WordPress Backup

I run several websites / blogs powered off wordpress. In order to back them up I’ve written a unix shell script to do this. It will automatically read the database settings and do a dump of it, as well as copy themes / plugins / uploads.

There are two versions. One will copy files locally, the other allows a remote sync to another server which is compatible with Dreamhost.

The local copy version can be found here: wp-backup.sh Example usage can be seen below. The -t option allows you only to backup a single theme. The -u option allows you to skip backing up uploads.

./wp-backup.sh /path/to/wordpress /path/to/backup
./wp-backup.sh -t theme -u /path/to/wordpress /path/to/backup

There is also a version to work with Dreamhost’s free (with hosting) 50GB backup plan than can be downloaded here: wp-remote.sh

./wp-remote.sh /path/to/wordpress [email protected]:backup
where b123456 is your backup user

Limitations
1) Your wp-config file must be pretty strict in order to be read:
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘database’); // The name of the database
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘username’); // Your MySQL username
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password’); // …and password
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘hostname);

2) The directory you’re copying to must already exist.

3) The options/order of the parameters in calling the script is very strict

App Ideas

In continuing to blog ideas that I think are cool but I need to take off my todo list, here’s a list of apps that I think could be written sometime. Feel free to write them:

Facebook Apps
Social facebook app of where to find hard to find stuff
Mac vs. PC
Virtual Time Capsule Gift app

Deskbands
World Clock
Multiple Desktop for windows XP

Widgets
Scrolling Stocks
Scrolling News

iPhone
Dos Box on iPhone, with easy to build script that incorporates it and a dos application into a new iPhone app
Penny football
Super rubber dub for iPhone
Style Diary for iPhone

Spreadsheet Widget

spreadsheetwidgetI’ve been looking for a spreadsheet widget for dashboard for along time, something to quickly blot without loading up a full spreadsheet like open office, excel or numbers. I was thinking of writing my own, but I’ve been trying not to program so much “pointless” stuff and focus on what really matters. This lead me to the idea of using Mac OSX’s webclip feature that lets you create a widget from any webpage.

I originally tried Google Docs with a public spreadsheet, but something went wrong with the javascript. A quick wikipedia and I discovered Zoho’s public spreadsheet. It worked great as you can see from the image!

YouTubeApp.com

Been helping Janakan a bit with his great new app found at www.youtubeapp.com. Its awesome and you can really should check it out.

Things I love:

  • Seeing everyone’s libraries, you get to find great videos AND its really interesting seeing how it reflects different things about someone’s personality.
  • Auto playing next video, this is great, because you can use a search or setup a playlist and it just keeps going.
  • Facebook integration, this is great because facebook is where I go to find out what my friends are doing. I don’t have most of them added as friends on youtube as well.
  • Drag and drop, just rocks

Post ToDo

Post ToDo is a modification of Our ToDo list with the ability to attach a to do list to a post or page and some additional options.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/post-todo/

Installation
1. Download post-todo and place in wp-content/plugins/post-todo
It must be in exactly that place to work:
wp-content/plugins/post-todo/post-todo.php
2. Log into your WordPress admin panel
3. Go to Plugins and “Activate” the plugin
4. Add a todo list to a post by just inserting the tag [post_todo]
5. You must be logged in to edit
6. Display all todos from all posts using [post_todo_all]

Todos for Post ToDo
[post_todo]

3rd Party Authentication

3rd Party Authentication is a wordpress plugin that allows wordpress to authenticate against other authentication systems. These include:

  • Gmail / Google Apps
  • Any generic POP/IMAP email service
  • http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/3rd-party-authentication/

    Known Issues
    There is a known issue related to the google login, sometimes it requires the user to enter a captcha (one of those pattern of fuzzy letters), especially if a user types the wrong password. At the moment the plugin doesn’t handle this, and may stop the user using this service. You can fix this by going here: https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha

    Change log
    0.2.3
    Fix so auto creating users populates email field allowing more than on user to be created! Thanks Cody!
    0.2.2
    Added text on login page to indicated regular logins work
    0.2.1
    Bug fix for when using default port
    0.2.0
    Remove blank from the list in 0.1.7
    0.1.9
    Fix for if wp_authenticate already declared
    0.1.8
    Added google apps domains to the list
    0.1.7
    Shows a list of domains that can be logged in using
    0.1.6
    Can now auto create users