howto How to copy KVS theme from one project into another, or restore it from backup

[Tech Support]

KVS Project backup plugin can be used to either restore theme from a specific date, or to move theme from one project to another.

If your KVS version is 6.1.0 or above, please go to Website UI -> Install new theme and use the tar.gz archive from KVS backup plugin there. Then follow wizard to replace your current theme with another one.

 

How to copy theme prior to KVS 6.1.0

Step1. In order to create theme backup for copy please go to Plugins -> Project backup and choose backup website option there. It will create an archive with theme backup in the backup directory configured in plugin:

You can also choose any of the automated backup file, every of them contains theme backup.

IMPORTANT! Theme backup also includes advertising defined in Website UI -> Advertising section, as advertising is part of theme. By using backup archive to restore theme you will also restore advertising to the date of backup.

 

Step 2. When you have the needed backup archive, unpack it locally to some directory. Backup archive may contain multiple sub-directories, but the only needed sub-directory is website.

 

Step 3. By using FTP client connect to your server and drag and drop the contents of website sub-directory on top. Using drag and drop is the best way to make sure that you NEVER EVER use "sync" function, because "sync" function can destroy your project without ability to restore it later. We recommended using free Filezilla FTP client:

After the copying is finished, your project will have theme version from backup.

 

Step 4. If you move theme from one project to another, it may not work correctly after copying. The reason is that theme may refer screenshot and album formats that are not available in your new project. Go to Website UI -> Theme settings and check if there are any errors displayed about formats being used. You may need to either choose another formats, or create the missing formats in your new project.

Another issue could be that your theme is using some 3rd-party files, scripts, images that are not known to KVS backup plugin, so that they were not included into backup archive. Then you should typically see some 404 errors in your project when looking into Network or Console section of browser DEV tools. You should solve these by manually copying the missing files and / or sub-directories from your old project.

Finally you may also experience lack of editing permissions in KVS admin panel when opening certain objects in Website UI section. To make sure you won't have this, please login to your server command line with administrative user and apply these command after opening your project www root to correct permissions for the copied files:

find template -type d | xargs chmod 777
find template -type f \( ! -iname ".htaccess" \) | xargs chmod 666
find admin/data/config -type d | xargs chmod 777
find admin/data/config -type f \( -iname "*.dat" \) | xargs chmod 666
find admin/data/advertisements -type f \( -iname "*.dat" \) | xargs chmod 666