Database Exporting/Backup Tool
Corduroy now features an on-demand database backup and data exporting tool that allows your site's administrative users to download raw data from your Corduroy database.
Each database table selected will be exported into a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file, and then archived in a single zip file to download. This data can be imported into data manipulation tools such as Microsoft Excel to run your own analysis and graphs, or just backed up with your other data as an additional security measure.
To access this tool, administrative users can click on the Administration link in the upper right corner, then click on Export Data/backup in the upper right. Select the tables you wish to export and click Export Data. After your data is extracted and processed, your browser will ask you to save a zip file.
Of course, we stress that these archives should be preserved in a secure location once downloaded. Your entire Corduroy site can be contained in them and may contain your customer information, credit card numbers (on downloaded bank transactions), and other proprietary information. We encourage you to store them on encrypted disks with tools like PGP for Windows, or Knox for Mac.
In the future we hope to expand this tool to support the importation of these backups, as well as importing data from other sources to assist new companies in migrating to Corduroy.
We would love to hear your feedback on this backup tool and Corduroy in general. Drop us an e-mail or leave a comment here on our weblog.