Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

Monday, 11 July 2011 19:18 CDT

user41494

Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the forum before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? All
Joomla! version: 1.5
PHP version: (unknown)
MySQL version: (unknown)
Host: Gator
Akeeba Backup version: 3.2.7

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Please attach your Akeeba Backup log file in order for us to help you with any backup or restoration issue.

Description of my issue:

I have searched for this info repeatedly. At one point I found a similar article about advanced site backup, but it doesn't really address this issue. There was another post about something similar, but I can't seem to find it.

Here's what I would like to do, but don't know if it's possible.

1. Maintain a clone site with all standard plugins/options enabled and configured that we use for development.

2. Install a jumpstart or quickstart from a template in a new location. Merge the clone backup with that site retaining the basic setup configuration.

The thing that gets me is that the template site will have different modules that won't show installed after such a merge, or visa versa. I've tried just about every exclude table/directory option that I can think of. Is this just impossible? If so is there some better workflow to keeping a core setup to build from?

Thank you for the great software btw. It has already made my life easier!

ADR

Tuesday, 12 July 2011 01:19 CDT

nicholas

Hi!

If I understand correctly the scenario is as follows: you have a live site and a dev site. In the dev site you install a template quickstart, which is a default Joomla! installation with a different template. You want to merge the live site to the dev site, change the module positions so that they reflect the module position names in the dev site's new template and then merge back the dev site to the live site.

The way you plan on doing that, it is impossible. Well, actually it is possible, but it requires so much manual editing of the database that it's equivalent to scratching an itch on your left ear using your right foot, trying to balance yourself on a 30ft pole with your left foot. Sometimes simpler solutions are better.

Take a backup of the live site and restore it on the dev site. Install the new template (not its quickstart package, these are only used to start a new site from scratch) and make it the default template. Change the module positions so that they reflect the new template's module position names. Once you're done, you can follow the Advanced Site Transfer instructions to merge the dev site back to the live site.

In case you are wondering why you can't merge two sites which have nothing in common, the answer is simply because they have nothing in common! For example, the modules in both sites are records in the jos_modules table. Joomla! doesn't know them by name, it knows them by their numeric ID. Since the two sites are irrelevant to each other, the same ID belongs to different modules on each site. Merging them is not possible unless you take a database dump of the live site and edit it so that all the IDs are changed to be contiguous with the IDs of the dev site. You'd have to do the same thing for all Joomla! tables and take extra care for cross-referenced IDs to match. The possibility of doing it error free is absolutely zero. For an in-depth analysis why what you want (which is actually called "site sync") is nigh impossible, please read this old blog post of mine.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 12 July 2011 01:53 CDT

user41494

Thank you for the detailed response... though you had me at "it is impossible". Although the scenario you described isn't exactly what I am attempting, your explanation confirmed my doubts.

I'm just looking to expedite the initial setup. For many sites we develop, they are theme based and installing a quickstart is faster than installing just the theme, and then having to configure all the content mods and plugins that work with the design. However, then we have to install our custom admin theme and all of the other basic plugins we most often use. So it's a catch 22 - if we have the basics pre-configured, then we have to configure all the theme mods or visa-versa. Bottom line, if I understood you correctly, you can't merge a different set of components, modules and plugins.

Oh well, as Stephen Wright said, "You can't have everything... where would you put it."

Thanks again for your input!

Tuesday, 12 July 2011 02:45 CDT

nicholas

Exactly so. You can't merge two completely different sites into one.

It's like trying to combine apples and oranges into a new fruit. What would you get? A red orange or an orange apple? Or an apple with an orange-like interior and flavour? Or an orange with an apple-like interior? Or an apple with an orange flavour? Or... You get the idea ;)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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