JoomlaPack 2.2 imminent and 2.3 feature plan

With JoomlaPack 2.2 Stable being only one week away from official release (it's scheduled for May 24th), work has began on JoomlaPack 2.3. You may think it's a little too soon, but it's never early enough to design new exciting features, don't you think?

Before I start ranting about new features, I want to share with you some exciting last-minute features added in JoomlaPack 2.2:

• Easy to navigate, translatable back-end menu. It was there in 1.2.x, it was removed in 2.0, so it's back again. With proper icons. Cool!
• Back-end Control Panel quick backup icon. Integrates JoomlaPack right into your Joomla! Control Panel. The icon displays a warning icon if your last backup has failed or if backing up your site is overdue. Useful and cool.
• Display optimization. Since some JoomlaPack text was unreadable on certain browsers (Chrome, anyone?), I made the font-size uniform throughout.
• One-click profile change. having to select the active profile and click on the Change Profile button was an overkill. Now you just have to select the new profile. Convenient.
• Plus some important bug fixes you are about to find out. Just wait for May 24th :D
  

Since JoomlaPack is in a very mature state, the releases in the 2.x series really focus on detail, automation, and plain cool stuff. About this latter category, even though less than 1% of you will ever use them - or get to know about them - I know that those who will use them will really appreciate them! What's on the menu, then?

• Easier site migration with DirectFTP file packer engine. Annoyed by having to backup, download the backup, upload the backup to the new server and unpack the backup file there to create a clone or transfer your site? Me too. The optimal solution would be backing up directly to the target server, sparing you from the need to download / upload the backup file. This is what DirectFTP does. Instead of backing up to an archive file, it backs up to a remote FTP server. Life is neither fair, nor perfect, so getting it to run requires some trial and error adjusting the Magic Numbers. This is a feature for geeks and professional web developers, not the average layperson. Preliminary tests show that it has some good potential.
• CRON made easy. Setting up your CRON script is a two step process. First, you have to set up the PHP file which runs the backup. Then, you have to set up the CRON job on your server. While JoomlaPack can't help you with latter step (it exists in the realm of server setup which JoomlaPack doesn't have access for security reasons) we can help you with the former part. Let's face it. Few people understand enough PHP and cryptic parameters to successfully set up the script which runs the backup. To this end, we'll include a "CRON script manager" feature. It will create those scripts for you. What's more, it can be set up to email you the backup file. This is nowhere near being rock-solid, as the maximum size of an attachment is usually too small to hold a complete site backup. It can, however, efficiently hold a medium-sized database dump. So, there you go, you can have something like daily database backup delivered to your doorstep... umm... email address, I mean.
• Split ZIP files. On popular request! Some servers put a cap on the maximum size of files on their server, for example 10Mb. If you try to create a larger file, they just fail. The ZIP format has this handy multi-volume feature, but so far JoomlaPack can't make use of it. This is about to change. This is a very advanced feature, useful for a handful of occasions, so don't expect it to integrate perfectly with JoomlaPack's "Administer Backup Files" feature or JoomlaPack Remote. The only way to download the split backup file will be using FTP. Of course, something is much better than nothing and the people to whom this feature is addressed can attest to this fact.

Every time I write a post on new features I get the impression that the only thing missing from JoomlaPack is the kitchen sink. Of course, I am always wrong; you prove me wrong. That's not something bad, on the contrary. Every time you prove me wrong, you get to have even more features implemented for everyone to benefit. Don't feel shy, please come by our Feature Requests forum and ask for something crazy and useful. Who knows? Maybe the next useful feature is the result of your request!

And since we are at this, don't forget to vote for JoomlaPack in JoomlaShack's competition for the Ultimate Joomla! Extension. Thank you!

It's the final countdown!

After 6 months in development, countless hours of testing by JoomlaPack Developers, JATS and regular users, fixing a pile of bugs, one alpha and one beta release, we are finally ready to release JoomlaPack 2.0 Stable. So, spread the word around...

JoomlaPack 2.0 Stable
Global Launch
Sunday, December 7th, 2008 - Noon, UTC

Our site will be down for 2-3 days for maintenance and a necessary face-lift. It will be back on-line at the official launch date and time. Meanwhile, let me give you the highlights of this release...

Coded around the Joomla! 1.5 API, the JoomlaPack 2.0 component delivers a high-profile backup solution for your site, while remaining Free, both as in "freedom" and as in "zero price". More powerfull than ever before and compatible with a wide assortment of server setups, it's designed to protect your valuable site. With exciting new features, like live full site or database only restoration and multiple database-only backup, it makes backing up your site a child's play. Our thorough documentation will guide you through and - should the need arise - our stellar support team is always willing to lend a hand, right now and for free!

We wanted to push the PHP site backup technology to its limits ever since the first release, more than two years ago. So, as you readers of this blog already know, we decided to take site backup... to your desktop! AFAIK, nobody attempted this before, but we did. Full fledged multiple site backups running in parallel, right from your desktop, thanks to JoomlaPack and a hefty XML-RPC plugin. The whole thing is called JoomlaPack Remote and will be shipped with this release.

As far as the backup archive extraction is concerned, we've got the traditional command-line suite of utilities called the JPA Utilities (JPAUtils) or, a new addition to the webmaster's arsenal, the vastly improved JoomlaPack eXtract graphical wizard for Windows and all x86 systems running WINE. It's click, click, backup archive is now extracted, thank you very much ;)

Our versatile web-based ZIP and JPA archive extraction tool, Kickstart, is even more powerful and smart. It can write files to your site using the traditional PHP direct file access mode, or the new FTP mode for maximum compatibility with common shared hosts setups. Using the FTP mode, it can automatically work around permission and ownership problems ("ownership hell") which would otherwise give you, the webmaster, a tough challenge trying to restore or upgrade your site.

The default embedded installer is now the JoomlaPack Installer 3 (JPI3), based on the Joomla! 1.5 installer, improved under the hood. It even supports the "auto mode" which - in conjunction with Kickstart - allows for fast two-click site restoration/migration for advanced web professionals.

Welcome to the future of Joomla! site backup.