WordPress Database Backup is a plugin that I’d relied on in the past to keep a randomly backed up copy of a WordPress site. Unfortunately, that’s not a complete solution as the images or uploads folder, as well as any modified theme pages, won’t be saved during the database backup. Nor will the blog links! Keep an archive copy of everything you put on your website, so everything can be reconstructed in the case of a disaster or even a host switch. In case a website is made up of more than one database, you’d need a different backup solution than what a WordPress plugin can provide.

Use CRON jobs to automate the task of backing up all your hard work. It might take a while to figure things out, but once you do you’ll be secure in the knowledge that you did it and your data is safe.

At first I didn’t have the command part right for the cron job to work. After the time elements you need to indicate the path to sh, any flags (none used here), and the path to the shell script. In this case the command was -

/bin/sh /home/owner/backup/automysqlbackup.sh

where “owner” is the CPanel login name, and “backup” is an empty directory or folder that you create above the public_html directory. Some hosts will have a folder called “etc” already created for you. Check with your host!

In this case the /bin/sh directory was already created at the server level, in other words, I didn’t have to create it. The corresponding first line in the .sh file was -

#!/bin/sh

Originally, the .sh file had an opening #!/bin/bash, but that didn’t work on this particular host.

• A great explanation of CRON commands is found in the rainbow. Nice touch, guys!
• Best explanation of setting up automysqlbackup shell script.
• Get the open source database backup script from sourceforge, automysqlbackup.

The host tells me the script is running successfully, so I know the lack of output is my fault – somewhere. Checks the paths…found it! An error in the path for the configuration file lead to the script trying to run with default parameters, some of them blank. The script ran as far as it could so there was no error reported by the cron daemon to my email address. When the output is successful a log file is sent to that address.

When I finally got the paths straightened out, the backup files were zipped and in their proper places and an email log was sent to the proper address at the time the cron job was to run. It worked! Now I’ll go back and set up a couple of other cron jobs to back up other databases. I’ll use the same script, modified to back up different sets of databases on different schedules.

• If you’re looking for a simple script to make one database backup and save that on your server, check out DaniWeb’s CRON job for backup.
• Backing up your home directory is just as easy!

Once you have your sites backed up automatically, you can do away with any backup plugins that you may have relied on in the past. When at all possible, automate the task of backing up a database. It’ll make your life easier!

As with any kind of software, there are free and open source alternatives to paid versions. The one pay-software for site stats worth mentioning here is called Mint and is found at haveamint.com. It’s a totally configurable way to look at your site stats. If you don’t have many web properties, the $30 per site license isn’t too bad.

Let’s take a look at the software that doesn’t cost anything but an investment of time….

Site statistics are included in CPanel which comes with most hosting packages. Once you sign in to CPanel, look under the Logs section for Awstats or Webalizer Stats. More people seem to talk about using Awstats, but if you go to Webalizer Stats and click on any month name under the summary you’ll get all the same data that is provided by Awstats. Pick one whose layout is easy to read and you’ll have your site statistics at your fingertips.

Google Analytics (GA) is geared towards marketers and can easily be integrated with an Adwords or Adsense account, both from Google. If you want to formulate a plan for meeting sales goals or increasing conversions, the big G can help you when you link your existing accounts. Some folks have written that they don’t trust Google and don’t want Big Brother knowing their every move online, so they shy away from using a GA account.

Instead, you could rely on a free alternative called statcounter. Visit statcounter.com and click on the features page. You’ll see many of the same items listed that occur in your CPanel stats options. The downside to using statcounter or GA is that you’ll have to dig into the page code and insert a few lines of code. It’s not that hard, but it does take a little time to set up. You only have to set it up once, though.

If you’re running a WordPress blog, try the stats plugin found at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/ for a pretty look at your site stats.

I couldn’t get this plug-in to work until I changed “.php” to “*.*” in the ‘include files of type’ box. When I tried that it took mere seconds for the software to replace 180 instances of a single change across all my files in the designated folder.

Fantastic savings of time and effort! Thanks Chami!

Learn more about the best open source alternative to expensive image editing programs. Lots of screen shots will help you learn tricks of the GIMP.

I considered writing my own php script where I would have separate pull-down boxes for the day, month and year to assure that there was no mistake as to the actual dates. That would take a little extra format massaging to create the date in MySQL format, so I looked for scripts that others had already written. Who wouldn’t?

Formatting dates can drive a person crazy. Does ’06-08-2000′ mean June 8th or the 6th of August? Writing for the Web should be universal. The month-day format that we tend to use in the U.S. is confusing to everybody else who uses the day-month format, and vice-versa.

Writing by hand I like to use this format ’12-Mar-2000′ so there is no ambiguity, but that format needs to be converted to ‘YYYY-MM-DD’ format when sending dates to MySQL.

So, what are my requirements for such a Date-Picker Script?

• easy, intuitive for the user
• easy for me with output in MySQL format (YYYY-MM-DD)
• unrestricted license would be nice

I tried a few different date picker scripts and decided upon SpiffyCalendar because it’s the most advanced, yet easily modified to suit my purposes. Also, there is an established support system via a Yahoo! user group. That’s really nice, and unexpected.

Here’s the scripts I tried and the pros and cons for each…most weren’t as user-friendly as SpiffyCalendar.

PHP Calendar

PROS
• I like the look of this calendar, but it’s difficult to determine how to modify the calendar other than for css of calendar appearance.
• Date output is already in MySQL format: YYYY-MM-DD

CONS
• Can’t select year from calendar unless you click back or forward to the actual month.
• Ugly and excessively long query strings in links.

DatePick

PROS
• I like the little calendar icon.

