|
Useful Information About SiteVault |
|---|
- Interface Overview
 To make the SiteVault easy to understand and use we made the interface look like a usual Explorer window. You will find that almost all the features of SiteVault can be found by right clicking on the items found in the TreeView or ListView.
For example: right clicking on a FTP Connection will bring you four actions in the ContextMenu – Connect, Disconnect, Properties and Delete; Backups can be started by right-clicking on a site item and selecting Backup from the menu that opens.
Main Menu
Sometimes the easiest way to take an action is by using the menu. For example: Click Backup from the main menu, select the site you wish to backup, confirm and that's it.
| File |
From here you can create new accounts, manage them or delete them. To create an FTP account select New FTP Account, for an SQL Account select New SQL Account and for a new Site definition select New Site. To edit/delete an FTP account select FTP Accounts, a menu will open containing a list of all the FTP accounts, select the account you desire and then (from the new menu that will open) select Edit or Delete. The operation is similar for an SQL Account or for sites. |
| View |
From here you can switch between the Browser View and The Backup View or chose between Single or Double Browser View. |
| Actions |
Each time an item is selected you can find the available actions for that item in the actions menu. |
| Backup |
Select a site, confirm and the backup is on the way. |
| Restore |
Select the site you wish to restore. If a Site has no backup it will be disabled. After you select a site that contains at least one backup (select a backup if there is more than one) please read the confirmation dialog as the backup you select might be corrupted or aborted. You can see the log for the selected backup if you desire. |
| Cleanup |
Select the Site for which you wish to clean backups. Sites without backups will be disabled. |
| Help |
Gain access to our easy to use (HTML) help, send feedback, visit our site and more. |
 The Toolbar
Provides access to common navigation actions, some view options and an easy/fast way to add/edit/delete your FTP/SQL/Site information.
| Back and Forward |
As in Explorer it will go back or forward through the folders you have been recently |
| Up One Folder |
Will move one item up in the data tree |
| Refresh |
Refreshes all items in the current ListView |
| Select All |
Selects all items in the current ListView |
| New FTP |
If you click over the text it will open the New FTP window; if you press the arrow next to it, it will open a menu containing the list of FTP accounts |
| New SQL |
If you click over the text it will open the New SQL window; if you press the arrow next to it, it will open a menu containing the list of SQL accounts |
| New Site |
If you click over the text it will open the New Site window; if you press the arrow next to it, it will open a menu containing the list of Sites |
| View Backup/Browser |
You can switch between the Browser View and The Backup View |
| Single/Double View |
Chose between Single or Double Browser View |
The Browser
 It's a very complex object built on a strong multithread and event driven architecture to avoid those frustrating locks and keep data synchronized.
Here you can find:
| My Computer |
Your local store devices Floppy Disk(s), Hard Drive(s), CD/CD-RW/DVD Drive(s) etc |
| Network |
The Computers in your local network |
| FTP Connections |
The FTP Connections creted for each FTP Account |
| SQL Connections |
The SQL Connections created for each SQL Account |
| Sites |
The content of all Sites - Each site contains an FTP folder (if defined) and an SQL database (if defined). Also each site contains a list with all the backups (ready to explore) |
Feel free to right click on the items. You will see that a menu with all the relevant actions for that item will be displayed. It works just like an Explorer. Note: some actions will be forbidden to maintain data integrity. For example: you can copy paste a backup's FTP folders/files or SQL data to a folder on your hard drive but not the other way around).
 If you do not like the tree on the left side you can hide-it by pressing the button shown in the picture. To make it reapear press the button again. SiteVault will look like a Norton Commander (or Windows Commander) if you switch to Double View and hide both Tree Views.
 A very useful feature of this object is the ability to set a different Root element. As you can see on top of the tree is the "Root" item. Let's say that for the next 20 minutes you are only interested to work with a certain FTP connection, the other elements in the tree will be an inconvenience to you. Press the arrow (as shown in the picture), select FTP Connections and then the connection you wish to use. The selected FTP connection will become the Root element of the Browser and all the other elements will be hidden.
If you are interested to set as Root an element that is not listed in the menu above press the button instead of the arrow next to it. A browse dialog will apear. Select the folder you wish to set as the Root element and press the "Ok" button. This feature is very useful if you must work on a folder that has a deep path.
Backup View
 Once you start a backup the interface will switch to the Backup View. You can always return to the Browser View using the View menu or by clicking the View Backup/Browser in the toolbar. In this mode you can see the progress of your backups.
The first column represents the caption (name) of your site. If this turns red it means that the backup has errors (Press the ShowLog button to see them). If you wish to see more information for a backup, press the Details button. You can Pause/Resume or Abort a backup by pressing the buttons on the right side. Once a backup is complete (or aborted) the buttons in the right are replaced by the ShowLog and Close buttons.
