Inklura Backups

Scheduled and on-demand content backups for WordPress — a WXR export of your posts & pages plus a manifest of your uploads directory, with retention pruning, a clean admin UI, and multisite-safe per-blog backups.

inklura-backups is a small, dependency-free WordPress plugin (usable as a normal plugin or a must-use plugin) that produces portable content backups you can store, download, and re-import. Each backup is a directory containing:

• content.xml — a WXR (WordPress eXtended RSS) export of your posts and pages, built via WordPress core's own export_wp() (with a self-contained fallback). It imports straight back through Tools → Import → WordPress.
• media-manifest.json — an inventory of your uploads directory: every file's relative path, size, and modification time (plus totals + any excluded count).
• archive.zip — a single, downloadable package of content.xml + the JSON metadata, and (optionally) the actual upload files. Built with ZipArchive; skipped gracefully if that extension is unavailable.
• meta.json — a summary: item counts, sizes, site URL, blog id, what was included, and sha256 checksums of the durable files for integrity checking.

Backups land in a protected folder (wp-content/uploads/inklura-backups/<Y-m-d-His>/), guarded by an index.html and a best-effort .htaccess deny.

Features

Feature	What it does
Content export	WXR export of posts & pages (via core export_wp() or a built-in fallback) + a JSON manifest of the uploads dir + a meta.json summary.
Single .zip	Each backup is packaged into one archive.zip (content + metadata, and optionally upload files), with a per-file size cap, a total-size cap, and graceful fallback if ZipArchive is unavailable.
Integrity	sha256 checksums of the durable files are recorded in meta.json; the admin list shows Verified / Modified / Missing per backup.
Exclude patterns	A glob list (e.g. cache/*, *.log) skips matching uploads in both the manifest and the .zip.
Email notifications (opt-in)	Email on backup completion (success and failure), configurable recipient; sent via the bext mail path when available, falling back to wp_mail().
Restore	Re-import a backup's WXR into the live site behind a typed confirmation + capability + nonce. Media is not restored (content-only).
Backup now	One-click on-demand backup from the admin page (nonce + capability checked).
Scheduled backups	A wp-cron event runs the export daily / weekly / off.
Retention	Keep the last N backups; older ones are pruned automatically after each run.
Admin UI	Tools → Inklura Backups: list backups (date, size, archive size, integrity, item counts) with Download .zip / XML / Manifest, Restore, and Delete actions, plus the "Backup now" button and a settings section.
Multisite	Per-blog backups (separate dir + cron per blog), multisite-safe, with an optional network defaults page.
Queue offload (opt-in)	Heavy scheduled exports can be offloaded to the bext queue over loopback; a direct wp-cron run remains the reliable baseline.
Auto-update	Self-hosted updates for normal-plugin installs — "update available" + one-click update from a manifest, like a wordpress.org plugin.

Install

As a normal plugin

Put the repository in wp-content/plugins/inklura-backups/ and activate Inklura Backups. On activation it creates the protected backups directory and schedules the cron event.

As a must-use plugin

Copy the package into wp-content/mu-plugins/inklura-backups/ and load inklura-backups.php from an mu-loader. (Must-use installs update out of band; the self-hosted updater is skipped automatically.)

Configure

Open Tools → Inklura Backups and set:

• Schedule — Off / Daily / Weekly.
• Keep last N backups — retention count (1–365).
• Include — Posts, Pages, Uploads manifest.
• Archive (.zip) — package each backup as a single .zip; optionally include the actual upload files; set per-file and total uploads size caps (MB; 0 = unlimited). Disabled automatically if ZipArchive isn't available.
• Exclude from uploads — one glob pattern per line (matched against each upload-relative path), applied to the manifest and the .zip.
• Email notifications — email on completion (success and failure) to a chosen recipient (blank = site admin email).
• Advanced — offload scheduled exports to the bext queue when reachable.

On multisite, network admins can set defaults for all of the above under Network Admin → Settings → Inklura Backups; each site may override them locally.

wp-config constants

define( 'INKLURA_BACKUPS_ENABLE', false );          // master kill switch
define( 'INKLURA_BACKUPS_UPDATE_URL', 'https://…' ); // override the update manifest URL
define( 'INKLURA_BACKUPS_KEEP_FILES_ON_UNINSTALL', true ); // keep backups on delete

Restoring

There are two ways to restore:

1. In-plugin Restore — the Restore action on a backup row re-imports that backup's content.xml into the live site. It requires a typed confirmation (RESTORE), the import/manage_options capability, and a nonce. It uses the WordPress Importer plugin (install/activate "WordPress Importer" first) and runs content-only (fetch_attachments = false) — media files are not restored; this is a content recovery, not a full-site restore. A clear error is shown if the importer isn't installed.
2. Manual — a backup's content.xml is a standard WXR file: import it via Tools → Import → WordPress, or unzip archive.zip. The media-manifest.json lets you verify or reconcile uploaded files; if you enabled "include upload files" the .zip carries them under uploads/.

Each backup's integrity (sha256 of its durable files) is shown in the admin list, so you can confirm an archive hasn't been tampered with before restoring.

Testing

for t in tests/unit/*.php; do php "$t"; done   # WP-free unit tests
bash -n bin/build-zip.sh                        # syntax-check the build script
bin/build-zip.sh /tmp/inklura-backups.zip       # build an installable ZIP

CI lints on PHP 7.4/8.1/8.3 and runs the unit tests. See CONTRIBUTING.

Sponsors

Inklura Backups is built and maintained with the support of:

• webdesign29 — web agency (Brest, France).
• Inklura — WordPress-compatible CMS & hosting.

Interested in sponsoring? Use the Sponsor button or open an issue.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later — see LICENSE.