Alpha testers sought for Chrome extension to back up your SmugMug site

thenickdude

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for some people interested in testing a Google Chrome extension which I've created to back up your SmugMug site's customisations. Backed-up content includes the contents of Text, HTML and CSS content blocks, gallery descriptions, and theme CSS.

It's important to create a backup of your site, because it's easy to accidentally click the wrong button and trash a customisation or page that took a long time to build (I've done this a couple of times already!). It's also possible for some accident or crash at SmugMug to lose information, so it's nice to have a backup you control.

The tool doesn't have an automatic restore feature, so it can't recreate backed-up pages for you. The intention is that you would copy and paste information from the backup to recreate pages yourself. It wouldn't be impossible to add such a feature in the future, but I'm not yet certain if the backups I'm creating include enough information to make that restore possible.

The purpose of the Alpha test is to find out if this extension works for anybody else, if the features are useful, and get feedback on what might be added or improved. It's not complete at the moment. For example, in the display of backed up information for galleries blocks, it doesn't show the name of the galleries involved, only their ID.

Once complete, the intention is to release the extension as open source, for free.

If you're interested, please reply here and I'll PM you with further details and a download link.

rich56k

Thanks for going the extra mile and working to come up with New Smug features!

PM sent ...

rich56k

J Allen

rich56k wrote: »

Thanks for going the extra mile and working to come up with New Smug features!

Amen!

Great job Lamah

JamesGPhoto

I'm interested

Soul Gaze Photography

Provided there is no risk to current data, I'm interested.

thenickdude

Soul Gaze Photography wrote: »

Provided there is no risk to current data, I'm interested.

Since it only reads data from your site, there shouldn't be any risk. I've PMed you with the details now!

denisegoldberg

Lamah -
If you're still looking for testers, I'm interested!

--- Denise

thenickdude

denisegoldberg wrote: »

Lamah -
If you're still looking for testers, I'm interested!

--- Denise

I am! I've shot you a PM now.

Soul Gaze Photography

Lamah wrote: »

Since it only reads data from your site, there shouldn't be any risk. I've PMed you with the details now!

Great, thanks!

thenickdude

Hey guys,

Currently the backup tool backs up the published design for your pages, instead of the (possibly further edited) version you've got in the customiser. Would it be more useful to back up the unpublished customiser version by default?

Soul Gaze Photography

Lamah wrote: »

Hey guys,

Currently the backup tool backs up the published design for your pages, instead of the (possibly further edited) version you've got in the customiser. Would it be more useful to back up the unpublished customiser version by default?

Could that be included as an optional setting? Some might prefer to ensure they have the published versions without risking being overwritten by the unpublished changes. Personally, it either way is fine for me because I rarely save work in customize for later preferring to not risk that work being lost. It would be a useful feature for when I do.

denisegoldberg

Lamah wrote: »

Currently the backup tool backs up the published design for your pages, instead of the (possibly further edited) version you've got in the customiser. Would it be more useful to back up the unpublished customiser version by default?

I'd like the option to get both versions - but it might be less confusing to have only one. Having a back up of the current production version is definitely needed. Saving a work in progress would also be good.

--- Denise

thenickdude

Okay, I think for the first general release I'm just going to have it back up the production version. I'll think about how to best present things for the work-in-progress version.

thenickdude

I've now uploaded a new version, 0.1.2, with these changes:

- System pages like /browse and /404 now have their customisations backed up too
- Fixed an error message that would appear if you had customised a page, but not published it yet
- Galleries content blocks now give you a clickable list of the galleries that have been chosen, instead of a string of random numbers and letters
- The site folders in the tree on the left are no longer automatically expanded when the backup loads
- The margins for content blocks are now displayed along with the rest of the settings for those blocks
- Pages in the tree on the left are now sorted so that folders appear first in the listing

Chrome will auto-update to this latest version within a few hours. But to manually update, click the Chrome menu button, then Tools->Extensions. Tick "developer mode" at the top right, then click the "Update extensions now" button that appears. Nothing will seem to happen, but after a couple of minutes, you should see the version number next to "Unofficial SmugMug extension for Chrome" update to "0.1.2".

Soul Gaze Photography

Lamah wrote: »

I've now uploaded a new version, 0.1.2, with these changes:

- System pages like /browse and /404 now have their customisations backed up too
- Fixed an error message that would appear if you had customised a page, but not published it yet
- Galleries content blocks now give you a clickable list of the galleries that have been chosen, instead of a string of random numbers and letters
- The site folders in the tree on the left are no longer automatically expanded when the backup loads
- The margins for content blocks are now displayed along with the rest of the settings for those blocks
- Pages in the tree on the left are now sorted so that folders appear first in the listing

Chrome will auto-update to this latest version within a few hours. But to manually update, click the Chrome menu button, then Tools->Extensions. Tick "developer mode" at the top right, then click the "Update extensions now" button that appears. Nothing will seem to happen, but after a couple of minutes, you should see the version number next to "Unofficial SmugMug extension for Chrome" update to "0.1.2".

Awesome that you've implemented my two ideas so quickly. Very. Cool.

denisegoldberg

Lamah wrote: »

I've now uploaded a new version, 0.1.2, with these changes...

Very cool - I'll try this when I get home tonight.

--- Denise

plaidChs

I'd love to give this a try. Please let me know.
-Jared

rich56k

WOW !!!

This is smoother and more professional than any Beta tests I've ever done, and it's Alpha!!!


File has been sent!

All I can say is take a number and let's support Lamah with as many testers as he needs!

rich56k

denisegoldberg

I like the latest set of changes - and as expected the errors from my unpublished pages are now gone.

Nice touch adding the standard smug pages (404, browse, etc.), and I like the change to show the folder names in Navigation / Folders content boxes.

Thanks again!

--- Denise

southeasternphotography

Count me in. I am still in Preview - so I imagine this will not work for me. I guess the reason you are writing this code is because in the New SmugMug, we NO LONGER have the function where SM would email you all your customizations. If true, then thanks again, SM, for the "too early for release" New SM update. - Mac Powerbook and Chrome.

thenickdude

I believe it will work in the preview mode. I'm going to be posting the general-access Beta release to everyone shortly!

thenickdude

I've now uploaded a new version, 0.1.3, with these changes:

- A few minor improvements to the way some content blocks were displayed
- No longer displays a warning message for pages that have never been customised
- Couple of other tweaks

Chrome will auto-update to this latest version within a few hours.

This extension is now out of Alpha and available for public download:

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=240752

Junghans

Lamah I know this is an old thread but not seeing anything else on this...is this still in the works? Would love to have this option. Thanks!

denisegoldberg

Junghans wrote: »

Lamah I know this is an old thread but not seeing anything else on this...is this still in the works? Would love to have this option. Thanks!

Many of us are using this plugin.

The link to the plugin is in the post prior to your question, see thread Create a backup of your SmugMug customisations.

--- Denise