Installs, backups, and restores - a few comments

[SuperCharlie]

So far I have installed PS 3 times, a 1.4 version via cpanel at hostgator, a 1.4 version manually locally, and a 1.5 beta version manually, locally.

 

My first issue is with the last steps of having to manually delete the install folder and rename the admin folder. On my 1.4 local install the admin folder thing gave me fits for some reason. (issue not important for this discussion) The 1.5 went ok, but why not do this programmatically instead of making someone get into the file system? A blank field for the admin folder name and a delete the install folder button would make this a much easier process. End it all with a screen to log in to admin/frontend and an email with the info.

 

The backup and restore process is a beast and could be improved significantly.

 

Coming from a similar infrastructure in joomla with a mob of files and a mysql database, I came to rely on a backup solution which was beautifully simple and would make a lot of things terribly easy.

 

Basically this solution backed up the database, zipped all the files, added the sql file from the database backup to the zip file and added an install folder to the zip file.

 

What this did was not only to allow for easy restores by simply unzipping and running the install, it also allowed people to make custom installable versions which could be pre-populated, skinned, moduled, etc.. easily distributable snapshots as it were.

 

Anyways.. theres my comments.. take em as you may.

 

SC

[codegrunt]

Prestashop is big enough that I doubt an automated process would work on a high percentage of the installs due to PHP's execution time and memory limits.

 

Forgive me if this is old hat but backups are dirt simple if you have shell access:

 

mysqldump -c -Q -u foobar -p -h 10.0.0.1 foobar_storefront > foobar_storefront_20120531.db;

tar zcvf /path/tostorefront foobar_storefront_20120531.tgz;

 

I expect that the manual renaming of the admin folder is to avoid having a specific pattern for the name that can be targetted by malware authors.

 

You might not see this as a feature but I would argue that having some manual actions has the positive side effect of anchoring the person doing the install back to the reality of what they are doing (installing files on physical server).

 

Cheers

[SuperCharlie]

Good comments CG..

 

There is definitely a way around the timelimits and memory limits as the joomla tool Akeeba Backup handles literally hundreds of megs of zip file across 7000+ files. I think its mostly with xmlhttp requests but I havent dug into it to be sure..

 

I understand your feelings of getting away from getting dirty with the server. In a way I agree, in a way I guess Im just tired and lazy and want to clicky the button and be done I guess. After beating websites and databases for the last 20 years (fak Im almost 50) I dont find the enjoyment I used to with the manual stuff. Mostly, I want it to work, and I want to move on to the next big thing.