Web site optimization - CHAPTER 10 SECURING AND MAINTAINING PHPBB 317
CHAPTER 10 SECURING AND MAINTAINING PHPBB 317 pane takes you there), scrolling to the bottom of the page in the right pane, and clicking Check overheaded. This puts check boxes next to tables in which phpMyAdmin detects overhead. You can then click the drop-down menu and select Optimize table. Clicking Go at the bottom of the form runs the optimizations. You will, barring disaster, get an OK message from MySQL, indicating that the optimizations have been completed. In rare instances, phpBB s tables may become damaged. This can happen due to a software error on the MySQL server side, a power glitch, or a random hardware issue. Signs of damage to your database tables include excessive slowness when browsing or odd SQL error messages when trying to use the forums. If you suspect damage has occurred, click Check all at the bottom of the main database page, and then select Repair table from the drop-down menu. Click Go, and you will get a confirmation message stating your tables were repaired. With any luck, your forum will perform better. If this turns out not to be the case, you may want to undo some of your recent modifications to see if they are causing problems. If even that doesn t work, there s a possibility you may have corrupted data in your database. Restoring a backup may be in order. Conveniently, that s the next task I ll cover. Backing Up and Restoring Your Database phpBB s Administration panel has useful facilities for creating a compressed backup of the contents of your phpBB database that you can download to your hard drive for safekeeping. This function is analogous to making a text dump of your database in phpMyAdmin or using the mysqlcommand-line utility directly. You ll find the backup and restore utilities listed under the General Admin heading. Caution I recommend disabling your board, through the Configuration panel, before backing up and restoring your database, as it will help to ensure the integrity of your backups and prevent data loss. Click the Backup Database link to see the backup options, shown in Figure 10-20. These are quick and to the point. The first time you make a backup, you will want to do a full backup (of both the structure and data), as that file will contain the instructions to re-create the phpBB tables as well as re-create the data. If you have a broadband connection, there is no harm in backing up the structure and data every time. The other options to create backups with the table structure only and the data only can be useful for people on slower connections. In addition to the phpBB tables, the backup utility also lets you list additional tables that you wish to back up. To do this, verify the names of those additional tables in the database, and then type them in the Additional tables text box, separated by commas. Finally, you can choose whether to use gzip compression. I recommend, where available, using gzip compression on your backups. If you store a lot of backups of your forum, you ll be happy you Figure 10-20. The phpBB backup function
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