CONS
• Can’t select year from calendar unless you click back or forward to the actual month.
• Timestamp is included. Don’t need it.
• Relies on javascript and pop-up window to select date.
• Calendar doesn’t update well when moving from month to month. Part of the calendar doesn’t get loaded in so all days are not selectable. Have to manually widen window to see all days.
• Can’t select year directly, have to click through months to get to next year.
• No directions on how to modify output.

DateTimePick

PROS
• I like the little calendar icon.
• Can modify output via provided directions.

CONS
• Can’t select year from calendar unless you click back or forward to the actual month.
• Relies on javascript and pop-up window to select date.
• Calendar doesn’t update well when moving from month to month. Part of the calendar doesn’t get loaded in so all days are not selectable. Have to manually widen window to see all days.
• Can select year directly, but calendar doesn’t update well.

SpiffyCalendar

Sign up to the Yahoo! Group to download the script. Script used to be offered at the now defunct GeoCities. The above link is the first place I found it posted afterwards.

PROS
• Calendar pops into page, not a separate window.
• Can modify output via provided directions.
• Can get help at Yahoo! Groups.
• Unrestricted license.
• Can refresh page containing calendars as link is not modified after picking a date or two.
• Highlights holidays, although will have to remove Dec 1st developer’s birthday. (OK, modified holiday array in script on lines 86-87.)

CONS
• Format of date will have to be modified for MySQL. (OK, Added "cal1.dateFormat="yyyy-MM-dd"; after instantiation in header for calendar named ‘cal1′.)
• Relies on javascript.
• Had to modify the images folder location in the .js file to an absolute address, although things worked fine on my local server with a relative address.

I’m sure there are plenty of these date-picker scripts floating around the Web. Do you have a different one to share with us? Leave a comment!

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Once installed, Colorzilla resides down in the left, bottom corner of Firefox. You’ll see a little eye dropper icon. Click the eyedropper and the mouse pointer changes to a cross hair. Hover over any spot on the page and the RGB and #hex values are noted at the bottom of your browser. Click again and the color values are stored temporarily until you click on the eyedropper again.

If you leave the current tab and come back you’ll note that the color values have disappeared from the bottom bar, but they’re not really gone. Right-click the eyedropper and you’ll be presented with a menu of choices.

Right-click menu for ColorZilla Firefox browser extension.

Have fun exploring all the features of ColorZilla, but take note that the details of the last color picked are ready for you to copy in your favorite format.

The Options menu has a hidden feature that you might want to check out:

ColorZilla Firefox browser extension options menu.

Right-click on the eyedropper, click on Options, then click on Statusbar Format…. Here, you can modify the information that you see in the bottom bar of the Firefox browser when you activate ColorZilla.

ColorZilla menu for statusbar formatting.

Now, along with color values, you can “see” elements of a webpage, their paths, URLs and distances to other page elements.

A great feature that I must point out is the Webpage DOM Color Analyzer that you can reach from the Options menu. Visit a page where you like the color scheme, right-click the eyedropper and choose the Webpage DOM Color Analyzer…. A window at the bottom of the screen will show the main colors of the page, but not from the images on the page. Clicking on any of the colors in the palette will show you the css rules that are using that color.

ColorZillla – what a neat way to explore a page and all its colors!

Don’t have a site yet? Post your widgets to iGoogle, a Google “homepage” that you can modify as you see fit. Click on the iGoogle link at the the top right of www.google.com and you’ll see a version of google that you can modify to your liking by arranging tabs and blocks of content.

Here’s the widget I’m talking about:

Try moving either color pointer and see the resulting color and #hex value in the top box.

On the widget’s page at widgetbox, look under Get Widget on the right side of the page. If you’re not familiar with some of the icons, just hover your mouse pointer to get a tool tip that tells you the name of the site that the icon represents. Click on “more…” to see other icons. Here, you can also choose your language and modify your widget, if possible. Code is available for WordPress blogs – just look for the big W in the icon list.

To post the widget at iGoogle, click on the big G icon. A small window pops up that directs you to click on the “Add Widget” button to open the iGoogle installer. When the installer page opens click on the “Add to Google” button. Your new iGoogle page opens with the new widget displayed. Drag and drop the widget into the place you prefer and make sure to sign in to Google to save your page.

Same thing with WordPress. Add your favorite widget to a post or put it in your sidebar.

The only catch here is to grab the right code. If you take the code from one of the icons presented, the widget will be in its default state. Should you modify or customize your widget – like I did with Farbtastic by changing the language to English and enlarging the widget to 300 x 300 px – make sure to click on the small “Get Widget” button that has a little checkmark – it’s right below the customize part of the Get Widget section. Post your customized widget and make sure it’s what you want before you finish up with widgetbox.

Click the Random button to see randomly chosen color schemes or input your own RGB or Hex value to start the color selection.

Copy the screen to save an image of the color scheme containing nine colors and their hex values.

But you don’t really need to download the software to pick up the color schemes that you like. Just hover your mouse pointer over the color blocks in your favorite color scheme and write down the #hex code from the tool tip. Now you’re all set to use your favorite new colors!

Better yet, sign up for a free account on ColorSchemer. For parting with an email address you’ll be able to build a personalized Favorite Schemes list. Once you sign up, go to the Scheme Gallery and browse to a scheme you like. You’ll see who made the scheme, the number of times its been downloaded, the scheme’s rating out of 5 stars (and how many people rated it), and a link called “Add Fav”. Click on Add Fav to put the scheme you like into your Favorite Schemes.

My Favorite Schemes will show what you have saved so far. What a nice service to allow us to collect these color schemes and save them for later.

Bookmark ColorSchemer!

Don’t miss the fantastic post on 140 Named Colors!