Any Joomla! user that values his website, will make sure to make regular back-ups of the site in question. For quite a while now, Akeeba Backup has been the standard when it comes to Joomla! back-up solutions. On the website, Akeebabackup.com, you can find a complete toolset which aim to make it simple to backup your website.
One of the newest tools in the box, is Akeeba Remote Control for Mac. Akeeba Remote Control has been out for a while; but was mainly a Windows product. Yes, you could run Akeebabackup under Mac OSX, but you’d have to perform some voodoo spells first.
Today, that is no longer the case. AkeebaBackup Remote Control has now been ported to the Mac. We’ve taken the liberty to review this great tool.
Installation
If you’re a Mac owner, you know how simple installing an application can be. The same applies to ARC. After downloading the application (for free), simply drag it to your applications folder. During the installation, the necessary Titanium components will be downloaded and installed.
Configuration
ARC 4.0.3 no longer supports the “remote control plugin”. This means that there’s even less work for you, to set up your backup. Simply click the “Add Site” button, and you’re ready to start.
Like we said, it takes less time to configure ARC 4.0.3. All you have to do, is supply a hand full of parameters. Of course you’ll be entering the Site name and the URL, but you’ll no longer be providing your username or password. Neither will you have to install the remote control plug-in on your site, and enable XMLRPC services.
Instead, enter the “Secret key” you’ve entered while configuring AkeebaBackup on your website. That’s all there is to it. No more user names and passwords, no more FTP settings and searching for the proper directory. The process of configuring a site is now even simpler than it used to be.
Once you’re all set, all you need to do is to click the ‘backup now’ button, and the backup will be initiated. One difference we noticed is that ARC is slower at downloading the file, if that’s what you chose to do. Apparently, this is a design choice, to eliminate the use of FTP. We’d have liked to see an option to use FTP instead, but you can’t look a free horse in the mouth, can you?
Flashy orange!
It seems to be common when reviewing Mac reviews, to point out “how cool something looks”. I’ll be a good sheep, and point out that ARC looks nice. It’s design is tight (and very orange) and worthy of a Mac application. But, most importantly: the UI is great: simple, yet efficient. I’m not going to say “you don’t need to read the manual”, because I know the developers point of view on that, but… you could easily do without reading the manual.
Conclusion
ARC 4.0.3 is a “true” Mac application. If you own a Mac and run at least one Joomla! site, this is THE must have application, especially for this price: it costs nothing, nada, €0,00
Note: Akeebabackup Remote Control 4.0.3 is “Alpha”. But if you’re an Akeeba fan, just go ahead and download it. Should you manage to break it, make sure to report it to the developers.
Links: You can download ARC 4.0.3 here (http://www.akeebabackup.com/download/official/akeeba-remote-control/akeeba-remote-control-4-0-3.html)
I didn’t know that they finally released a mac version, thanks for the heads up. I have been using Akeeba but have been using ftp to get the files off, and this will save me time, and energy. Thanks a bunch!!
-Ezra Hilyer
Glad to see the post gave you a push in the right direction! It’s true, this’ll save you a lot of time. I remember the days I didn’t know about Akeeba Backup *at all* and manually downloaded all files, of every site. Now that was a waste of time…
This is a fantastic tool and is really easy to use now recommended for anyone running mulitiple Joomla sites