The main page which loads when you click on > is called the screen. From here you can see if everything is in working order and access all of the component's functions and configuration options.
On the top of the page there is the component's title. Beneath it you can find quick links to the most vital functions which is what you'll have to deal with 99% of your time using the component.
JoomlaPack 2.1.b2 or later is equipped with an automatic error detection and correction feature. This will kick in whenever you visit the Control Panel and JoomlaPack detects that the last backup did not finish up properly. In such a case, it will display a big yellow box beneath the quick links, offering you to switch to a pre-defined "Balanced" set of configuration options. If the last backup with this set has failed, it will prompt you to apply a "Conservative" set of configuration options. If - again - the backup fails, it will prompt you to contact our support forum.
![[Tip]](/images/stories/docimport58/tip.png) | Tip |
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If the last backup attempt is detected as a failure because you interrupted it before it ends or because the network connection is lost, you can ignore this message. In order to make it go away you'll have to open the Backup Files Administration page and delete the entry of the latest failed backup attempts. |
There are two interface modes in JoomlaPack: the Easy and the Expert mode. Their main difference is that the Easy mode features a cut-down interface with simplified options, geared towards new users, whereas the Expert mode gives you full control, in the price of being more complicated.
![[Note]](/images/stories/docimport58/note.png) | Note |
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JoomlaPack Free Edition (the one you can freely download without charge), defaults to the Easy Mode. You can switch to the Expert Mode using the relevant button. |
[JP+] Under the quick links, there is the profile selection box. It serves a double purpose, indicating the active profile and letting you switch between available profiles. Clicking on the drop down allows you to select a new profile. Changing the selection (clicking on the drop down list and selecting a new profile) automatically makes this new profile current and JoomlaPack notifies you about that. Should this not happen, you can manually click on the button on the right to forcibly make the selected profile current.
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The active profile is applied in all functions of the component, including configuration, filter settings, inclusion options, etc. The only settings which are immutable (they are not dependent on the active profile) is the location of the backup output and the front-end backup settings. Keep this in mind when editing any of JoomlaPack's settings! |
On the left side of the profile selection box there is a handy JoomlaPack news ticker. It shows the latest headlines from the JoomlaPack announcements news feed, so that you can always get the late-breaking JoomlaPack activity at a glance. This feature is powered by FeedBurner, so that it doesn't consume any of your precious server memory.
On the right hand side of the page, you will find a slider with useful information arranged in panels. There are several panels:
- Status Summary
In this panel you can find information regarding the status of your backup output directory. JoomlaPack will warn you if the directory is unwritable. If the text reads that there are potential problems you must take a look at the Status Details pane to find out what these might be!
- Status Details
In this panel you will find specific status information, for example the writable status of your output and temporary folders, as well as any problems and warnings JoomlaPack may have detected.
Note Older versions reported the Temporary directory status, too. Since JoomlaPack 2.0, all temporary files are written on Joomla!™'s temporary directory. This is the same place used for component installation and should, therefore, be writable already. If JoomlaPack detects that it is not writable, it will report it and abort the backup operation.
![[Important]](/images/stories/docimport58/important.png)
Important No matter what the PHP Safe Mode setting is, it is possible that your host enforces open_basedir restrictions which only allow you to have an output or temporary directory under a handful of predefined locations. On this occasion, JoomlaPack will report the folder unwritable even though you might have enforced 0777 (read, write and execute allowed for all) permissions. These restrictions are reported in this pane as an item entitled "open_basedir restrictions".
A novelty of JoomlaPack 2.0, the "Status Details" section lets you diagnose potential problems before even happening, with helpful information right from the Control Panel. Just click on each warning's description to get a pop up window explaining the potential problem, it's impact on your backup and precautionary or corrective steps you can take. If this section is empty, no detectable problems were found; this is a good thing, indeed!
Important You are supposed to read the full text of the warnings by clicking on each item. Quite often users post for support on our forum asking something which is already written in the full text of the warnings. DO NOT SEEK SUPPORT IN OUR FORUM IF YOU HAVE NOT TRIED TO READ THE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF POTENTIAL PROBLEMS APPEARING ON THIS BOX! I KNOW MOST OF YOU IGNORE THIS, BUT I WILL NOT ANSWER ANY MORE QUESTIONS COVERED IN THOSE DESCRIPTIONS.
- Backup Statistics
This panel informs you about the status of your last backup attempt. The information shown is the date and time of backup, the origin (backend or frontend), the profile used and the backup status.
- JoomlaPack News
This is service provided by FeedBurner, displaying a rendering of the RSS feed of the JoomlaPack.net project page. You should check it out as it contains important release announcements. Remember, each new version of JoomlaPack contains several important bug fixes and amazing new features.
