Warning: This is a development version, and its for use only on test environments and I can’t recommend that you use this plugin version on your live websites. Final version is expected in the next 4-5 days.

GD Press Tools 4.2: Restore Script

Restore or clone script was planned for this version, and than due to lack of time I decided to move it to next release. But, with longer testing of this version, I again had time to work on this. So, first version of this script is here. But, there will be many updates and changes in the future versions. Right now script can restore website as it was in the different location, clone it with changed site URL, changed database and tables prefix. There is not much of the error handling at this point, or saving debug info, but script works and for most uses it will be OK. If you have changed name of wp-content folder, restore will work with that too. For restore to work, backups must contain full database and full files inside, and they must be made with this RC version because of additional info.txt file added to each archive.

Multisite restore and clone is not yet supported. This will be added later, because procedure to make this work is very, very complicated.

As for the changes:

1. Sucuri Scan timeout is now 240 seconds, because in some cases scan can take a long time to complete. If after that time request is not done, error will be displayed.
2. Email notifications were broken and emails were sent empty or not sent at all. Plugin now properly prepares templates and headers for emails. Same problem was with auto tagger and backup.
3. Backup Tasks process log is improved to show only actual tasks timing for running each time. And if the task is still in waiting mode and is one time run only, you will be able to prevent it from running and remove from schedule.
4. Editing backup tasks is further improved, and all checkboxes should be working now. Settings cleanup for the tasks is updated to make sure that saved data can be used. If you have problems with tasks you created, you must remove them and create new ones.
5. Deleting CDN/FTP connections is working now.
6. Many minor improvements added to AJAX handling functions, print_r replacement functions, debugger.

So, you can now test restore script and all the changes made for this version. Restore script will remain with current features for 4.2, and if you have suggestions for it, that will be in development for future versions. Final 4.2 release is expected for Monday, August 15 2011. New RC thread is opened in the forums for reporting bugs in this release.

In the next 2 days tutorials will start coming for the new features: Using new Backup (video), Using Auto Tagger (video), Step by Step Backup and Restore.

Warning: This is a development version, and its for use only on test environments and I can’t recommend that you use this plugin version on your live websites.

New version number will be 4.2. My internal build and version system required this change to be made, so 4.1 as official number will be skipped.

After last 3-4 days since release of Alpha #3, many bugs are fixed, most of them related to the Backup module. Now, after extensive testing on several different servers, backup module is working as designed. Still, I expect some minor bugs to be still present, so next 4-5 days will be spend making sure that all these things are fixed. Backup has working Statistics and Process panels that will show you general info about the backup tasks running. Editing of backup tasks works now.

If you still have issue starting backups or creating tasks:  it’s highly recommended that you clean up all the tasks data from the database, and allow plugin to create all that again as it should be. So, go to the Plugin Tools panel, Reset tab, and check ‘Remove everything tasks related’ option, and click Reset button. Now, you should have Backup working as it should be.  Also, from Cron Scheduler tab remove (clear) these tasks: gdpt_backup_job (old backup job) and gdpt_task_backup (new one).

GD Press Tools: About

Cron Scheduler panel is improved, new About page added, few more bugs in File Manager fixed. Some unused tabs removed and many minor things improved. Translation strings are updated, and they are not expected to changed until final 4.2 is released.

So, now we need to test following things: backup jobs with emails notifications, custom files backups, multisite installations backup. Leave all bug reports or other information in the comments or in the forum (there is a Beta thread opened in GD Press Tools forum).

Warning: This is a development snapshot of the upcoming version, and its for use only on test environments. I try to make even alpha versions as stable as possible, but still I can’t recommend that you use this plugin version on your live websites. Also, new Backup is NOT compatible with old one! Once you upgrade to this version, all scheduled backups from old version will stop working.

Known Issues: Backup tasks editing not working. Backup process log and statistics tab not done yet.

If you were using previous Alpha versions is highly recommended that you clean up all the tasks data from the database, and allow plugin to create all that again as it should be. So, go to the Plugin Tools panel, Reset tab, and check ‘Remove everything tasks related’ option, and click Reset button. Now, you should have Backup working as it should be.

In the next couple of days, I will release 4.1 Beta version, and soon after that final 4.1 will follow. So, please report all errors or problems you encounter with this release, I expect that there are some bugs in still, mostly with new Backup module. If you have some suggestions on the features present in this version, leave comments in this post or in the forum.

Next week will see several new video tutorials for new backup, auto tagger and few other things.

Warning: This is a development snapshot of the upcoming version, and its for use only on test environments. I try to make even alpha versions as stable as possible, but still I can’t recommend that you use this plugin version on your live websites. Also, new Backup is NOT compatible with old one! Once you upgrade to this version, all scheduled backups from old version will stop working.

Known Issues: Backup tasks editing not working. Backup process log and statistics tab not done yet. Problems with custom files backup.

For users that were using Alpha #2, new backup was broken, and default backup task missing (and quick backup broken because of that). To remedy this problem, you need to reinitialize backup tasks: Go to Plugin Tools panel, open Reset tab, and from Tasks And Connections select Backup tasks and click on Reset button. This should bring the default task and everything should be OK. Report back if this is still broken.

All icons and images are now replaced with new ones. New icons are done with Axialis IconWorkshop. Minor changes are added to File Manager with few fixes, Security panel got few things fixed and XML Sitemap manual rebuild works again.

In the next couple of days, I will release 4.1 Beta version, and soon after that final 4.1 will follow. So, please report all errors or problems you encounter with this release, I expect that there are some bugs in still, mostly with new Backup module. If you have some suggestions on the features present in this version, leave comments in this post or in the forum.

