1.2.1 (Stable) released

September 7^th, 2008. The Internet.

JoomlaPack Developers is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the JoomlaPack 1.2.1 stable release of our backup component for Joomla!-powered sites.

This version is stable, meant for general use on live sites. For a full list of feature additions and changes, please read on.

Downloads and related links

You can always download the latest version from our JoomlaCode.org project page. You can also access our public SVN repository. If you get stumped and need support, our community support forum welcomes your questions (please post to the 1.2.x Support board). You can always subscribe to the RSS news feed of this page in order to stay informed on new releases, or visit our official blog and find out what we're up to.

Important information regarding download packages

There are several JoomlaPack packages in our JoomlaCode.org project page. To help you get the most out of them, we'll describe what you get with each one of them:

• com_joomlapack-1.2.1-j10.zip is the installation file for Joomla! 1.0.x sites. Use this with Joomla!'s component installer to install JoomlaPack
• com_joomlapack-1.2.1-j15.zip is the installation file for Joomla! 1.5.x sites. Use this with Joomla!'s component installer to install JoomlaPack
• jpa_utils_1.2.1.zip contains the command-line utilities UnJPA and UnZIP to extract backup archives created with JoomlaPack. Unzip it to your local hard disk, instructions are contained in the zip file.
• kickstart_1.2.1.zip contains the Kickstart archive extraction and installation bootstrapper wizard. Unzip it to your local hard disk. Please read the manual before using these files.
• RECOMMENDED JoomlaPack_1.2.1_Beginners_Bundle_for_Joomla_1.0.x.zip has to be unziped to your local hard disk before doing anything else! It contains the JoomlaPack component installation file for Joomla! 1.0.x sites, the documentation in PDF format and the Kickstart package. It is meant to get you going if you've never used JoomlaPack before.
• RECOMMENDED JoomlaPack_1.2.1_Beginners_Bundle_for_Joomla_1.5.x.zip has to be unziped to your local hard disk before doing anything else! It contains the JoomlaPack component installation file for Joomla! 1.5.x sites, the documentation in PDF format and the Kickstart package. It is meant to get you going if you've never used JoomlaPack before.
• JoomlaPack_1.2.1_ALL_IN_ONE.zip is the package which contains everything: JoomlaPack component installation files for Joomla! 1.0.x and Joomla! 1.5.x sites, documentation in PDF format, the Kickstart package and the jpa_utils package. It is meant for web professionals who administer a variety of Joomla! sites and want an all-inclusive turn-key solution for backing up, restoring and transferring Joomla! powered web sites. You have to unzip it first to your local hard drive.

About JoomlaPack

JoomlaPack is a very popular Open-Source backup component for the Joomla! CMS, recently awarded Editor's Pick on the Joomla! Extensions Directory. It can be used to backup your Joomla!-powered site or to even easily transfer it to a new host. It is used by individuals, considerate webmasters and web professionals alike to safeguard their precious data, develop and deploy sites, switching hosts and much, much more!

JoomlaPack is developed by an international team of volunteers, spanning two continents and three countries. Our passion for high quality open-source software fuels our hearts and drives our efforts when writing code or supporting users alike.

Changes since last stable release

• Improved backup engine
  The backup engine of JoomlaPack 1.2.1 improves on the one from past versions. The key changes are:
  • The Installer Deployment domain was removed. Inclusion of installation/restoration files was moved to process initialization; no temporary installer files need to be created leading to improved security and avoid missing installer files when PHP Safe Mode was enabled
  • The Filelist Creation and Files Packing domains were concatenated. Storing the entire directory and file hierarchy in database is no longer necessary, leading to much lower database space requirements and improved speed.
  • Added support for alternative backends for file list creation, database dumping and archiver engines. The configuration page now includes three combo boxes in the advanced section for selecting the relevant engine.
  • Possibility to use mysqldump for database backup (just select the appropriate database dump engine)
  • Improved temporary files handling. The temporary files are given hard to guess names and are disposed right after using them. Furthermore, the databases.ini file - which contains sensitive information, namely database connection settings - is never written on the temporary folder.
  • Rewritten error management. Fundamental backup errors are propagated through the backup engine and cause the process to halt instead of silently ignoring them. The errors are reported in such a case just like the timeouts (the Yellow Box of Death).
• Import and export JoomlaPack's configuration using custom XML files to facilitate retaining your settings when you upgrade JoomlaPack
• Ability to fix filters' absolute paths when migrating site to a different server or location
• Other improvements and enhancements:
  
  • If default backup / temporary directories are in use a warning is issued
  • The "fast" algorithm is discontinued
  • The outdated jp1011 (modified J! 1.0.11 installer) installer package was removed
  • Introduced entries in the Magic Numbers section of the configuration page to fine tune the behavior of the smart algorithm
  • Installer packages are stored in JPA format
  • Translation files have a new format. If you want to contribute a translation in an older format, we have created an automated converter, so don't worry; you don't need to translate everything from scratch.
  • Optimized DB dumper's file writer for efficiency
  • Absolute site URL was not working on some hosts for subdomains
  • Imporved SAJAX proxy URL determination, consistent with site's URL detection in other places inside the component.
  • We now output JoomlaPack version in the log file (information level) to help with working out possible bugs
  • Use DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR instead of php_uname() to detect Windows, fixing crashes on systems where this function was dissalowed
  • Some minor tweaking for databases with empty prefix.
    NOTE: Installations with an empty database prefix are not officialy supported and are against Joomla! standards.
  • Integrated PHP errors dump into the log (errors.csv is not produced anymore)
  • Fixed log display which would crash on some hosts if large log files were to be presented
  • Fixed zero-length files when using the log download link
  • Make changes in configuration effective immediately when clicking the "Save" button
  • Infinite loop bug in error propagation code caused PHP to dump core.
  • Installation SQL prevented correct installation on MySQL4 hosts
  • Multiple databases backup code on J! 1.0.x hosts couldn't reliably identify lack of connection to database
  • Default dumper engine on J! 1.0.x hosts couldn't reliably identify lack of connection to database
  • Kickstart: removed redundant echo's in recursive directory removal which wouldn't let the final mesage to appear.
  • J! 1.0.x packages do not contain incompatible JPI3 and J! 1.5.x packages do not contain the outdated original JPI.
  • Improved storage scheme for filter settings
  • Distributed AJAX handling. Each page handles its own AJAX calls, increasing responsiveness
  • More efficient storage of filter settings