A Fast & Lightweight Wordpress Backup Plugin

As we all know, backing up a hosted Wordpress site is an important thing to do. But there are a huge number of plug-ins can help you effectively backup your website and prepare for any future problems. The only thing is, there’s so many of these plug-ins, it’s hard to know where to begin and often.

Not all backup plugins can properly run especially when the Wordpress site is hosted on a cheap shared hosting (usually it's unlimited/unmetered space and bandwidth) or a free hosting server. A hosting service like this shares its resources to many users and has some limitations to memory and network usages.

I've tried some high rated backup plugins such as XCloner and UpdraftPlus Backup. But they were unable to completely backup my free hosted Wordpress site. They kept stopping or became idle after a few minutes backing up. And then my site gone inaccessible for a few hours due to server limitations on memory usages.

Luckily, there's a lighweight Wordpress backup plugin I had been testing, namely "Backup". This one actually came out tops when searching for "backup" plugins on WordPress.org. It backs up your entire WordPress installation including widgets, themes, plugins, files and SQL database - the entire package. You can schedule backups and have them sent off-site to Google Drive. You can then download them right to your desktop.

The plugin requires at least version 3.4 of Wordpress. Although it has not been updated since more than 8 months ago and only compatible with Wordpress up to version 3.4.2 according to its author, the plugin works properly on my Wordpress version 3.5.1. And it's hosted on a free shared hosting server!

Plugin URL: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/backup/

Pros:

• Scheduling system for backups
• Allow you to select what you want backing up
• Can store backups on Google Drive or locally
• Email notifications when an error occurs
• Easy to use
• Free

Cons:

• No options for Dropbox or Amazon S3 for backup storage.
• No restore options. Restoration must be done manually through cPanel.
• Need to manually setup an API Access to Google Drive.

Read more: How to install Backup plugin and setup its Google Drive API Access (a step-by-step guide with pictures)

Backup Data Gratis dengan Dropbox secara Online & Otomatis

Apa itu Dropbox?

"Pekerjaan Anda adalah hidup Anda, dimanapun Anda berada."

Dropbox adalah layanan gratis yang membawa semua file foto, dokumen dan video Anda kemana pun, dimana pun. Artinya, file apapun yang anda simpan di Dropbox akan secara otomatis tersimpan di komputer Anda, smartphone Anda (Android, iPhone, Blackberry dan Kindle Fire) dan bahkan di website Dropbox itu sendiri.

Anda juga akan lebih mudah berbagi file dengan sesama pengguna Dropbox. Bahkan jika tiba-tiba laptop Anda rusak, jangan takut! Anda dapat bersantai karena sudah terlindung dalam Dropbox, dan dapat dengan mudah diakses kembali dengan komputer lain.

Namun, layanan gratis Dropbox hanya menyediakan ruang awal penyimpanan sebesar 2 GB yang mungkin hanya cukup untuk menyimpan file-file kecil seperti MS Office, gambar JPG dan video 3GP. Dropbox sebesar 2 GB juga dapat dimanfaatkan untuk mem-backup situs web CMS Anda, semisal Wordpress berhosting sendiri yang mungkin hanya memakan space puluhan MB (1 GB = 1024 MB). Tersedia banyak plugin Wordpress bisa mem-backup file dan database WP ke Dropbox secara berkala dan otomatis.

Versi gratisnya bisa di-upgrade hingga total 18GB dengan cara mengajak orang lain untuk membuat akun Dropbox, seperti yang saya coba lakukan sekarang. Saya harap Anda ikut bikin akun Dropbox (dengan cara mengkliknya DISINI). Setiap akun baru yang mendaftarkan diri melalui tautan referral saya (http://db.tt/Ej1A9xI) akan memberikan saya tambahan space sebesar 500 MB (0,5 GB).

Saat menjadi pengguna Dropbox, Anda juga dapat meng-upgrade ruang penyimpanan akun Anda dengan cara yang sama. Tapi jika Anda ingin "menipu" dengan cara mendaftarkan diri sendiri sebagai referral, Anda harus mengganti IP koneksi internet.

What is Dropbox?

"Your life's work, wherever you are."

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and even the Dropbox website.

Dropbox also makes it super easy to share with others, whether you're a student or professional, parent or grandparent. Even if you accidentally spill a latte on your laptop, have no fear! You can relax knowing that Dropbox always has you covered, and none of your stuff will ever be lost.

000webhost, Hosting Gratis Yang Kini Lebih Baik

Kebanyakan web developer mungkin sudah tahu, sudah mencoba, kecewa, dan melupakan yang namanya 000webhost, seperti halnya saya. Tapi dalam 2 bulan terakhir ini saya kembali mencoba menggunakan 000webhost sebagai "lapangan uji coba".

Menurut saya, pelayanan mereka kini lebih baik. Saya pertama kali menggunakan 000webhost pada tahun 2008. Saat itu server mereka sering down. Selain itu saya sering mengalami error saat membuat atau menghapus database.

Kini 000webhost lumayan bisa diandalkan. Service Uptime (waktu hidupnya server) mereka rata-rata mencapai lebih dari 99.60% (artinya 0.40% mati). Bahkan kabarnya mereka juga membuka cabang layanan di Indonesia yang menyedia interface (antarmuka) berbahasa Indonesia.

Bagi yang baru masuk dunia pembangunan web, tidak ada salahnya mencoba layanan 000webhost. Berikut ulasan saya mengenai layanan 000webhost.

Tampilan Control Panel 000webhost dengan beragam fitur.

