Design/Product data upload

[dave_finlayson]

Bearing in mind posts like this:-

http://community.actinic.com/showthr...005#post185005

Is it not possible to have actinic export and upload a fresh design and product database, zip it and chuck it on the server every time you upload (or if there are any changes anyway). Or even better, upload zipped text exports that can imported to actinic in case of emergency. OK, you can't have everything but even the design and/or product elements would save hours and hours if disaster strikes!

You wouldn't want order information in there, but this could be stripped out easily, this would also help on upload times too! A quick export and zip of our 1600 products resulted in a 326kb file. A design export would be a fraction of this I would assume.

For security, they can have the file extension stripped from them.

[TraceyHand]

hoorah!
All hail King David

I agree! the thought of having to retrieve a website from the live site alone is a truly terrifying one!
To be able to retrieve some sort of data from it like that would surely be a help

[dave_finlayson]

I reckon to generate our site from scratch would take about 1-2 months, if we had a good crack at it. However, if we had an export of the products/sections/design I reckon we would be down to about a weeks work, max.

Now this would never happen as I am snapshotted to the max, both offline and online, home and office too. But, how is someone new to the software to know this. This would be well worth it, considering the minimal server space/upload time it would take up.

[TraceyHand]

I am snapshotted to the max, both offline and online, home and office too.

[editted to add] Me too!! [end edit..for now]

but only someone with experience of Actinic is paranoid enough to actually snapshot as often as we probably should routinely do.
It's certainly the "noobs" who don't appear to use the snapshot function as much. It's not helped by how long it can take to generate one, mind you...and the fact that it wrongly gives the impression of "doing nothing" when it does!

[dave_finlayson]

Certainly, if I was a designer new to Actinic, and was told that I can't regenerate a site from what is online, I would be most surprised!

[leehack]

But, how is someone new to the software to know this.

I often see comments like this and they are often accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders too. They also usually come just after it has all hit the fan and the lot has gone. I don't understand why Actinic is sectioned off as anything different to anything else on your PC. It's hardly hidden knowledge that you SHOULD religiously backup your computer, surely encompassed in that SO COMMON snippet nowadays is Actinic also. Just because it's an ecommerce package, we expect it to make up for people who are too lazy or cannot be arsed to backup. They are the same people who come on the forum crying when it has all gone wrong.

Like many things in life, people often need to learn the hard way, if that means that you need to lose your actinic catalog, so be it, you can be pretty sure the next 30 years of data/time protection will not be slack. Most people learn to look left and right after they have been run over once. All you can do is ring the ambulance for them and comfort them during the process IMO.

[dave_finlayson]

Lee,

Perhaps you are right Lee, you can't hold peoples hand all the time, and they really should know to backup. However a lot of these posts are from people who have taken over sites from other people, and in that situation, you can't really blame them for thinking there would be some way to easily restore from the server.

[leehack]

I know what you mean David and if it was highlighted and explained with more emphasis, it would certainly improve things, i'm just not sure by how much. No matter how many times you tell people certain things, they will never do anything about it until something bad happens, its an inherent human complacency, 'it will never happen to me'...

• Speeding in 30 areas
• Leaving valuable tools in a shed
• Leaving tools in a van overnight
• Not turning your mains water off when you go on holiday
• Not checking your oil and water on your car before a long journey
• Don't put your stereo front in the glove box (oh hang on, people don't do this anymore, i apologise, oops no they do it with their satnavs now instead!)
• Don't leave laptop or handbag on show
• Don't park in disabled spaces

How many people know about the above and still don't do them, i don't think that can ever be solved personally.

[TraceyHand]

is that just your list, Lee?

[leehack]

I soon learnt to never leave my Prada handbag on the backseat.

[brian.mc]

When I close Actinic, it presents me with a menu of backup options.
Perhaps Actinic could change the text to include a warning, preferably in red, and flashing, with a siren for those with sound turned on, stating: YOUR WEBSITE IS IN DANGER IF YOU DO NOT BACKUP YOUR FILES NOW!!!!

[leehack]

LOL Brian, it would still get the 'oh sod it, i will do that tomorrow' attitude. I went to see some folk about a new actinic site today, their business ran on one PC which was a pretty old one. They had a spreadsheet which basically ran the business. I asked what happens if that PC blows up or is stolen and his face turned white - people just do not understand until it is too late.

[Darren B]

[QUOTE=leehack]

• Speeding in 30 areas
• Leaving valuable tools in a shed
• Leaving tools in a van overnight
• Not turning your mains water off when you go on holiday
• Not checking your oil and water on your car before a long journey
• Don't put your stereo front in the glove box (oh hang on, people don't do this anymore, i apologise, oops no they do it with their satnavs now instead!)
• Don't leave laptop or handbag on show
• Don't park in disabled spaces

QUOTE]

You missed one, turn the hose off when the waters been cut off

[Darren B]

I think something like the wish would be good, vote for me

because i am always going to do a snapshot

D

[cdicken]

Hi chaps

I've added this to the wish list for you and circulated it to the dev team.