Today, Infact just right now. I downloaded a plugin called bunny tags for technorati. I just uploaded the file to the plugin folder and went to plugin tab in wordpress dashboard, there I seen that all my plugins was deactivated automatically, that was soooooooo frustrating. I managed to activate all again. Then I seen my blog and I noticed that the posts were not there and I can only see the default theme with hello!! world posts. Is this hacking by someone or wordpress problem as I have installed bunny tags so there is a reason, Previously I have download a plugin that is Admin Drop Down Menu, that created a lot of error and problems for me and I deactivated it and everything was working just fine. Today this happened, WHY? This is veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy RISKY, If I have made some dozens of posts and this problem occured then what? Using wordpress backup plugin? How to restore the blog? I am really feeling bad as my blog was not showing up since 24 hours, contacted the host and the problem solved ..... now this .... what the hell .... You can see my blog here http://www.mylotlovers.info/blog - please do let me know what do you see, do you see the same what I have mentioned. Thanks for instant support in advance
I looked on your WP blog link and yes, I saw the default theme with the "Hello World!" post there... That sure is odd how just uploading the plugin to the plugin folder, dislodged all the other plugins and your previous posts! This is a big heads up to anyone that wants to maintain a blog for a long period of time. It shows just how easy blog content can be zapped! I plan to keep regular backups of my WP database, which I learned to do a while back. Additionally I think its a good idea to keep an ongoing backup copy of on your website directory or at least the main site files that are used regaurdless of theme. Like the wp config file, the htaccess file and the wp content folder.
Thanks for the reply. To tell you the truth I just downloaded the wordpress database plugin from here http://www.skippy.net/blog/2005/07/12/wordpress-database-backup/ But am having problems understanding how to get this plugin installed and running ... I am new to wordpress ... why don't plugin maker's understand that I wish If you can help me out please. I need to ask some more things but once I complete setting up this plugin. Thanks!
GAdsense, Thanks for the welcome. This looks like a great forum and I am really glad to have joined. I just tried the newest WP-DB backup plugin.. accessed from that skippy.net site, by the way you do know there is a newer version than the 1.4 version on that site right. On the skippy site, click on plugins> than on the WP-DB Backup link> there you will see the link to the new version! I just tried it out and it worked well, It can put the backup in one of three places. I have been doing my DB backups from my phpmyadmin panel. This looks to be a might bit easier, however it creates a sql.gz file (zip file) and the backup file I made from phpmyadmin is a regular .sql file... I am sure either one would replenish a database if needed just not to sure of the specifics on the difference between the two yet. The plugin was very easy to implement... just download> extract> place just the php file from the extracted folder in your plugin folder> activate the plugin > it should than show up for you under the Manage tab. Let me know if that works for you.. Have a lot of fun!
One way to prevent problems like this, or at least to reduce them, is to test all your changes on a local copy of your blog, or on a copy on a server. I keep a test blog on my home PC where I test any plug-ins and template changes for a while before I upload them. I've had a lot of plug-ins zap posts, other plug-ins, or even the whole blog, but they've never caused me any problems since it was only my test copy. Hope this helps, Anita
Thanks Anita, that was a good tip, I think we need to install php on local server. Am I right? I am already going to do it as I am going to learn PHP. I hope you people will never face any problems like this, very frustating and I wish none of any more problems will occur with me as well.
You don't really need to understand PHP to install it. I have a Windows XP Home box and just downloaded and installed PHP + Apache + MySql without ever configuring a thing. Pretty straightforward.
Havn't heard about that. I have Windows XP Professional Edition, how can I do this. I have already downloaded the PHP and Apache, installed and apache works fine. I need to configure it but I am not getting how to do that. I wish to get some help soon Thanks!
GAdsense, Yes, Anita has a great idea. It is nice to set up and have a running server on the local machine. In fact, that is precisely how I like to have things set up for development and testing purposes. You will also probably want/need to set up MySQL with your Apache and PHP if you have not of yet! I like to use phpmyadmin (a GUI for MySQL) too for managing my database. You said, Apache is working! Well the next thing would be to get PHP working. Than you will want to get phpmyadmin and MySQL set up... Were you able to pull up a PHP file in your browser, via localhost?
I installed Apache and it was working fine but PHP was not working and I was not able to pull up PHP file in browser via local host. I found a nice and easy solution that is installing via wampserver, great features and recommended in lynda training cd's as well ... I installed that and now I am able to pull up PHP files ... Phpmyadmin and MySQL is not working due to access rights ... seems to be little confusing .... I asked my friend and suggest XAMMP I think, works fine with him. Will install that ... thanks for help!