In the voice of Kyle from South Park - “We learned something today…”

I did learn something today, something that eventually will be a great time saver not only for LifeHut but something that will always give me easy access to database information for LifeHut. This little trick was brought on by an Aol Instant Messenger conversation I had with Chris J. Davis.

For those of you who use WordPress, this will work for you. You will also need a Google Gmail account (ok, you don’t HAVE to have a gmail account, but the idea behind this makes having a gmail effective). If you don’t have a Gmail account, hopefully via the law of 6 Degrees of Separation, you will know someone who has a Gmail invite that they can hand off to you. If not, I have 49 invites left, so hit my contact form if you want one.

Ok, so WP + Google, what’s so killer?

The idea behind this posting is to show you how to use a WordPress Plugin that can do database backups of your website/blog and have the backup automatically emailed to a specified email address, your Gmail as an example. Sure, emailing a backup is not revolutionary, but the idea behind this is to save time and to have a location of those files at ALL times.

First, consider upgrading to WP 1.5.2

I am unaware if this is necessary, but I would definitly recommend downloading/upgrading your version of WP to 1.5.2. It’s the latest version, and typically, latest means it’s the best.

Now, get your gmail account

Again, have a friend, relative, pet, alien, or even the desk in your family room send you a Gmail Invite. Again, I have a few, so contact me and ask.

I always try and create a name like ’sitename’storage@gmail.com. You can’t use dashes or anything I don’t believe.

You need to download a couple things

1. Download the latest version of WP-Cron 1.2 - Quick Download for version 1.2 - copy the WP-Cron XXX files (7 of them) into your PLUGINS directory
2. Next, get the latest version of WP-DB-Backup - Quick Download for version 1.6 - copy the .php file into the PLUGINS directory. Then, in WP-CONTENT, make a new folder labeled backup. Make sure this file is writable by the web server (CHMOD 777)

After you have downloaded and uploaded those files into the Plugins directory, then proceed to your WordPress Admin section. Go to Plugins, then look for WordPress Database Backup and hit ACTIVATE. Then look for WP-Cron and hit ACTIVATE. Don’t worry about the other WP-Cron files.

Still working at it? Ok, I’ll wait.

Done? Good. Now onto Manage

Click MANAGE at the top of your WordPress admin section. At the end, you should see a link called BACKUP. Click that.

Now, assuming you have downloaded the correct files mentioned above, you should see a grey box with all the ‘core’ files, and then on the right are other tables in your database.

If you scroll down, you will see a section entitled Scheduled Backup

By default, all tables located in the GREY box are selected by default. At the bottom is a replica of the same “extra” tables you saw at the top. As you can tell, I have chosen to check my “extra” tables.

You can either leave those unchecked or check them. It all depends on WHAT you want to backup in addition to your WordPress files.

CHOOSE DAILY as your backup option. Then, enter your recently created Google Gmail address on the right. HIT SUBMIT. You should see an animated graphic databasing your files and then emailing them to you.

Your Done

You have just setup your WordPress Blog to automatically generate a backup of your core files + extra tables you specified at a specific time every day to your specified email address.

Great, but why Google?

Good question. Any email address will do. However, what is great about using your google email is that you get 2 gigabytes of storage space, plus you can use that email address ONLY for your site backups. LifeHut has one, and if something ever happens to my database, I will have a growing list of daily backups at my Gmail account waiting to save the day.

If you already have a Gmail account, like I do, you can send an invite to yourself, and then create your database backup specified email address. You can do this with multiple email address’s if you feel froggy.

Thoughts?

Technorati Tags: Gmail, WordPress Plugin, Google