[wp-hackers] GSoC Idea

Wed Mar 23 08:49:49 UTC 2011

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Stas Sușcov <stas at nerd.ro> wrote:

> În data de Mi, 23-03-2011 la 08:33 +0530, Piyush Mishra a scris:
> > Thats something :)
> > About backing up WP, the user will need to have another server which
> stores
> > the data.
> > (We can do it for the same server also but in that case alien attacks,
> > server crashes, exploits which wipe out data (Like the one I had :( ) and
> > natural disasters in server location wont save the user)
> > and almost defeat the purpose of the plugin.
>
> I didn't deny that I would need an external machine, but as I already
> mentioned, that one doesn't have to be from Amazon/Rackspace/Dropbox
> with their proprietary software on it.
>
> Considering we make it for people who pay for VaultPress/similar solutions
or the ones who just donot want to pay that high for it. Its a good idea. I
was considering pure newbies who just blog for fun.
What I was missing is that they'd probably also not care if a backup exists.
They'll probably be happy with the backup their hosting manager makes every
few days.

>  > Not many people have a server and php installed and configured on local
> so
> > either we give them a readymade installer and clear instructions to set
> one
> > up at home or we make them buy another hosting package (cloud / VCS host
> /
> > otherwise)
>
> Believe me, a lot have. And If I want, I can setup a machine for me and
> my friends, that still will be cheaper/free for them compared to
> existing solutions available now.
>
> Yes, under the new consideration of people who care enough not to want any
trouble in case something went wrong.
Even if they dont have one, thats one step they'll want to have added.
write, configure etc everything offline on localhost, click merge and you
are done
:)

> > I am totally in for the versioning system and probably push to a private
> > repo on github or the like in other VCS. but the problem there is not all
> > hosts have any version control system installed, let alone a specific
> one.
> >
>
> The versioning system I mentioned is git, because it's very easy to
> setup one, and git's protocol and features are rock solid. Plus it has
> wrappers in a lot of popular languages.
>
> Also you missed the whole point of this thread, it's not about the
> server, versioning, and how you will do things, it's about one click
> backup, automated *delta* increment backup (you backup only what
> changed, so you can see what changed easily), and one click restore.
>
> > A really cool project would be making one with the Diff class and md5
> hash
> > :) (Template versioning extended?)
>
> Your approach means you will have to write a whole layer for
> transporting the resulted diff with it's hashes (which means we go one
> step back and need to write more code, not cool!). Plus md5 hashes as a
> way of checking files is far from being the best compared to let's say
> sha1 used in a git/hg revision system. Plus md5 will kill your server if
> you will have to check a poll of several big files and it will require
> you to write a queueing system and so on... just KISS.
>
> How many shared hosts let you have git? is it common? am not very sure.

>  > But for keeping WP backed up and up to date with its backups, we'll need
> > objects and files flying to the backup server. (daily / hourly cron??)
> >
>
> Which is what for exist `wp_cron()`;
>
> pseudo cron for regular backups...
hmm
yeah WP SuperCache does it so probably we can too!

 > Another option to consider here is use of (html5) localstorage? ( If I
> > remember correctly we had some firefox extension for offline access
> right?)
> >
>
> No we don't. Last used technology, was Google Gears, which was removed
> long time ago. Plus, I'm talking about some rock solid backup solution,
> not a temporary one. html5 storage is only good for client side
> caching/temporary data storage.
>
> localstorage can be good to enable offline access. also I think some
browsers will slowly move towards allowing good access on localstorage with
html5 n js picking up a lot but thats too far off for now and truly a
"temporary" one.

Moreover if we have the 1 click merge/ 1 click backup configurable to
localhost also, localstorage will be of no use anyway.
Though am not sure if it can be localhost because then you cannot send to
the localhost all the time for backups. it may be shutdown, not connected,
no fixed ip etc etc. we can surely wait for localhost to ask for data via a
cron and implement it that way.

Group of friends buying a common server or something seems a much viable
option at the moment.

>  > On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 7:19 AM, Stas Sușcov <stas at nerd.ro> wrote:
> >
> > > Hey,
> > > I was reading latest conversations about possible ideas for this GSoC,
> > > and thought I could ask about a project I would like to have in
> > > WordPress plugins repo.
> > >
> > > Coming from last year idea about moving WordPress, I would love to have
> > > a tool like VaultPress [1]. Basically to have this done, you will have
> > > to steal, err... learn, from VaultPress project possible features, look
> > > and feel. :)
> > >
> > > I would love to see a tool that:
> > > * exports all the data, settings, theme and plugins
> > > * uses some versioning backend (say git or other scm, I think I don't
> > > have to explain what would be the benefits of using this kind of
> > > approach)
> > > * does everything on it's own (so I won't care if the data is synced or
> > > not)
> > > * restores all the data with one click
> > > * has triggers to send me reports if core files changed (like in case
> of
> > > security holes from hosting providers) or other things of this kind
> > >
> > > In some words an OpenSource VaultPress that I will be able to set
> > > (absolutely freely) on my blog, connect it with my other server in the
> > > other galaxy, and don't care about `Aliens` :)
> > >
> > > A success story of this kind might be SparkleShare, an OpenSource
> > > replacement for DropBox[2].
> > >
> > > Currently there are a couple of this kind of plugins that backup data
> to
> > > Amazon/Rackspace/DropBox/Ftp, but all those hardly cover, at least, my
> > > 1st requirement.
> > >
> > > Feedback welcome.
> > >
> > > [1]: http://vaultpress.com/
> > > [2]: http://sparkleshare.org/
> > >
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> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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-- 
Regards
Piyush Mishra
http://www.piyushmishra.com/
Life's Short, Live it to the maximum