Connect Your Website
First, connect your site by giving CodeGuard your ftp/sftp/MySQL information. It's that easy. Connect your website or database with CodeGuard servers. There are several options available, and the right one depends on your level of sophistication, goals, and server configuration. At a high level, you really have two choices: (1)FTP/SFTP or (2) MySQL.
Perform Initial Backup
Now CodeGuard will take an initial backup of your site. During the process, you’ll be able to view real-time updates on its progress. The initial website or database backup is a complete data retrieval of all files that CodeGuard has access to. Depending on the number of files and total size, the initial backup can take up to 72 hours. After this first backup, future backups are differential, both in the files that are transferred and the files that are stored on your behalf. CodeGuard relies upon a queueing system and our backup process is not unlike FedEx package pickup and delivery. Our process is so similar, in fact, that we modeled our user experience after their process.
Monitoring
Now CodeGuard monitors your site daily for changes, and sends a change alert email to you if there are any. CodeGuard notifies you anytime anything changes within the source code of your website. Additions, modifications, and deletions between each version of your website can be viewed in your dashboard. Email notifications are also sent to inform users of what has changed. This is accomplished through two main vehicles: the front-end comparison analysis engine, and version control systems on the back-end.
To reduce the loads on our users’ servers, CodeGuard only transmits the files that have changed, as opposed to complete backups each time. The way CodeGuard determines which files have changed is with our comparison analysis engine. This engine lists and then compares the files with the previous backup. If any changes are found, only the changed files are transmitted.
Backup Again
After monitoring CodeGuard continuously backs-up your site again and again if it detects changes. If the monitoring process detects any changes to the website source code, the files that changed or were added are transmitted to the CodeGuard repository. If any files are deleted, a record of the deletions is also transmitted to the repository. For deletions, those files are removed from the repository; additions are added and changed are overwritten to form a new version of the backup, which is shown within the user’s dashboard.
Restore your Website
You can restore your site back to any previous version with the click of a button. FTP/SFTP and WordPress Source Whole Site Restore can be time consuming since CodeGuard does a backup before doing the restore. FTP/SFTP and WordPress Source Individual File Restore - Individual file restore happens without a ‘pre-restore’ backup and user can select files using a typeahead that searches the files for a particular backup version. MySQL Database Restore uses the MySQL client to perform the restore.