Next week will see several new video tutorials for new backup, auto tagger and few other things.

Warning: This is a development snapshot of the upcoming version, and its for use only on test environments. I try to make even alpha versions as stable as possible, but still I can’t recommend that you use this plugin version on your live websites. Also, new Backup is NOT compatible with old one! Once you upgrade to this version, all scheduled backups from old version will stop working.

Known Issues: Backup tasks editing not working. Backup process log and statistics tab not done yet. Several interface bugs and problems. Not fully tested with multisite / network environments.

First of all, Backups now use Tasks system developed previously for auto tagger. All other modules, if possible, they will use Tasks system in future versions. For improved flexibility, CDN and FTP is now separate panel as well, allowing you to define multiple connections you can use later in Backup and more.

GDPT 4.1: Quick Backup

For faster backups, there is a new option called Quick Backup (image on the right). Just click on the type of backup to create and that’s it, backup will be added as a background process. This is default backup option and in this case no settings are needed.

If you need detailed backup, things are much better now, since you can create and edit backup tasks. Once the task is created you can run it (with additional settings for CDN and few other things), or you can schedule it. One backup task can have multiple scheduled jobs.

GDPT 4.1: Backup Task Editor

GDPT 4.1: List of Backup Files

To use new backup module, go to Backup panel. Now you open Tasks tab. There, you will see Default task (you can’t delete it or edit it, but you can run it or schedule. This task is used for Quick Backup (top red button). You can create new tasks and use them. They have much more options right now, and it is much easier to create exactly what you need. Also, on Backup Settings tab you will find more interesting things: email notification to edit and exclusions for files backup.

Old Meta Tags panel is now renamed to SEO. Old tabs on this panel are still here, and only new feature for now is Facebook Open Graph integration meta tags. More SEO features will come in future versions. Other changes in this version include many minor improvements to debugger, new auto tagger module, more interface improvements and fixes and changes for WordPress 3.2.

In the next 4-5 days, I will release 4.1 Beta version, and soon after that final 4.1 will follow. So, please report all errors or problems you encounter with this release, I expect that there are some bugs in still, mostly with new Backup module. If you have some suggestions on the features present in this version, leave comments in this post or in the forum.

Next week will see several new video tutorials for new backup, auto tagger and few other things.

Warning: This is a development snapshot of the upcoming version, and its for use only on test environments. I try to make even alpha versions as stable as possible, but still I can’t recommend that you use this plugin version on your live websites.

Tasks system is allowing creation of tasks. Task can be edited, and when needed you can run the task once or schedule it to run as a recurring cron job. If you make changes to the task, and task is added to cron, next time job is executed, new settings will be used. For each task plugin is gathering statistical data about execution. Current backup system will be remodeled to use tasks allowing you better control over the tasks execution.

Auto Tagger is now task based. And based on what it can do, its most comprehensive auto tagging system available for WordPress now. Tagger has much more settings you can control from post types, filtering of posts according to post ID’s, number of terms, to additional settings for controlling received terms.

Auto Tagger Tasks List

Tagger now has 4 extraction methods: Yahoo API, Alchemy API, Zemanta API and internal tags extraction. Yahoo is better to get more relevant tags based on Yahoo database, Alchemy is also great and its sorting terms by relevancy, Zemanta will get less tags but it may be more relevant, and internal is faster but it will get only single word tags that are not very relevant. To use Alchemy or Zemanta, you need API Key. At the end of the post you can find the link to get this key. During the testing past week, I find that Alchemy is more reliable than Yahoo (often got the timeouts for requests), but Alchemy has 1000 requests a day limit for free accounts (Yahoo limit is 5000), but it can be increased if you pay. On tagger panel, on tools tab you have a test tool where you can add any text and plugin will test all extraction methods so you can compare results.

Tagger Form

Tagger gathers statistics for each extraction method, each task executed, and you can review what the tagger is doing, how fast and what kind of results you got each time its run. After tagging is completed email(s) will be sent. Email contents can be set from the Auto Tagger settings tab.

Alpha #3 is coming next week with first round of backup improvements and first step in using new tasks system. Please, test new version and report back any bugs you may find with both old and upcoming WordPress versions. Tagger is new and all tests are appreciated to make it better and bug free. At this point its looking stable, but I have yet to do large scale tests, and bugs are to be expected.

Alchemy API: http://www.alchemyapi.com/api/register.html
Zemanta API: http://developer.zemanta.com/apps/register/

Warning: This is a development snapshot of the upcoming version, and its for use only on test environments. I try to make even alpha versions as stable as possible, but still I can’t recommend that you use this plugin version on your live websites.

Enhanced Menu

Development of GD Press Tools 4.1 will take some time, since there are many features planned for this one, and plan is to have several alpha stages. Each stage will bring one new feature made as stable as possible, for testing, and bug fixing in next alpha version. This first alpha is released with bug fixes (minor sitemap problems, admin bar toggler visible in IFRAME elements and some warnings and notices in PHP), uses updated jQueryUI 1.8.13, adding changes for WordPress 3.2, enhanced color coding for admin menu, using timepicker for scheduling backup and sitemaps and new color scheme for the user interface.

Improved color scheme

Menu items (image on the left) uses different colors for different groups of menu items, that also depends on the WordPress mode (multisite, network mode…).  New color scheme for the user interface is simpler, doesn’t uses so many colors and now relies on black, red and white only. New interface looks better, especially in the new WordPress 3.2.

Alpha #2 is coming on Tuesday, and it will include scheduler for the Auto Tagger with more options on getting the tags for posts (post type filters and few others). Please, test new version and report back any bugs you may find with both old and upcoming WordPress versions.