Kelebihan

• Gratis dan tanpa iklan!
• 1500 MB Disk Space. Cukup untuk memuat 1.500 hingga 6.000 halaman web.
• 100 GB Data Transfer per bulan. Ini susah habis, kecuali anda membuat koran online yang dibaca 1 juta orang per hari.
• PHP versi 5.2, MySQL ver. 5.1 hingga 5 database. Bisa digunakan untuk menginstal script CMS semacam Joomla atau Wordpress.
• Control Panel, yang mirip cPanel (lihat gambar).
• Website Builder Software, bisa digunakan oleh pemula untuk membuat web sederhana tanpa harus mengerti scripting.
• Menyediakan sub-domain gratis dan bisa digunakan untuk domain sendiri.
• Langsung aktif.

Kekurangan

• Fantastico Autoinstaller, memang ada dalam fitur yang ditawarkan. Namun kenyataannya, fitur ini sama sekali tidak bisa digunakan. Jika ingin membuat website Joomla atau Wordpress, kita harus menginstalnya secara manual. Alasannya, mereka sedang meng-upgrade autoinstaller, tapi entah kapan selesainya. Kita ditawarkan untuk membeli layanan berbayar untuk menggunakan fitur ini.
• Ada sedikit down time atau server mati, sekitar 2 menit per hari. Jadi hosting ini kurang cocok untuk bisnis milyaran rupiah.
• Addon Domain kurang cepat ter-update. Perlu waktu beberapa jam untuk memperbarui nameservers agar domain diarahkan ke akun hosting kita. Tapi kasus ini juga terjadi pada hosting-hosting murah.
• Perlu waktu 24 jam untuk menambahkan alamat domain atau sub-domain baru.

Kesimpulan

• Untuk sebuah layanan hosting gratis, 000webhost memberikan layanan yang tidak murahan. Bahkan, bagi yang baru belajar web (atau tertipu), sebenarnya 000webhost lebih baik dibanding shared hosting yang menawarkan harga murah.
• Sangat cocok bagi yang baru belajar bikin web. Menggunakan 000webhost untuk belajar bikin web, ibarat belajar mengemudi menggunakan mobil jelek. Kalau sudah lancar menggunakan mobil jelek, membawa mobil mewah justru akan semakin mudah.

Tertarik? Klik DISINI.

Ada pertanyaan? Silahkan tinggalkan komentar.

Convert Posts to Portfolio (or Any Custom Type Posts) on Wordpress 3.4

Since the release of WordPress 3.0, developers now have the ability to create custom post types by adding a few lines of code to a themes functions.php. This took WordPress from being a CMS that can manage posts and pages to being able to manage anything the user can think of rather easily. You no longer have to add custom fields to posts- you can add high level support to your own types, creating their own theme page files and admin areas.

The most popular use of this custom post type is to create "portfolio" posts. You can find it in some latest WP Themes. Since portfolio posts are not normal or blog posts, they don't show up in global posts list. Their categories and tags are also separated from normal posts.

Portfolio Items in Choices WP Theme is a custom post type.

This new feature can be a problem for some WP site owners - like me - who already had their portfolio posted as normal posts. If they install a latest WP themes with portfolio posting feature, their current portfolio posts will be shown up as blog posts.

This problem can be solved by using some WP plugins that are able to convert normal posts to custom type posts. I have tried these plugins below to convert my normal posts to custom type posts.

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Post Type Convertr

This is a plugin for converting lots of posts or pages to a custom post type (or vice versa). In the 'convert from...' select option you will get the lists of all the post types stores in your current database and in the 'convert to...' option you will get the list of all the current registered post types. In addition to this you can also convert from one taxonomy to another and the lists are populated just as that of post types.

Post Type Convertr WP Plugin

Although the plugin is currently stated that only "Compatible up to: Wordpress 3.3.2", I have tried it and it works fine on Wordpress 3.4.

Pros:

• Bulk Conversion
• Able to convert many post types and taxonomies.

Cons:

• Unable to choose which post categories to be converted to.
• Not all taxonomies are listed under "Convert to..." list box. In my case, I couldn't find portfolio_category to convert category to.

[Plugin Link]

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Convert Post Types

This is a utility for converting lots of posts or pages to a custom post type (or vice versa). You can limit the conversion to posts in a single category or children of specific page. You can also assign new taxonomy terms, which will be added to the posts' existing terms.

Convert Post Types WP Plugin

Although the plugin is currently stated that only "Compatible up to: Wordpress 3.3.2", I have tried it and it works fine on Wordpress 3.4.

Pros:

• Bulk Conversion
• Ability to choose which (normal/blog) post categories to be converted to.
• Able to convert many post types and taxonomies.

Cons:

• You'll need to create some custom type post categories first to assign the normal post categories to.

[Plugin Link]

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NOTE: You cannot activate both plugins above simultaneously. Only one of them can be activated at a time. Otherwise, you'll find a fatal error message.

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Post Type Switcher

If you'd rather convert posts to customs posts one at a time, use this plugin. This plugin has abilities to convert:

• Page to Post
• Post to Page
• Page to Attachment
• Post to Custom

Post Type Switcher WP Plugin

This plugin is compatible for Wordpress up to version 3.4.

Pros:

• Doesn't ruin post taxonomy associations. You can switch back any custom post to normal post without loosing its categories.

Cons:

• You need to selectively change a posts type from one to another.
• This plugin can only change the 'post_type' property of a post, not the taxonomies (e.g. categories, tags, etc.)

[Plugin Link]