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Introduction

Prior to any major upgrade of WordPress plugins, or a redesign of the website, a backup needs to be taken. This article describes how to perform website backup and restore operations.

Web Site Backup

Backups of the Speakeasy web site is performed using the PRO version of the WP Staging plugin. Backups can be scheduled and the destination (e.g. save the backup to the web server and/or to remote Cloud storage) can be nominated. The current backup configuration can be seen by logging in to the WordPress site as an administrator (see BitWarden for details) and navigating to “WP Staging Pro”, then  clicking the “Backup and Migration” tab in the right-hand pane.

Backup has been configured is save to both the local server (which is the one hosting Speakeasy’s web site) and to Google Drive. Thus, if the local server has a major fault and all data is lost, backups can still be retrieved from Google. The backup was configured by logging in to WordPress live site and navigating to WP Staging Pro…Backup & Migration” in the left-hand side menu.  “Create Backup” was selected and options were selected to schedule weekly backups and keep 4 previous backup files.

WP Staging PRO may ask the user to provide credentials to access Google Drive. Use the Google user called “speakeasyofficeramsbottom@gmail.com” – the password can be found in BitWarden. Follow the instructions given by WP Staging to ensure the correct access to Google Drive is given.

  • The local backup for the live site is called SpeakeasyBackup-LiveSite. The Google Drive backup is to a folder called SpeakeasyWebsite-backups-livesite.
  • The local backup for the staging site is called SpeakeasyBackup-StagingSite. The google drive backup is to a folder called SpeakeasyWebsite-backups-stagingsite.

 

Backups can also be run manually, e.g. prior to performing any WordPress plugin updates or other major changes such as updating the WordPress version. Remember to give the backup the name SpeakeasyBackup-LiveSite or SpeakeasyBackup-StagingSite depending on which site is being updated (staging sites should really be regularly cloned from the live site, so plugin and WordPress versions would then be the same by default.

Email notification can be configured if a backup fails, an email notification can be sent. To configure this, navigate to
“WP Staging Pro…Settings” and find the “Send Email Error Report” and “Email Address” settings towards the bottom of the right-hand pane.
This needs to be done for both the live and any staging sites.

The “Send Email Error Report” option should be checked and the “Email Address” should be set to a valid user – it is currently set to office@speakeasy-aphasia.org.uk. Click “Save Changes” to confirm any new settings.

Backups can be restored/deleted from the local server via the “Actions” button options.

Restoring a backup from Google Drive

Backups stored to Google Drive are not listed in WordPress – only the locally stored backup is listed. In the unlikely event that the server is reset and the website is lost, a Google Drive backup can be restored as follows:

  • Login to Google and access Google Drive. Download the relevant backup file (probably the most recent one from live or staging site)
  • Once downloaded, upload the backup file – navigate to the WordPress (live or staging), then pick “WP Staging Pro…Backup & Migration” in the left-hand side menu.
  • Click the “Upload Backup” button and upload the file that was downloaded from Google Drive (theoretically you can pass the URL of a file but it was found that this didn’t work if it was a Google Drive URL. Once uploaded, it will have have the same name as that originally assigned (e.g. SpeakeasyBackup-LiveSite or SpeakeasyBackup-StagingSite)
  • Once successfully uploaded, the backup can be restored/deleted etc via the “Actions” button options.

Fixing the KnowledgeBase links after a Web Site Restore

After a web site restore operation (e.g. performed using the WP Staging plugin), the Knowledge Base home page appears but none of the articles appear. The articles can still be viewed via the WordPress editor under Knowledge Base…All Articles…(Article Name), but clicking on the link in the page’s “Permalink” setting results in a 404 “Page Not Found” error. This was fixed by following the instructions given below:

  • Login to WordPress and navigate to the following page:
  • WordPress Dashboard…Knowledge Base…Configuration
  • Find the setting “Category Name in KB URL”.
  • Toggle it to “Yes” and click the “Apply” button at the bottom of the page
  • Toggle it back to “No” and click the “Apply” button at the bottom of the page

This should be enough to fix all the links. If it does not, then try  toggling the template setting from “Knowledge Base Template” to “Current Theme Template”, then click “Save Settings”
Toggle back to “Knowledge Base Template”, then click “Save Settings”.