Snapshot Backup – Version 1.6 Release Notes

After nearly 7.500 downloads it’s time for Version 1.6 of your favourite backup plugin – it’s a shame it took me so long to do so little… All my time is currently consumed with planning our move from London, UK to Miami Beach, FL which leaves too little time for hacking code. Apologies if development cycles take longer than we all had hoped.

Thanks again to everyone who provided feedback and error messages!

The good news is that once we’re settled in the US, I’ll focus my efforts on WordPress Support and development full time! Fingers crossed, it won’t be much longer now 😉

Let’s have a look at the new features of Snapshot Backup 1.6:

Prefilght Checks

Sometimes it’s hard to spot where things go wrong, so I’ve decided it’s about time to implement some preflight checks for folder permissions and FTP details. When you hit the big Backup button the plugin checks

• if all directories exist
• if they’re writable
• and if it can connect to your FTP host

If there’s a problem, you’ll find out before the snapshot script is executed. Snapshot Backup will also point you in the right direction of what to fix.

Recent Snapshot Download

There was a typo in the code on a couple of occasions that caused error messages on certain servers. I didn’t notice this on my system but Kara from The Adsmith did and kindly provided the fix. Thanks Kara, that’s much appreciated and implemented in this new release 😉

Fixed FTP Upload Errors

Another thing Kara spotted (and fixed) was that sometimes the ftp_put() command can throw up a timeout error even though the upload happens without a problem. This error seems to disappear when we use ftp_pasv(). Done!

New Folder Structure

Since I read Professional WordPress Plugin Development I’ve learnt quite a few tips and tricks on how to do things “the right way”. One of them was that Plugins and Themes should really follow the WordPress Core folder structure.

This means that rather than putting all files into one directory (i.e. wp-content/plugins/snapshot-backup/) images, CSS and other files get their own directory. Makes it easier to maintain the Plugin when it grows (as this one does) and it’s more obvious for other developers to see what’s where.

I’ve done that, along with some more inline documentation. This won’t have any impact on usability but it’s a necessary change behind the scenes as we venture towards Version 2.

Uninstall Cleanup Procedure

I’ve provided an uninstall.php file with this release. This will remove all values in the WordPress database that Snapshot Backup is using.

When you delete the Plugin (via Plugins – Delete) WordPress will not only remove all files but also delete all options from the database (i.e. FTP Details, your password, additional directories, etc). You can use this to completely “reset” the Plugin by deleting and re-installing it.

Please note that if you remove the Plugin via FTP the Database Options will remain untouched.

Questions? Feedback?

Drop me a line below if anything is unclear of it things aren’t working as expected.
Until next time 😉