Note: If you abort a backup and then you want to restore a site with that backup you will be notified that the selected backup is not complete. Also all backups are aborted once you exit. Please do not rush to confirm the messages you receive especially if they contain red text.
- Managing Accounts (FTP, SQL, Site)
Usually you will keep more than one site on the same web host. In this case SiteVault becomes invaluable.
First you specify the FTP Account for your site followed by the SQL Account. After that each Site is defined as:
- a folder on your FTP Account
- a database (or a collection of tables) from the SQL Account
Any one of these two is optional. You can have a Site without an SQL Account or you can skip the FTP Account if you are only interested to Backup/Restore your database.
Setting an FTP Account
In order to access your site's files SiteVault contains a FTP client.
You may create as many FTP accounts as you want and can have them connected at the same time as well.
Note: Some site hosts will not allow multiple connections from the same IP address.
| Caption |
The caption of the FTP Account. It will help you identify your account. |
| Host |
The FTP server's name/IP you wish to connect to. |
| Port |
The port on which the FTP server is listening for connections. The default value is 21 (Optional). |
| Username/Password |
The username and password to communicate to the FTP server for authentication. |
| FTP Root |
Once connected to the server a you start from a path specified by the FTP server. Here you can specify a different start path (Optional). |
Press the Wizard button at any time to switch between Normal and Wizard Mode. |
 |
Setting an SQL Account
This can be a bit tricky until you understand how it works. But after that it will only take you a Copy/Paste (or Backup command) to Export/Backup your databases.
So here's how:
• In order for SiteVault to backup your database(s) some scripts must be uploaded to your FTP account (because most hosts will not allow connections to the SQL server from another IP).
• Then SiteVault will use them to Backup/Restore your database(s) through the HTTP protocol.
• We recommend you to create a special folder for them ex: "/public_html/backup-scripts".
• You must make sure that the scripts will be visible for the Web. Ex: http://www.your-site.com/backup-scripts
|
| Caption |
The caption of the SQL Account. It will help you identify your account. |
| Database/Script |
The database server type and the script type that your server supports. |
| Script parameters for connection |
The parameters you use in your scripts (PHP, ASP etc…) on the site to connect to the SQL server. |
| Username/Password |
The username and password required to connect to the SQL server. |
| Host |
The host is usually "localhost" because the SQL server is usually on the same computer as your site's scripts. If it is a different one please specify. |
| Port |
The default port is usually the right one but if your SQL server listens on a different port please specify it. |
| Where to upload the scripts |
The scripts that will Export/Backup/Restore your databases can be placed automatically to your site by specifying an FTP account and a folder where to place the scripts. If you intend to place the scripts manually you can skip the "FTP Account" and "FTP upload path". Regardless of how you upload the scripts you must specify a valid HTTP URL that will point to the directory where the scripts are placed. For example: if the FTP folder where you placed the scripts is "/public_html/backup-scripts" the "HTTP scripts URL" will be http://www.your-site.com/backup-scripts |
| FTP Account |
The FTP Account to use to upload the scripts automatically. |
| FTP upload path |
The FTP path where to place the scripts |
| HTTP scripts URL |
SiteVault must use these scripts with the HTTP protocol. So a valid URL that will indicate the folder where the scripts are placed is required |
| "Show scripts" button |
Will open the folder where the scripts are so you can upload them manually. |
| "Upload scripts" button |
Will attempt to automatically upload the scripts to the specified FTP folder using the selected FTP Account. If the specified folder does not exists it will be created. |
| Database selection mode |
Because (in most cases) you share an SQL server with other people the SQL function that shows the list of all databases on that server is not allowed. If this is the case you will have to specify your databases manually. Select the "Manual" option and start adding databases one by one (Type the database name in the textbox and press the "Add" button) |
|
 |
Press the Wizard button at any time to switch between Normal and Wizard Mode.
The scripts do not represent a security threat because they do not contain the username and password required to connect to the SQL server. The information needed to connect will be sent to the scripts each time they are needed through GET/POST.
Note: If you need additional security you can restrict access to the scripts and only allow requests from your IP(s). Place the scripts in a separate folder. Create a ".htaccess" file and add these lines to it:
#begin .htaccess file
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from your-domain-or-ip.com
#end .htaccess file
For additional information on security issues for Apache HTTP servers go to http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/auth.html
Or contact us at support@site-vault.com |
Setting a Site
A Site is defined as a folder on your FTP Account and a database (or a collection of tables) in an SQL Account. Any one of these two is optional.
