of all cron jobs with backups. There are more ideas for all this, but it will take some time to do it all.

Future Versions

Next major version will drop support for WordPress 2.8. That will most likely be GD Press Tools 4.0. According to WordPress.org number of WP 2.8 installations is going down, and it’s getting difficult to support it. So, I recommend that you upgrade to newer version of WordPress. GD Press Tools 2.6 Lite will be released sometime next week.

Promo coupon

Starting now, and until the end of September, a coupon is available that will give you 20% discount. Coupon can be used with GD Press Tools and Dev4Press Bundle purchases. This coupon is: GDPT38PRO.

Plugins dashboard widget has a new element displayed: Google Page Rank. It will be refreshed every week, since Google is not updating public values of Page Rank that often. For 4.0 plan is to get Page Rank for each page. Great deal of code is optimized and cleaned, old and unused code removed, some functions merged. All forms for all plugin panels are now secured using nonce protection. Maintenance mode is moved to separate class and improved.

Database panel is now split into two panels. One is still called Database and it can be used to review the database tables and database tools, including mySQL settings. Backup is now moved to a new panel called Backup. New backup will have only database backup moved, but with 4.0 you will be able to backup whole website (all or selected files and folders). Backup will be able to move files to CDN also. First CDN that will be supported with this version is RackspaceCloud. Until 4.0 is released, Amazon and VPS.NET will be supported also.

Old user levels used for displaying panels are replaced with capabilities, and defaults are added to administrator roles. There are options to add some of the capabilities to other user roles too. Both Pro and Lite will have this implemented.

GD Press Tools 3.8 Pro and GD Press Tools 2.6 Lite will be released on Monday September 13 2010.

Promo coupon

Starting now, and until the end of September, a coupon is available that will give you 20% discount. Coupon can be used with GD Press Tools and Dev4Press Bundle purchases. This coupon is: GDPT38PRO.

Articles panel is expanded with different filter for custom post types. Some of integration functions are improved. Readme file is updated with more FAQ entries. Database Tools panel got one more tool you need to be very, very careful about because it will remove all stored rating data from database.

TinyMCE button and plugin are fixed to support taxonomies changes in WP 3.0 and custom post types. Same goes for Builder panel, and for the widgets that had problems with grouping by taxonomies. Few more problems with the meta boxes integration on post edit page are also fixed.

If you find anymore bugs, please report them via comments or in the forums.

GD Star Rating: http://www.gdstarrating.com/

New Icon

Brand new GD Press Tools 3.5 Pro has just been released and this version brings another major tool allowing you to remove inactive users. There are more new things in this version, including updated plugin icon, improvements to database tools and more.

New panel is called Prune Users and includes filter block that will display users matching the filter with basic data to review and option to delete them.

Prune Users Panel

In the next versions of the plugin, there will be more options for filtering and deletion. So, if you get a bunch of registrations and accounts that never get used, this is the easy way to get rid of them.

Also, new option is added for WP 2.9 and newer for setting automatic deletion of trashed items. Database backup tab now displays estimate for compressed backup size. And as always, some minor problems are fixed. For WP 3.0 new integration option is added, to display ID column for comments. More comments columns will follow.

Code optimization started with this version, and part of the code is moved from main class to admin class that will be loaded only for admin side, and save memory on blog side because it will not be loaded there.

Thanks to Vladan Vasic, designer behind eScape and photoScape themes, plugin now has new icon. And the Dev4Press website will be updated with his icons and other elements this and next week.

So, check and test the new version and please report any problems you find. In the next month you can expect maintenance versions, but main work on GD Press Tools 4.0Pro has started.

Important: This is the last version of GD Press Tools to support WordPress 2.7. With increasing difficulties to track new functions and functionalities in last few versions of WP, new major GD Press Tools will support 2.8 and higher versions of WordPress.

Pro version Database tools are updated and expanded. Now, for each table you have optimize and repair options. Also, cleanup tools is split into two: one for optimization of database only, and other for repair. Sending email after backup is fixed, with few minor typos and errors displaying list of backups.

Most important new addition here is use of mysqldump program to create backups of the database. For this to work, plugin needs access to mysql program and also some PHP functions. New mySQL panel on Database panel is there to set and check all prerequisites. For manual and schedule backup jobs you can choose which backup method to use. If the mysqldump can’t be run, classic method will be used. Also, GZIP mysqldump method can’t be used on Windows servers.

Also, both versions are now fully compatible with latest build of WordPress 3.0.

After this, next step is to add sending backup archives via email and to add restore options for archived database files.