Note In contrast with previous JoomlaPack versions, 2.2 and later releases do not parse the feed on your server but use FeedBurner's services instead. This ensures that you won't face a memory exhaustion condition which would effectively lock you out of JoomlaPack's Control Panel. You expressed your concerns, we found the optimal solution!
- Translation Credits
Each translation file contains information about the language and the translator. This information is displayed in this panel.
The left navigation panel allows access to the different functions of the component:
Switch to Easy Mode will switch the user interface to the Easy Mode, a cut-down but easier to use version of the JoomlaPack Interface.
[JP+] Profile Management lets you manage different configuration sets, called Backup Profiles.
Configuration allows you to edit the configuration options that control the backup process.
Backup now does all the magic, as it navigates to the screen where the actual backup process occurs.
Administer Backup Files lets you administer your backup files (download, delete) through a handy web interface.
View Log allows you to view the log file for the most recent backup session.
[JP+] Multiple Databases Definitions lets you include other MySQL databases besides the one Joomla! is using for itself. These databases will be dumped verbatim, no filters will be applied.
[JP+] Off-site Directories Inclusion allows you to backup directories above your site's root, even if they are outside your web server's root!
Single File Exclusion lets you forbid specific files from being included in the backup. This is useful for excluding host-specific files, that large video file in the downloads section, etc.
Directory Exclusion allows you to select whole directories that will be excluded from the backup. This is very useful if your host keeps access statistics in the web server's root (a very common practise these days).
[JP+] Skip Directory Contents allows you to exclude the contained files and/or subdirectories of a directory from the backup set. Useful if you want to have, for example, a directory present in the backup, but you don't want its files to be backed up. Usually this is used on cache directories, whose contents are dynamically regenerated (so there's no point backing them up).
[JP+] Database Tables Exclusion allows you to specify which tables from your site's database will not be included in the backup. This is useful for excluding tables belonging to non-Joomla! Scripts (i.e. a forum).
[JP+] Extension Exclusion Filters allows you to exclude any component, module, plug-in, template or language with a single click. Extremely useful for web professionals!
Check for upgrades . This button is the Live Update feature of JoomlaPack. Starting with version 2.2, JoomlaPack is able to automatically check for new releases, notify you about them and install them after your approval. In order to do this, it fetches a small updates notification file every 24hrs from our server. If a new release is found, this button turns into a white X inside a red hexagon and the caption changes to "UPGRADES FOUND". Please refer to the chapter of the Live Update feature for more information on how to use it.
Important This button only appears if your server is compatible with the Live Update feature of JoomlaPack. The minimum requirement is that either URL fopen() wrappers are enabled, or the cURL extension is installed and activated in your PHP installation. If JoomlaPack detects that neither of these two options is available, this button will not display at all.
If any of the filters have active elements, the number of the active elements will appear next to its name in parentheses. For example, let's say that you have defined five (5) Directory Exclusion filters, that means that you have excluded five directories from the backup. The label of the respective Control Panel button will read "Directory Exclusion (5)". This is very useful to get a bird-eye view of the active filters in the current profile before backing up your site.
The Control Panel looks a lot more simple in the Easy Mode. There is no notion of profiles, to begin with, even in the JoomlaPack Plus builds. In fact, the Easy mode works only with the default profile (the one whose ID is 1).
On the right hand side of the page, you will find a slider with useful information arranged in panels. There are several panels:
- Status Summary
In this panel you can find information regarding the status of your backup output directory. JoomlaPack will warn you if the directory is unwritable.
![[Warning]](/images/stories/docimport58/warning.png)
Warning If a list of problems appears on the bottom section you are supposed to click on the items of the list. Doing so will open a page which thoroughly describes the nature of the problem and potential workarounds. PLEASE DO NOT SEEK SUPPORT IN OUR FORUM IF YOU HAVE NOT TRIED TO READ THE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF POTENTIAL PROBLEMS APPEARING ON THIS BOX! I KNOW MOST OF YOU IGNORE THIS, BUT I WILL NOT ANSWER ANY MORE QUESTIONS COVERED IN THOSE DESCRIPTIONS.
- Translation Credits
Each translation file contains information about the language and the translator. This information is displayed in this panel.
The left navigation panel allows access to the different functions of the component:
Switch to Expert Mode will switch the user interface to the Expert Mode, the full featured but slightly more complicated JoomlaPack interface.
Configuration allows you to edit the configuration options that control the backup process. The Configuration page displayed is a simplified version of the one you get in the Expert Mode.
Backup now does all the magic, as it navigates to the screen where the actual backup process occurs.
Administer Backup Files lets you administer your backup files (download, delete) through a handy web interface.
View Log allows you to view the log file for the most recent backup session.
There is also the Live Update button discussed in the previous section.
