Forum

A long time ago, a charitable soul provided the rest of us with a very useful quickpick instructing the Backup app to automatically backup Mellel files. Recently I found that the quickpick in question, true to the time when it was conceived, saves only the old format of Mellel files. Hence, my question: Does anybody know where to find, or how to make, a Backup quickpick that will recognize and backup Mellel xml files? Thanks in advance for any clue.
Francisco

I have been looking for a application like that too, but haven't found any yet.

I made it.

It should be very easy to fix, it's just I haven't turned my mind to it since I decided that I really really hated .Mac and got myself some real online backup at strongspace (with which I use rsync).

-S

OK kids, revised Quickpick is here:

http://cinaedulus.org/mellel/com.redlex ... ckpick.zip

Enjoy!

-S

I'm very glad to find again the name of the "charitable soul" I mentioned before. Many, many thanks, Stephen! Your quickpick has been very handy for me over the years, and this update ensures that it will remain so. I do appreciate it, as I'm sure many others will.

Francisco

Stephen Still wrote:OK kids, revised Quickpick is here:

http://cinaedulus.org/mellel/com.redlex ... ckpick.zip

Enjoy!

-S

After I downloaded and the application unzipped itself, the only thing I found, was a folder namned "com.redlex.mellel.quickpick". Shouldn't it be somekind of application somewhere or what happened?

You have to drop it into HD/Library/Application Support/Backup/Quickpicks/. Then, you open Backup and this Mellel Quickpick will appear among available Quickpicks.

macsailor wrote:After I downloaded and the application unzipped itself, the only thing I found, was a folder namned "com.redlex.mellel.quickpick". Shouldn't it be somekind of application somewhere or what happened?

It's a Mac OS bundle (i.e. a special kind of folder which usually looks like single file — it's the same principle as applications and Mellel files for that matter). The fact that it presents as a folder would generally indicate that Backup isn't installed on your machine, or that there's something up with the database which links extensions to icons.

At any rate, it shouldn't affect the functionality of the quickpick. Just drag it to /Library/Application Support/Backup/Quickpicks/ and it should work. Let me know if it doesn't, and I'll see if I can't do some testing.

Stephen Still wrote:

macsailor wrote:After I downloaded and the application unzipped itself, the only thing I found, was a folder namned "com.redlex.mellel.quickpick". Shouldn't it be somekind of application somewhere or what happened?

It's a Mac OS bundle (i.e. a special kind of folder which usually looks like single file — it's the same principle as applications and Mellel files for that matter). The fact that it presents as a folder would generally indicate that Backup isn't installed on your machine, or that there's something up with the database which links extensions to icons.

At any rate, it shouldn't affect the functionality of the quickpick. Just drag it to /Library/Application Support/Backup/Quickpicks/ and it should work. Let me know if it doesn't, and I'll see if I can't do some testing.

That's right. I don not have Backup for Apple installed. I thought your new application was standalone just as the old MellelBackup was.

I do not have any access to .Mac since I think it's a to pricy. I do not think it's worth the money (not the last time I tested it anyway).

Thanks anyway, but then I have to find another way to backup my Mellel folder and files.

That's right. I don not have Backup for Apple installed. I thought your new application was standalone just as the old MellelBackup was.

I do not have any access to .Mac since I think it's a to pricy. I do not think it's worth the money (not the last time I tested it anyway).

Neither do I, as it happens. I would tend to agree with your reasoning.

There are a number of fairly reasonable free backup programs for Mac out there. One of them (rsync) is built into the operating system on the command line. If you have a technical turn of mind, I would thoroughly recommend you fire up Terminal and type the command

man rsync

which should tell you all you need to know.

If you prefer graphical user interfaces, you might want to check out PsyncX:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10993

Thanks, I will have a try and see what I can get of it.

Stephen Still wrote: There are a number of fairly reasonable free backup programs for Mac out there. One of them (rsync)

Yes, RSYNC is sweet. I use it daily to backup my notebook to 2 external HDD's. It's fast and flexible. I usually call it from a bash script or Quicksilver, but, now that I'm learning Automator, I'll probably create a double-clickable. What I haven't figured out is how to use it to make backups over the internet. My webhost only provides FTP support and claim they don't support RSYNC, but they are UNIX based...

Dave

loquat149 wrote:

Stephen Still wrote: There are a number of fairly reasonable free backup programs for Mac out there. One of them (rsync)

Yes, RSYNC is sweet. I use it daily to backup my notebook to 2 external HDD's. It's fast and flexible. I usually call it from a bash script or Quicksilver, but, now that I'm learning Automator, I'll probably create a double-clickable. What I haven't figured out is how to use it to make backups over the internet. My webhost only provides FTP support and claim they don't support RSYNC, but they are UNIX based...

Dave

There are two issues: the transport protocol, and whether they have rsync installed on the server.

Best case is that they give you shell access via ssh (which you can then use for data transport), and have rsync installed on the server. If that is the case you can go with:

rsync -e ssh -a ~/target_directory user@server:~/backup_directory

I believe rsync also supports rsh as a remote shell, if your hosting provider is crazy enough to have it turned on.

Failing that, your next best option is to mount the server as a local filesystem, and use it as you normally would for a local volume. Unfortunately, the Finder's FTP support is read only. However, you might have some joy with using MacFuse to get non-native filesystem support: see http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/. This blog post makes it sound easy! http://www.gringod.com/2007/05/24/macfu ... e-systems/

Another option would be to do the backup from a unix box in the middle (a VM would do), with the ftp server mounted locally on that machine, and using ssh to get to the machine you're backing up.

-S