After several months of development and testing, new major release of GD Press Tools Pro is here. Version 4.2 has a long changelog, but focus in this one is new backup module, new auto tagger module, Sucuri free security scan, many bugs fixed and many improvements to rest of the plugin.
New Backup Module
It’s not easy to summarize new backup module in the few sentences. It has a lot of features and compared to all other backup solutions for WordPress, GD Press Tools Pro the only truly complete solution for WordPress backups. And much more. Plugin has quick backup, tasks based backup, archive files protection, support for multisite/network installations, customizable backup tasks, CDN/FTP upload, email notifications and more.
To see all that in action, you can check out the video tutorial: Using GD Press Tools 4.2 Backup. And, plugin now includes restore and clone script that you can use to restore website from full backup archive or migrate it into another website. For a whole backup and restore procedure, check out this tutorial: How to backup and restore your website.
I got many questions about comparing GD Press Tools Pro to other plugins especially for the backup. So, I have prepared comparison table comparing GD Press Tools Pro versus BackupBuddy. As you can see, not only that GD Press Tools Pro offers much more for in terms of backup features, you get many more features for full administration plugin. And best part is that GD Press Tools Pro costs much less then BackupBuddy.
Auto Tagger
Another new module is Auto Tagger. Previous versions of the plugin had a simple auto tagger. Now, you get very powerful tool that allow scheduling, support for custom post types and custom taxonomies, wide range of settings and filtering and support for 4 different tagging methods: internal extraction, Yahoo API, Alchemy API and Zemanta API (last two need signing up for the API keys). To see how each method works, there is a test tool available.
All tagging methods can be used with single post tagging, that will be further improved with next plugin versions. If you want to see the auto tagger in action, check out the tutorial: Using GD Press Tools Auto Tagger.
Interface, SEO, Security and more
Plugin uses once again updated interface, refining look further using simpler color scheme. Plugin menu is now color coded that display items in different colors (for multisite menu, normal menu). New SEO panel is just start of the full SEO module that will be added later. Now has support for previous existing meta features, and added new Facebook open graph integration. Sucuri powered free security scan is added as a new panel, and you can scan any website.
Most other features are also updated: debugger, dashboard widget, new settings added, more WordPress 3.2 related changes, updated third party libraries and added about plugin page.
Bug fixes include: changing admin username works now with multisites, invalid archive status during backup, minor issues with building XML sitemaps, several new PHP warnings, download of files via file manager, missing nonce protection in some cases.
What’s next?
There are much more planned features for future versions. Roadmap is updated recently, but there are many smaller features not listed that will be added to minor revisions along with bugs fixed. If you have any suggestions, leave a comment here or in the support forum.
And, if you find any bugs, I have started new thread in the forums for this plugin version.
Links and Resources
Here is the list of tutorials mentioned in this post:
How to backup and restore your website
Using GD Press Tools 4.2 Backup
Using GD Press Tools Auto Tagger
Comparing GD Press Tools Pro versus BackupBuddy:
To see the list of plugin features, overview and to buy the plugin, visit these pages:
GD Press Tools Overview
GD Press Tools Main Page
Buy GD Press Tools Pro
Promo coupon
To get 30% discount for this plugin (for yearly recurring payments standard and developer licenses, coupon is applied to initial payment only): GDPT42PRO. Coupon can be used until September 5 2011.
