Backup with Penney Layne DIY Site Builder

 

Site backup is a two step process, and should be done on a regular basis.  Our suggestion is to backup at least once per week.  If you are entering a lot of data on your site, backing up files daily is not a bad idea.  Backups can be stored on your working computer, but we suggest backing up to a flash drive or external hard drive in case of computer failure.

 

You must first log into your Penney Layne DIY Site Builder C panel.  This is the control panel, not your store admin.  On the entry screen, scroll down and select phpMyAdmin.  Select your database name from the list at the top left corner, in the left pane of the screen.  The name should be similar enough to your store name for you to recognize it.  In the next screen select Export at the top of the page.  Under export, at the top left side, click “Select All”.   Then make sure the “Structure” and “Data” boxes are checked on the right side.  Scroll down and check the “Save as File” box.  Now push the “GO” button.

 

In the pop-up window that appears select “Save” or “Save to Disk”.  You must then choose the location where you want the file saved, if you are in internet explorer.  If you are in Mozilla Firefox, it will default to saving the file to your desktop, and you must go there and copy the data to your storage file.  It is a good idea to name this storage folder by the name of your site and the date of the backup.

 

The second step of the process takes longer to do, but is just as simple.  To backup your data files, you will need an FTP client.  FileZilla is a good free one.  These instructions are based on using FileZilla.

 

At the first screen, you will need to type in your site url at the Host location.  No need for http or www, just the name plus the period and extension ( joesdoghasfleas.com).  At User and Password, you will use the login for your cpanel.  Hit enter, and the program will connect and put a list of files in the box on the right side.  Depending on your version of FileZilla, the screen may not be exactly the same, but you should have four boxes, two on each side.  On the left side, you will need to specify your location to store the backup.  This should be under the header “Local Site”.  Then go down the list of files on the right and find public.html.  Drag this over to the left file folder where you want it stored.  When you let go, the files will begin to copy (If you drop it into the same folder as you created for your database, you will not have to rename the file as is explained in the following.).  Be very sure of where you are sending this file.  Depending on how many products and other information you have in the database, this may take ten minutes or longer.  Do something else while you wait for the process to complete.  When it finishes, be sure to rename the DOWNLOADED file.  Again, put the cursor in front of the public.html and add a name and six digit date (012108 for January 21, 2008).  You have a safety backup that may save your business in times of a crash.

 

To conserve disk space, remember to delete the older backups as you add new.  We recommend saving three consecutive copies.