Fixed issues with backups on Windows hosts using PHP 5.3. There is a bug on PHP 5.3 on Windows regarding the handling of open files which would cause an error regarding renaming the last part to .JPA when using a non-zero Part Size for Split Archives on a Windows host running PHP 5.3. This version of Akeeba Backup works around the PHP bug. To the best of our knowledge PHP 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6 on Windows, as well as all versions of PHP on Linux and Mac OS X are not affected by this bug.
Throughout September 2014 and at least until the time of this writing (September 13th, 2014) RackSpace is experiencing severe issues with their API stability. Even though all information you have entered in our software is correct you may get authentication, timeout or upload errors. This is not a bug in our software and we have no control over it. This is an issue with RackSpace and affects all software trying to connect to CloudFiles (e.g. CyberDuck). Moreover, the issues seem to be of an intermittent nature, both regarding time and region. Please do not file support requests and bug reports concerning CloudFiles. We will ignore them until we have determined that CloudFiles works consistently for at least 48 hours straight.
Resumable backups. If a back-end backup halts with an AJAX error, Akeeba Backup will try resuming it. This allows the backup to complete when it halted due to a temporary network or server issue.
One log per backup attempt. On popular request, a different log file will be created for each backup attempt. This allows you to examine the impact of your configuration changes between backup attempts.
Simultaneous backups. You can now execute several backups at the same time using the front-end, remote JSON API and CLI methods. You are still only able to execute one back-end backup at a time for reasons that have to do with the Joomla! session management and the way browsers work.
Client-side minimum execution time delay. You can now have your browser enforce the minimum execution time preference. This reduces the processor load on the web server, allowing you to take more reliable backups on restrictive shared hosts.
Improved AJAX URL randomisation. The randomisation part of the AJAX action URL has been improved to avoid issues with the security rules of certain hosts. Essentially we will be avoiding cases similar to what happened with GoDaddy in June 2014.
Massive performance boost on large tables. You will observe a massive performance boost when backing up tables larger than a few thousand rows. This might shave up to 85% of the backup time of sites with huge database tables.
Work-arounds for several issues with third party code. We have devised and implemented workarounds for badly written third party code affecting Javascript execution on the page, as well as the badly written error pages of some hosts which contain page-modifying Javascript. Moreover we have worked around the majority of extremely zealous password managers which will auto-fill an irrelevant password into the ANGIE password and/or JPS password fields in the Configuration page without asking you, without letting you know, despite us using the standard autocomplete="off" attribute to let the browser know that it should never auto-fill that field. Our solution is to make the page slower to load and include a lot of delayed Javascript to reset the fields after the browser auto-fills them.
Support for the new MySQL (PDO) driver in Joomla! 3.4. That's right, we support Joomla! 3.4 before it's even released! Akeeba Backup 4.0.0 is designed to support the new MySQL PDO database driver which will be included in the upcoming Joomla! 3.4.0, due for release towards the end of September 2014.
Less hassle. Remember the Post-installation Configuration page you had to go through after each and every installation or update of Akeeba Backup? If you have Joomla! 3.2.0 or later (including 3.3.x and 3.4.x) you will no longer have to put up with it. We are now using the Post-installation Messages component included with Joomla! to display and manage the post-intallation / post-upgrade messages of our component.
Help us get more insight. Our software includes code to anonymously report your PHP, MySQL, Joomla! and Akeeba Backup version. This information cannot be linked to a particular site or person. It will help us get a glimpse at which versions are in use in real world servers, in what relative percentage, and let us to better plan our deprecation strategy. If you don't wish to take part to this anonymous data collection you can opt out from the component's Options page at any time.
This version requires PHP 5.3, 5.4, 5.5 or 5.6. The rationale behind this is explained in our statement of mid-February 2013. It won't install on hosts running PHP 5.2 or earlier. PHP 5.3.4 or later is required, due to show-stopper bugs in earlier versions of PHP 5.3. Important note on reading PHP versions: PHP 5.3.20 is newer than 5.3.10 which is newer than 5.3.4. Moreover, PHP 5.4.0 is newer than PHP 5.3.4.
Due to the necessary Joomla! API changes found only in Joomla! 2.5.6 or later, this version will not install on Joomla! 2.5.5 or earlier versions. In any case, if your server doesn't meet the minimum requirements it will tell you exactly why it cannot be installed (minimum PHP or Joomla! version not satisfied).
This version of our software can be installed on Joomla! 2.5.6 or any later 2.5.x release, as well as any 3.2.x, 3.3.x or 3.4.x release. It is not compatible with Joomla! 3.0 or 3.1. These versions of Joomla! are old and vulnerable. If you are using them please upgrade to the latest Joomla! 3 release available from Joomla.org.