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Kickstart is a PHP executable file ( script ) use to partially automate the steps required before and after the restoration of site backed up with JoomlaPack. It can be used either standalone or in conjunction with the JoomlaPack component. In fact, the component uses Kickstart for the restoration feature of full site backups.
Kickstart streamlines the archive extraction - uploading - restoration - post-restoration workflow by allowing you to omit unnecessary steps. As a matter of fact, you only need to upload Kicstart and the backup archive on the server you want to restore your site to. Kickstart will extract (i.e. "unzip") the archive right on the server , rename your .htaccess and give you a link to start the restoration script (for example, JoomlaPack Installer 3). When you're done with the restoration script, you click on the second link Kickstart provides and it will rename back your .htaccess file, remove the installation directory, delete the backup archive and finally remove itself as well. Housekeeping is taken care of itself!
Kickstart is agnostic of the contents of the archive. This means that you can use Kickstart to extract anything: full or upgrade Joomla! packages, phpBB or Wordpress installation ZIPs, an archive with your gallery's images, etc. The only difference in the process is that you skip clicking on the first link which would normally start the JPI3. And, yes, we have used it to deploy Joomla! upgrades and non-Joomla PHP software ourselves!
Kickstart is also localisable, meaning that it can display itself in
your own language. All you have to do is to upload your language's
translation INI file in the same directory as
kickstart.php .
Even though JoomlaPack is designed as an effortless way of backing up your site, it is only good up to the point of having a backup archive. Restoring it is a pretty much different story.
At first, you have to download the file to your PC. Then extract it.
Then upload all the files, via FTP, to you site (and, man, this is slow or
what?). Then rename .htaccess to
htaccess.txt . Go through the restoration process,
which is the easy part. Then remove the installation directory. Finally,
rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess
.
Did you notice something? Most of this is a common predefined procedure. The only human intervention truly required is for the restoration process part. Moreover, FTP'ing all those 3000+ files of a default Joomla! installation is an overkill. Because of all of this, Kickstart was born.
Kickstart works in conjunction with the ZIP / JPA archive, directly on the target server. Nothing else is required. You just upload kickstart.php and your archive to the server, visit http://www.yourdomain.com/kickstart.php, select the archive, wait, go through the restoration process, click the finish link and presto! Your site is up and running; the kickstart.php, the backup archive and the installation folder all gone, automatically. Even the .htaccess renaming took care of itself. Isn't this too good to be true?
Well, almost. You actually need to either turn off PHP Safe Mode, or make sure the target folder is owned by the same user as the one your web server runs on: this is a PHP limitation we can't overcome. Alternatively, you can supply FTP connection information and Kickstart will use the - much slower - FTP mode to write the extracted files to your site. To top that all, Kickstart can work in either the very fast AJAX mode or the much slower but widely compatible JavaScript redirects mode, using the same PHP file!
All an all, Kickstart is a very versatile web-based archive extraction utility. It can even be used to update (patch) your Joomla! site to the latest Joomla! version.
Kickstart is an interactive archive extraction script and a clean-up tool. Counter-intuitively, it is not a site restoration utility per se. Kickstart performs the steps required before and after site restoration, whereas the site restoration procedure itself is carried out by the JoomlaPack Installer scripts. To make it crystal clear, here is the flow of a Kickstart-powered site restoration procedure:
Uploading files. This is done manually. You upload
kickstart.phpand the backup archive (ZIP or JPA format) to the intended site's root.Archive extraction . This is done by Kickstart. The backup archive is extracted. At this point your site is not yet ready to work.
Restoration process. This is done by JoomlaPack Installer. You are asked some questions, the database dump data is restored to the new database and the new Joomla
configuration.phpis written on the disk. At this point, your site may or not be ready to work, depending on the reliance upon a.htaccessfile.Restoration of
.htaccess. This is done by Kickstart. The automatically renamed copy of your original.htaccessfile is renamed to.htaccessto allow correct site operation.Cleanup of unnecessary files . This is done by Kickstart. The backup archive and
kickstart.phpare no longer needed and therefore deleted.
As you can see, Kickstart is a very generic tool, not strictly limited to restoring JoomlaPack backup archives. As a matter of fact, we have used it to easily upgrade our sites to newer Joomla! versions without the hassle of uploading tons of PHP files!
![[Tip]](/images/stories/docimport58/tip.png) | Tip |
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The correct way to see Kickstart is as a generic, interactive, web-based archive extraction script which can also clean up after itself. |
The naming of this script is a small tribune to one of the first computing platforms I came to know: the Amiga 500. The initial boot loader, pretty much responsible for initializing the operating system's boot process was called Kickstart. This script has an analogous function in the restoration process of JoomlaPack-generated backup archives: it takes care of everything up to the point the actual restoration process starts.
