[wp-hackers] WP-Manage: Automatic WP backups and upgrades with PHP

[Aaron Brazell]

I was going to stay out as I had made my comments but there's just  
something else I need to say. :-) All in the spirit of dialogue, right?

This tool assumes you're responsible for the upgrades, right? I'm not  
clear on this.

If you are responsible for the upgrades then you have to manually  
login (via FTP, SSH whatever) to change perms. Then you run the  
script. Then you log back in and change perms again. Theoretically  
you remember all the various passwords, but perhaps you don't and  
have to fish around through emails or god forbid find the password on  
the post it note taped to the bottom of your keyboard. My point is  
that this is not really an efficient way even if it just is a right  
click, properties, chmod 777.

Being that I'm not clear if this is intended for the person  
responsible for all the upgrades (i.e. you) or if it's left to Dr.  
Mike's soccer moms to do, let's take the other approach. The soccer  
mom's have to upgrade. Okay, so now how do you teach THEM to chmod  
their directories and then chmod them back when they are done.

I don't want to ruin your enthusiasm. I love options and I love  
Brian's script and the idea behind yours. Anything that makes  
automation better is the way to go in my book. I live this philosophy  
and am always learning new things. So don't misunderstand me.

With the shell script, assuming you are the one responsible for all  
these upgrades on different servers, why can't you just modify a  
script (or write your own) that uses PHP's FTP functions. Then you  
can automate the whole thing with a click of the button and you don't  
have to worry about the soccer mom's screwing things up, or having to  
go through and remember passwords, click around, maybe click on the  
wrong things, etc. It eliminates the fallible human modus operandi  
(which I'm thrilled to have used in a sentence for the second time  
this week) that makes mistakes.

Food for thought.
--
Aaron Brazell
Technology Architect, b5media
"A Global New Media Company"

web:: www.b5media.com, www.technosailor.com
phone:: 410-608-6620
skype:: technosailor



On Jan 19, 2007, at 9:23 AM, Alex Günsche wrote:

> * If she isn't admin, give her the "import" capability via  
> RoleManager.
>
> How could it be easier? Or would you (your employees) do it yourself
> each time? Or don't you do the upgrades and backups at all, leaving it
> to the customer? Please enlighten me. ;-)
>
> As I mentioned before, I also know and apprechiate the shell script
> method. But this one is a different approach. By the way, there is  
> also
> the mysqldump command line tool, still do people use phpMyAdmin and  
> the
> WP-Backup plugin. ;-)