What is this wpress format ?

Hi aguett,

Thank you for reaching out.
.wpress is our own open source archiving format that is similar to Tar and 10 times faster than zip.
It also makes exporting and importing 10 times faster.

Also there is a web reader available for wpress files here: https://traktor.servmask.com/

Thanks @yaniiliev but actually I am looking for a DECOMPRESSION solution.

To be dependable on any plugin when the shtf is a very bad idea, thus my question : can I decompress this wpress file format to restore manually a few files in case of emergency, or am I 100% dependent on this plugin to restore files ?

Since it’s open source I guess there is a compress/decompress utility available somewhere, right ?

Thanks,

Right now, the only way to restore a file is to restore it via the plugin. We don’t offer a way for files to be extracted outside of the archive because usually this will cause problems with the migration.
The plugin does many changes on import thus extracting files from the wpress file and restoring them yourself is not the solution you are looking for.
Instead, you can archive different parts of your website like plugins/themes/media and restore them when you need to.

OK.

I hope you understand why backing up files in a 100% plugin dependent format is a no-go for anyone with a bit of common sense.

YES, of course I need to have access to files stored INSIDE my backup file in case of emergency. And OF COURSE this should be completely plugin independent.

It’s really too bad, since overall the plugin does exactly what is needed.

So it’s an open source compressed format which behalves almost as a closed source format…

How good is a backup file if it’s dependent on another company’s plugin/format to be used?

Cheers,

Thank you for the feedback.
Maybe I don’t understand your use case completely.
Can you describe what you mean by a case of emergency?

Sure no problem.

Typical scenario :

On 1rst April I use All In One WP Migration to backup my site.

5 days later I completely ruin my site by doing an error somewhere in my custom functions.php. I’m stuck at the white screen of death, some php error somewhere I can’t solve.

In theory I could just quickly “uncompress” my All In One wpress backup of the 1rst April, get my functions.php file and just put it in place of my buggy functions.php.

Of course this assume that I can somehow “decompress” the wpress file format.

Reimporting the entire site in that case would mean I would loose everything that happened between the 1rst and 5th April.

Hope it’s clearer. Now to be fair your plugin isn’t called All In One Migration AND Backup… but since it can handle the hardest part, it could easily be used as a backup solution (but would need us to have a way to decompress wpress files).

Cheers,

Thank you for the feedback.
Let me propose a different solution that I think will be more convenient for you.
I’ve received a new task to add the author name below each post title.
I will go to All-in-One WP Migration -> Export page. Under advanced options I will check all options except do not export themes. Then I will click export.
~10 seconds later I have a backup available.
I go to the theme’s function.php file and start editing. I decide to be a cowboy and save my changes to preview them in the browser. I made a syntax error and the frontend of the site is broken. I also closed my editor so I cannot restore the file. I am not using version control because it is too difficult for me.
Then I remember that I made a backup just before I started making the changes to the theme.
I login to wp-admin dashboard, go to All-in-One WP Migration -> Backups page and Restore the backup. ~10 seconds later I have my site back to where it was before I made these changes.
I didn’t have to open a zip file, extract a functions.php file and upload it by FTP or some other way.

The plugin is not universal and does not try to solve everything – its main purpose is to be convenient – 1-click backup, 1-click site transfer, 1-click restore.

I didn’t have to open a zip file, extract a functions.php file and upload it by FTP or some other way.

And what if wp-admin is broken and I cant get in to use the plugin?

Or what of it is OK, but the customer goes and makes changes in the meantime, like changing a Media file, I assume your plugin uploads ALL files in the backup? I would prefer to only upload the file I want to on a live site.

In fact, I am moving the site elsewhere and prefer to upload a zip and extract it on the server, I cant do that with a wpress file?

And some of us are not cowboys, there are some good developers out there who like to keep things simple and need a Zip file as they find it much easier to work with when moving sites. You know, those few developers who can build websites without plugins ??

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by amityweb.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by amityweb.

Quick update from me :

– I still LOVE that plugin

– I still HATE to know that one day I might find myself with some not openable archived websites backup files in “wpress” format

And, since I’m not a cheapskate, I would EVEN PAY to have ZIP archives instead of those funky wpress files which work wonderfully as long as the Dev is there but might be a recipe for disaster when SHTF

Thank you everyone for your feedback.

The archive is dependable on the plugin, we don’t have plans to change this. We are storing data in the archive that we need in order to properly restore the website.

The backup is a complete copy of the website in time. You can restore the website to that point in time but you cannot pick a file from that point in time and restore it today.

I acknowledge and understand that the use cases that you describe exists but at the same time when I weight the pros and cons after working on this plugin for the last 3 years and talking to many of our users I am certain we don’t want to do this. It will open a can of worm for our support and our users which at this point we cannot support.

Next version of the plugin will come with a wp-cli integration and you can setup even more frequent backups to ensure that your content is protected.

Also, we are considering implementing incremental backups – this will likely solve the problem that you are both describing but again it will be done via the plugin in WordPress, not manually.

@aguett

I’ve made a comparison between ZIP and WPRESS here: https://help.servmask.com/2017/09/05/comparison-of-wpress-archive-format-with-zip/

Oh I have nothing against the wpress format per se… I only don’t like this : if you close door or the plugin breaks, or anything similar I will end up with compressed files that I can’t use.

@aguett

??
All versions of the plugin are hosted here on www.ads-software.com, if a version breaks, you can always download a previous version from right here.
If we close door the plugin will still be here for at least 2 years before it is flagged as unsupported or someone decides to take over and support it.

Here is the link where they explain how to extract .wpress files. Its easy and worked for me.

https://github.com/fifthsegment/Wpress-Extractor

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by imranbcs.