Database and File Management
In many cases it is a good practice to have a backup for the web site, so it may be restored in the event of a catastrophic failure. While a MySQL database dump and a simple server folder/file archive would suffice, Exponent has two methods to help the Site Administrator who may or may not have server access to perform these functions
Database Backup & Restore
Database Backup
You can make a database backup using the Exponent menu, Super-Admin Tools, Database, Backup Database command. this will bring up a screen to select which tables you wish to backup and the name of the backup file. There are two (2) pseudo names you may use to set the filename to the name of the domain or the database name. You'll notice most tables are already selected to backup, but some of the large information tables are not pre-selected.
The database backup file is saved in a proprietary text based format .EQL. The file begins with a couple header lines then each table takes the following format:
- TABLE - the name of the table
- TABLEDEF - the serialized table structure which facilitates creating the table if it doesn't exist
- RECORD - zero or more serialized table records
- blank line- indicates the end of the table
Database Restore
You can restore the database to a previous backup state by using the Exponent menu, Super-Admin Tools, Database, Restore Database command. this will bring up a screen to select the .EQL file you wish to restore. It is very important to understand that EVERY table described within the .EQL file will be zeroized and repopuplated with only the records found in the .EQL file.
Files Backup & Restore
Files Backup
You can backup the uploaded files using the Exponent menu, Files, Export Files command. The command will bring up a screen to enter the filename for the downloaded archive. The uploaded files which are cataloged within the site database will be downloaded as a system independent .tar.gz archive file.
Files Restore
You can restore the uploaded files archive by using the Exponent menu, Files, Import Files command. The command will first bring up a screen to select and then begin to upload the file archive. The next screen will display the list of files within the archive which can be individually selected to be restored to the sites /file folder, proceeding to the next step will NOT import those selected files but will check to see if the file already exists. On the next screen you'll be shown which files will be overwritten and asked for a final confirmation before importing those files.