You can have a Site without an SQL Account or you can skip the FTP Account if you are only interested to Backup/Restore your database.
| Caption |
The caption of the Site. It will help you identify your Site |
| FTP Account |
The FTP account for the Site. |
| FTP Path |
The FTP path for the Site. This will specify the FTP folder that will Backed up/Restored. |
Backup FTP-HTTP
equivalence |
Sometimes an FTP request for a file will return "Access denied" (regardless what FTP client you are using). Most likely because an image (or other file) had been uploaded with a script and the permissions for that file have not been set correctly (at all) by the script. If this is the case SiteVault can attempt to get the file using HTTP. For this SiteVault needs to know the equivalence between the FTP path and the HTTP path. For example: if your Site is placed in the FTP folder "/public_html/" the HTTP equivalent path is http://www.your-domain.com/ |
Specify SQL Account,
Database and tables
to backup |
Select the SQL Account and then the database that contains the tables for this Site. If all the tables in the database are needed for this Site just leave the "Use All tables" check box checked. If not, uncheck the check box and start selecting tables from the list (hold the CTRL or ALT key pressed) |
Press the Wizard button at any time to switch between Normal and Wizard Mode. |
 |
- Backup Your Data
Once you have setup your Site(s) you are just one click away form Backup. Go to the main menu select "Backup" and select the Site you wish to backup. Another way to start the backup is to right click on a site object (from the TreeView or the ListView) and select Backup from the menu that appears.
 Note: To prevent data corruption only one of these tasks, Backup/Restore or Cleanup, is allowed per site at a time.
After you confirm you will be automatically switched to the Backup View. From there you can view and manage the running Backups. For details about the interface click here.
The label (caption) of a Backup is the date when that Backup was started. So it is recomended to keep your computer's time up to date so that the Backup's date will not mislead you.
You can open a dialog window for each backup by clicking the Details button.
| Pause/Resume |
You can always suspend a Backup by pressing the Pause button (Only available while the backup is running). To prevent data loss the Backup will only be suspended after the current items are finished. Once the backup is paused the Pause button will change to "Resume". |
| Abort |
To abort the backup press the "Abort" button (Only available while the backup is running). An aborted backup can not be resumed but the data acquired will not be lost and the next backup (for the site being backed up) will reuse this data if it has not been modified (Only for FTP as for SQL is impossible to determine if it has changed without reading it all).
Aborted backups will be marked and if you try to restore it you will be notified. |
| Show Log |
Each Backup has a log that is updated as the backup runs.
The log can have one of the following statuses: Running, Done, Done with Errors or Done Aborted.
If a file appears in the "FTP – Files downloaded" list then that file has been downloaded successfully.
If a file appears in the "FTP – Files with errors" list then that file has not been downloaded successfully.
If a table appears in the "SQL – Tables downloaded" list then that table has been downloaded successfully.
If a table appears in the "SQL – Tables with errors" list then that table has not been downloaded successfully. |
After a Backup is started it will appear in the Sites list (in the TreeView and/or ListView) and you can browse-it or copy/paste data from it to your local hard drive or other storage device.
To make sure the data remains the same the backup is Read Only.
How does it work?
FTP
As files are downloaded from your FTP server the information about them (modified date, permissions, if is link etc...) is stored on local .dbf files.
If a new Backup is started and a file (on the FTP server) is found in an older Backup (the files must have the same path, size and modification date) that file will not be downloaded again from the FTP server. A virtual link to the already existing file on your computer will be created.
If an error occurs while downloading a file (such as "Access denied") SiteVault will try to retrieve the file using the HTTP protocol if the setting on "Backup ftp-http equivalence" have been properly set.
SQL
Because most SQL servers from web hosts will not allow outside connections, scripts will be uploaded to your site to allow the access to the SQL server.
They act as an interface for SiteVault allowing it to view/export/import tables and databases.
On the backup process the databases are created as folders on your local hard drive and the tables are text files containing SQL statements.
Because the data is sent/received in chunks you can import/export tables of any size.
- Restoring Sites
To restore a site from a Backup: go to the main menu select "Restore" and select the Site you wish to backup. If some sites are disabled they do not have any Backups. Select a Backup from the list that appears. 
Another way to start the Restore task is to right click on a Backup object (from the TreeView or the ListView) and select Restore from the menu that appears (like shown in the image).
After that a confirmation window will appear. Please do not rush to confirm. If some text appears in read it means the Backup is incomplete (user Aborted) or it has errors. If this is the case please read the logs it will be very helpful as it tells you what files/tables have not been downloaded successfully.
You can restore a damaged Backup with low risks because the files/tables that exist in the backup are intact. This means that SiteVault will only keep successfully and completely downloaded items.
 The Restore task will also attempt to set the FTP permission as they were at Backup.
Note: To prevent data corruption only one of these tasks, Backup/Restore or Cleanup, is allowed per site at a time.
The interface is similar to a Backup dialog.
- Cleaning Unneeded Backups
Over time you might find that your hard drive is full of old backups that you no longer need. Due to the fact that SiteVault doesn't keep duplicates of identical files you can not just delete the old folders. Use the Cleanup task instead.
