XLobby Installer; What To Backup ?

[thekochs]

OK....I'm very glad to see the new installer. However, for now based on comments it looks to be brute force (which is fine). So, since I'm far from a XLobby expert I'm wondering which files in C:\Program\XLobby to backup and restore once I do new installs/upgrades ? I import MP3s, My Pics and also use XML import from DVD Profiler if this helps. I may in future customize a Skin but have not yet...Newbie.

I noticed in Forum reading that the Xlobby.xml file seems important. Is this my configuration file ? Should I just be backing this up and my custom skin files ?

Thanks.

[Atlas]

I know this sounds like a non-direct answer but it depends.

xlobby.xml -- configuration file, backup yes. Take a look inside of it and you'll see the path for your music player etc.
databases directory -- Definitely a backup too. It has your databases.

Now to me the rest depends on you.

plugins -- several have there own config files (xoapweather, xnetflix, etc)
eventgroups -- have you created your own or modified?
skins -- again created or modified?
languages -- have you created or modified?
playlists -- have you created or modified?

get what I'm going after....

One way to backup is grab every .xml or .txt file. That should take care of all configs, dbs, etc. Or you can zip the entire xlobby dir and be done with it. I just right click and "send to zipped folder" before installing or upgrading new. Just my 2 cents.

[thekochs]

This helps....I'm on the same track. I guess my real question would then be the complexity/details of using the installer for an upgrade. What was described is the new installer (very convenient) is dumb. It just installs/registers the XLobby directory....blowing away all previous content. So, my real concern is not disaster recovery where you are just restoring the entire zipped directory but more of I use the new installer, what do you then copy/overwrite from my backups to restore my previous configs.

Thoughts on that ?

[Atlas]

OK I see what you are getting at. But if the installer is dumb and blowing away the directory it is kinda like disaster recovery! Only Steven would know for sure. I would go with the all .xml and .txt file (in all directories) approach. That is what all the config and databases are. If he updates any code it would probably be .exe and .dll files. On the other side he could update new options etc in the config files or update spiders and you wouldn't want to overwrite them with your backups.

Not much research but my suggestions would be the following as an absolute minimum. That is assuming you don't do much tweaking of anything. Just setup and import databases.

xlobby.xml -- config info
types.xml -- contains "File Types" setup.
databases directory

[thekochs]

Does the XLobby F2 > Download or Update function work ? I saw it posted in another thread but not in front of my HTPC to try. Basically, I can save my XLobby folder for disaster recovery as stated but if XLobby has an "update" function that keeps your current settings then that's perfect for upgrades.

I gotta figure most folks upgrade with new experimental versions often so how are they and keeping configs ?

Thanks !

[Atlas]

The download/update has worked for me in the past just fine. However sometimes I just make a new install (to test with or do development work with). For that I do a new install, update (or unzip xlobby2.zip), then paste in the config files and skins. It's really personal preference/paranoia on how to handle it.

[jryan1776]

someone on the sage forums posted an example batch file to backup the sagetv directory (i couldn't find the author/post or i would've linked it). i modified the code to back up all txt and xml files in my xlobby directory. it will create a folder named 'xLobby backup mm-dd-yyyy', and it will backup all files including subdirectories from the xlobby root dir.

TO USE:
1. create a directory to hold all of the xlobby backups ie: C:\Documents and Settings\HTPC Logon\My Documents\HTPC\xLobby Backups
2. add a new text file and add the code below.
3. modify the 'backupDir' to whatever path you are using.
4. modify 'TmpDir' to the xlobby root folder
5. save and close the text file.
6. rename the text file and replace the .txt suffix with .bat ie: xLobby Backup Utility.bat
7. double click the bat file to run.
8. some people have use the windows task scheduler to run this file automatically on a daily/weekly basis...

Code: Select all

@echo off
SET TmpDir=C:\Program Files\xlobby
SET backupDir=C:\Documents and Settings\HTPC Logon\My Documents\HTPC\xLobby Backups
SET windowsDir=C:\WINDOWS

FOR /F "TOKENS=1* DELIMS= " %%A IN ('DATE/T') DO SET CDATE=%%B
FOR /F "TOKENS=1,2 eol=/ DELIMS=/ " %%A IN ('DATE/T') DO SET mm=%%B
FOR /F "TOKENS=1,2 DELIMS=/ eol=/" %%A IN ('echo %CDATE%') DO SET dd=%%B
FOR /F "TOKENS=2,3 DELIMS=/ " %%A IN ('echo %CDATE%') DO SET yyyy=%%B
SET date=%mm%-%dd%-%yyyy%
SET folderName=xLobby backup %date%
MKDIR "%backupDir%\%folderName%"

ECHO Backing up xLobby <txt> (*.txt) files directory
XCOPY "%TmpDir%\*.txt" "%backupDir%\%folderName%" /s

ECHO Backing up xLobby <xml> files directory
XCOPY "%TmpDir%\*.xml" "%backupDir%\%folderName%" /s

ECHO Backup for %date% complete

Code: Select all