Data for Plugin Listings

Hi Dale,

BD doesn’t store the data in any folder or file. We store our data in the database, like all other WordPress pages and posts.

The data is stored in a variety of tables–wp_posts, wp_meta, wp_options and a variety of tables that start with wp_wpbdp_. Not knowing much about your backup and how it stored the data, that’s the place I’d suggest looking.

Thanks so much! That helps. I assume that anyone who REALLY understands the restore process of a WP site, if given the entire database, could replace the current tables with the older tables. Is that right?

Dale

That’s correct. As long as you have a backup of your entire database, our data is in that backup and can be restored.

we are having trouble….. on two occassions we have tried to restore the data… and get two differnet results – neither are at all complete – https://www.christiancoachinstitute.com/christian-life-coach-directory/

the latest effort.. as you can see at the link, is missing pics. I am using folks at Sucuri.net to help with the restore and they know what they are doing.

Pictures are not stored in the database–the only things we store in there are the listing data.

Pictures would be under the media area of your website–so whatever media files were uploaded should be restored in the appropriate location on your file system as well. Basically the same area that WP uses to upload post/page images.

This is what a tech guy who is trying to restore the data wrote:

“I just reviewed the sql file you sent us again, and there’s only 4 entries with the Business Directory flag. And to make sure I went through all entries and I found only meta-data related to those other posts, but not the right entry. It’s hard to tell what happened to those posts without an active monitoring. Do you have, by any chance other backups from when you have all those coaches?”

Businessdirectoryplugin Author, do you want me to continue this thread or open a new thread on your Forum area – https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/support-forum/support-questions/

Thanks!

dale

Hi Dale,

We can continue talking here–not a problem.

Sounds like the backup you have may not include all of the listings you had. Since I don’t know when the listings were placed and when the backup was taken from, it’s possible that the backup is simply missing the data because it was too old or the listings were placed later and you need to use a different backup to pull them from. Or it’s possible that your backup is corrupted somehow and isn’t complete. It’s really hard to say here.

By “Business Directory flag”, I assume that they are referring to our custom post type of “wpbdp_listing” for the wp_posts table. If they’re finding a few of those listings, that sounds like the right stuff. My suggestion would be to try to restore this data to a test site and see what comes up.

I know one thing for sure at this point: Without a proper backup that is complete, you won’t be able to restore the prior data short of re-entering it yourself. I know that’s a crappy place to be and I’m really sorry that you ended up here. If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Hi again.

Thanks so much for taking your time to write up what you did. I am absolutely confident that the dates of the two backups that we have tried were taken from the site when the Directory included about 30 listings. The Directory plugin had been working VERY well.

Is there a difference between using a ‘restore’ process and the technique of replacing all the folders associated with the plugin, to include the related folders or files where the actual data resides?

I took the link to the Directory of Coaches off the Menu. Here is the link to the page – https://www.christiancoachinstitute.com/christian-life-coach-directory/

The last time they restored, the restore did not include several pictures which had been added through the plugin.

Thanks,
Dale

I asked the folks who are trying to get it back to explain the process they are using. Here was his reply:

I’m restoring only the SQL insert commands that are related to the business directory. There are no images in the database (except references to them as posts metadata).
In order to do that I’m accessing your database using a tool called adminer.

Thoughts?

dale

Hi Dale,

I don’t have any experience with that tool. A full WP backup includes:
– Database tables/data
– File system files (including, but not limited to, plugins, themes, and any uploads.

The database data should contain all of the listings, minus the images. If they’re missing, I can’t even begin to guess why that might be. What backup software was used?

I’m also not sure what you mean by “restore” vs. “replace” here–in what context is that? Files only? Database data? Both? Is this an operation of the backup plugin you’re using?

Hi one last time,

The backups were made by WordPress Backup plugin. It occurs weekly. That is the file I sent to the people helping me.

His last effort brought back all of them but several lacked pictures that were originally there. And so I have decided to manually add those back with their respective profiles.

As you indicted earlier, maybe the issue has been that some of the data was corrupted by the malware.

And again, I appreciate the time you’ve taken to help me. ??

A Merry Christmas to you!

Dale

And to you as well! Glad that your story had a happy ending.

May I recommend that you use a plugin like Wordfence (if your host allows it) to help defend against attacks in the future? It’s a pretty reasonable plugin to help guard against malware. And free. That’s nice too.

I have realized that we have major issues with the restore. I was just now getting around to try to add the listings that were not automatically added during the restore process. I have noticed that many of the Fields that I had used, when i added the listings, are no longer there. Like email, website, City, State etc.

not only is the data associated with those fields of the existing coaches no longer shown t=in the listings, but when i try to add a new coach, those fields that I had created are no longer showing up.

is there a way that you and I can have a phone conversation about this, please?

Dale

Hi Dale,

Contact me here via email https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/contact and we’ll continue this discussion offline. The core part of the issue is that your backup plugin isn’t actually capturing all of the BD tables, if you’re seeing that issue above.