Akeeba Backup for Joomla! 3

In this chapter you are going to find detailed reference of all the pages, options and features of the Akeeba Backup components. To get things organized in a logical manner, we chose to present the individual pages in the same manner they appear on the component's Control Panel page, i.e. the first page which is presented to you when you launch the component's back-end. Some of the pages are not available as Control Panel icons, but from different areas of the component. These are discussed first.

Menu items

Joomla! 3.7 and later versions allow you to create custom administrator menus. Akeeba Backup fully supports this new feature by providing custom menu item types.

Most of these custom menu item types were created with site integrators / web site agencies in mind. Typically you want to offer your client a simple, obvious way of doing backup operations (take, restore or transfer backups). Up until now you had to tell them to go to the quite busy Akeeba Backup page and click on just the one thing you want them to. As we all know, clients get distracted and start changing things they shouldn't be touching. The custom menu types below are designed to offer perfectly tailored access to the component areas that most users need. Taking and restoring a backup can become a no-brainer, reduced to simply clicking on a back-end menu item.

Control Panel

This menu item type lets you access Akeeba Backup's main page (control panel). This is the same menu item type Joomla! creates by default when you install the component.

Please remember that excluding files, folders and database tables as well as including external folders and additional databases (for the Professional edition) can only be done through the Control Panel page. It's always a good idea having a link of this type in your custom menu.

Backup

This menu item type allows the users to take backups. The default options let this work just like clicking on the Backup Now icon in Akeeba Backup's Control Panel page, i.e. the user can select an alternative backup profile, enter a backup description and/or comment and then take a backup or change their mind and return back to the Control Panel page. However the additional options let you do more interesting stuff.

The available options are:

Force backup profile

Select the backup profile which will be pre-selected in drop-down of the Backup Now page. Selecting (None) default to the currently active backup profile, as selected in other pages of the Akeeba Backup component. By default that's profile #1. This is especially useful with the Start immediately option below.

Start immediately

When enabled the backup will start right away, without asking the user to enter a backup description or comment and without the option to change their mind. This is equivalent to using the One Click Backup feature inside Akeeba Backup.

We strongly recommend using this with the Force backup profile option above. Use it to set up which profile you want the backup to be taken with. This allows you to set up one-click backup menu items.

Hide toolbar

When this option is disabled the user will see the Control Panel and Help buttons at the top of the page. The former will take them back to Akeeba Backup's main page whereas the latter opens the documentation page for the Backup Now page. If you are setting up a one-click backup menu item with the options above it's a good idea to enable this option to hide these buttons. That's especially useful when you are setting up a simple menu for use by your client and you don't want them to accidentally cancel the backup by clicking on these buttons.

Return URL

Set up an internal URL to redirect the user after a successful backup. An "internal URL" is a URL pointing to a page in your site's administrator area, without the domain name and /administrator/ part of it. For example, to take someone back to the Joomla! main page set this to index.php without anything else before or after it. To take someone back to Akeeba Backup's main page set this to index.php?option=com_akeeba.

Warning

	Warning
Due to the way Joomla's menu manager works, it expects the URL to be URL-encoded. This means that question marks must be replaced %3F and so on. Don't worry about it. Enter the URL regularly and save the menu item twice in a row. We have employed a trick to force URL-encoding of the value when re-saving the menu item. Unfortunately due to a missing feature in Joomla's API we can't employ the same or a similarly clever trick the `<first>` time you save the URL.

Due to the way Joomla's menu manager works, it expects the URL to be URL-encoded. This means that question marks must be replaced %3F and so on. Don't worry about it. Enter the URL regularly and save the menu item twice in a row. We have employed a trick to force URL-encoding of the value when re-saving the menu item. Unfortunately due to a missing feature in Joomla's API we can't employ the same or a similarly clever trick the <first> time you save the URL.

Configuration

This menu item type allows the users to modify the main configuration of the current backup profile. It's equivalent to pressing the Configuration button in Akeeba Backup's main page.

Manage Backups

This menu item type allows the users to manage backup attempts. This includes viewing all backup attempts, viewing / changing the backup description and comments, have access to logs, download the backups, manage remotely stored backups and restore any of the past backups (as opposed to only the latest backup). It's equivalent to pressing the Manage Backups button in Akeeba Backup's main page.

Restore Latest Backup

	Note
	This menu option type will only work with Akeeba Backup Professional.

This menu item type allows the users to restore the latest backup taken with the specified backup profile. This is especially useful if you teach your site administrators (or the clients for whom you're building sites) to take a backup right before trying to do something which could go wrong such as updating a component, changing configuration settings or doing batch operations on content.

The only option is Backup Profile which lets you choose which backup profile's latest backup attempt will be restored.

Idea: use the same profile you've set up in a menu item of the Backup type that you've told the client to always use before any dangerous operation. This way you can offer your clients an easy way to undo their most common mistakes!

Site Transfer Wizard

	Note
	This menu option type will only work with Akeeba Backup Professional.

This menu item type allows the users to transfer and restore the latest backup on a different server. It's equivalent to pressing the Site Transfer Wizard button in Akeeba Backup's main page.

Idea: you can train your clients to use this to deploy a site from the staging to the live server.

What to do if you don't have any menu items to Akeeba Backup

Depending on how you've set up your site's administrator menu and/or if you've hit a Joomla! bug that sometimes occurs on extension update you may end up without a menu item to Akeeba Backup. Other times you may have deliberately chosen not to display a menu to Akeeba Backup to keep clients from changing the backup settings. The question remains. How can you access Akeeba Backup and how can you restore menu items manually?

The following instructions are generic Joomla! usage tips and don't have to do with how our software works. We provide them as a courtesy. If these instructions don't work for you please do not contact Akeeba Ltd for support. We cannot offer support for generic Joomla! use. Instead please do ask for help in the Joomla support forum at http://forum.joomla.org.

Accessing Akeeba Backup

You can always access Akeeba Backup by visiting the /administrator/index.php?option=com_akeeba URL on your site, after logging in to your site's back-end.

That is to say, if your site's administrator URL is http://www.example.com/administrator/index.php enter the URL http://www.example.com/administrator/index.php?option=com_akeeba in your browser's address bar to access Akeeba Backup.

Restoring Joomla's default administrator menus

	Important
	These instructions only work on Joomla! 3.7 and later and only with the default administration template supplied with Joomla. If you have a third party administrator template please contact the template's developer for instructions regarding missing menu items or reverting to the Joomla! default administrator menu.

You need to access the /administrator/index.php?option=com_modules URL on your site, after logging in to your site's back-end.

From the drop-down that currently reads Site select the option Administrator.

Find the module which displays your administrator menu. Usually it's called Admin Menu. Click on it to edit it.

From the Menu To Show drop-down select Use System Preset. Then click on Save & Close.

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Support

Documentation

This documentation page is for Joomla! 3.x

Chapter 3. Using the Akeeba Backup component