 You can do this by selecting from the main menu "Cleanup" and then the site for which you wish to make the cleanup. Select the Backup(s) you wish to delete and press the "Ok" button.
Another way is to select the backup(s) you wish remove from the Tree View or the List View right click and select "Delete" from the menu that apears.
- FTP Advantages
First of all you must know that by definition the FTP protocol doesn't allow multiple tasks (requests) on the same connection.
Due to the fact SiteVault must handle multiple requests on the same FTP connection we built a very powerful FTP client that is capable of managing a virtually unlimited number of requests.
You will be pleased to see that while a Backup or Restore task is in progress you will still be able to access your FTP connection (that is involved in the Backup/Restore process).
Basically you can do an unlimited number of tasks on the same FTP connection. SiteVault request-management system will take care of the rest.
Even more: browsing data will have priority. That means that when you open (select) a folder the task of reading that folder will be moved on the top of the queue.
Open and edit any number of files from your FTP connections. They will be copied to your hard drive and after you close them you will be asked if you wish to upload them back.
Tree browsing mode especially created for FTP.
You will also enjoy an interface that do not locks, due to the fact that all tasks are processed on different threads. Copy/Paste from one FTP connection to another is also supported.
- SQL Advantages
Because SiteVault uses scripts on your site to connect to the SQL Server it doesn't matter if your host allows or not outside connections to the SQL Server.
Also SiteVault reads and writes data in chunks so there are no size restrictions and transfers go smooth without locks.
- Export-Backup Databases with a Simple Copy/Paste
This is as simple as it sounds. After you have created an SQL account a virtual SQL connection will be created. Each SQL database is presented as a folder and a table will result in a text file containing SQL statements.
You can select a number of databases, right click, and press Copy from the menu. Then you can "Paste" on any folder on your hard drive, network folder, FTP folder or another storage device. And due to the fact that data is read in chunks size doesn't matter. You can successfully export huge tables.
- The Properties Window
It is a very useful tool especially for FTP, as you can set permissions for multiple folders recursively.
 You can find out what's taking space and/or the total size (including subdirectories) of your FTP folders. Select all folders on your FTP account right click and press Properties and after the reading is done order the files by size and decide what to delete.
You can also see the last modified files. Just sort the items by date.
Also operations (Open/Cut/Copy/Delete/...) can be performed on the items displayed in the Properties Window.
- Change the Backup Folder
If you discover that the partition on which you have installed SiteVault has insufficient space, you can change the Backup directory.
To open the "Change Backup Folder" dialog go to the main menu and select File->Change Backup Folder.
All the files will be moved to the new specified location.
Warning: please make sure no other tasks are running. No Backup/Restore or Cleanup tasks.
The operation is safe because the files are first copied and only if the copy process is completed successfully the old backup folder will be deleted.
- The Shorcuts List for SiteVault
Here's the shorcuts list for SiteVault
| CTRL+SHIFT+F | New FTP account | CTRL+SHIFT+S | New SQL account | | CTRL+SHIFT+W | New Site | F11 | Browser mode view | | F12 | Backup mode view | F7 | Single browser | | F8 | Double browser | F9 | Show/Hide Output | | F1 | Help | CTRL+A | Select All | | CTRL+X | Cut | CTRL+C | Copy | | CTRL+V | Paste | DEL | Delete | | F5 | Refresh | F2 | Rename | | CTRL+P | Properties Window | CTRL+SHIFT+C | Connect | | CTRL+SHIFT+B | Backup | CTRL+SHIFT+R | Restore | | CTRL+O | Open | F4 | Edit | | CTRL+Q | Exit | CTRL+L | Show Log |
- The Icon List of SiteVault
List with all the icons of SiteVault
 | The default icon for unknown files. |  | The error icon. There is an error with the selected item/folder. It will be diplayed in the List View with the coresponding error text attached to it. |  | Move one folder up. |  | The main Root of SiteVault. |  | My Computer |  | Removable (Floppy) Disk |  | Hard drive |  | Mapped network drive |  | Compact Disc, CD-RW, DVD, etc... |  | RAM storage device |  | Folder |  | Folder (Not refreshed) |  | Network |  | Computer on the network |  | Network Share |  | Root for all FTP Connections |  | FTP Connection |  | FTP Connection (Disconnected) |  | FTP Connection (Connecting) |  | Linux Link |  | Linux Link (Not refreshed) |  | Root for all SQL Connections |  | SQL Connection |  | SQL Table |  | SQL Database |  | Root to all Sites |  | Site |  | Site's FTP folder | | Site's SQL database (or tables collection) |  | Root to all Backups on a Site |  | Backup |  | Backup (Running) |  | Backup (With errors or aborted) |
« Back to Categories |
 |
|
