SQLA Announcement: We have backup! Time to go public?

[Breck_Carter]

The long-awaited StackExchange Beta 7 is now in place (StackExchange is the software used to run this website, SQLA).

For more information about what's in Beta 7 see http://blog.stackexchange.com/post/398809276/beta-7-release-monday-tuesday

I can see some funky GUI issues, possibly having to do with my out-of-date copy of FireFox 3, not as bad on IE8.

Here's the part I care about, I'll keep you posted as I find out more...

You have been upgraded to a new version of StackExchange.

Database Export

You can export your database as XML at most once every 24 hours.

Exports are deleted after 14 days.

Database export in progress. You will be emailed when it is ready for download.

That was quick...

Your data is now ready for download, available here: ...

It is a zip file, approximately 508.8 KB (compressed). It will be available for 14 days, after which it will be deleted to make room for other exports.

You can request another export at any time, at most once every 24 hours.

Well, it looks like it's all there... one zip file, 27 XML files and (sigh) 27 XSD files:

520,961 sqla-20100224075334.zip

2,886 Badges.xsd
  1,933 CloseReasons.xsd
  2,738 Comments2Votes.xsd
  2,559 FlatPages.xsd
  2,230 Messages.xsd
  1,758 MessageTypes.xsd
  3,649 ModeratorMessages.xsd
  3,201 PostComments.xsd
  4,341 PostHistory.xsd
  1,766 PostHistoryTypes.xsd
  7,821 Posts.xsd
  3,479 Posts2Votes.xsd
  1,752 PostTypes.xsd
    891 SchemaVersion.xsd
  1,777 Settings.xsd
  2,178 SystemMessages.xsd
  2,617 Tags.xsd
  2,293 ThemeResources.xsd
  2,160 ThemeTextResources.xsd
  2,143 ThrottleBucket.xsd
  3,037 UserHistory.xsd
  1,766 UserHistoryTypes.xsd
  8,880 Users.xsd
  1,914 Users2Badges.xsd
  2,332 Users2Votes.xsd
  1,752 UserTypes.xsd
  1,752 VoteTypes.xsd

37,800 Badges.xml
    896 CloseReasons.xml
 23,226 Comments2Votes.xml
 12,673 FlatPages.xml
108,433 Messages.xml
  1,896 MessageTypes.xml
     64 ModeratorMessages.xml
210,998 PostComments.xml
731,441 PostHistory.xml
  2,640 PostHistoryTypes.xml
594,204 Posts.xml
382,151 Posts2Votes.xml
    457 PostTypes.xml
    121 SchemaVersion.xml
    375 Settings.xml
     61 SystemMessages.xml
 22,503 Tags.xml
  2,570 ThemeResources.xml
  4,448 ThemeTextResources.xml
 14,605 ThrottleBucket.xml
504,804 UserHistory.xml
  4,338 UserHistoryTypes.xml
 58,914 Users.xml
 24,313 Users2Badges.xml
     58 Users2Votes.xml
    708 UserTypes.xml
  1,948 VoteTypes.xml

Does anyone wanna play "OpenXML"?

[Former Member]

The blog post you reference isn't there any more and I don't see a direct link to the backup data.

How can we grab a backup now?

I'm wondering also if this would work for a new StackExchange beta like IT Security.

[Breck_Carter]

@Neal: Only an "Administrator" of sqlanywhere.stackexchange.com can request an export. Things have changed since Feb 24, and one of those things is that SQLA 2.0 is going to take over from this website, and so they are the (only) ones who are receiving the export files.

[former_SQLA_member1694886]

Well, it so happens we're also using a Stack Exchange instance - the site is still in private beta at this stage - and we badly needed to import all content into our SQL Anywhere 11 database...

So here's a script for you:
https://se4sqla.assembla.com/code/se4sqla/subversion/nodes/trunk

[Breck_Carter]

If anyone (like me) is still using Firefox 3.0, it's time to upgrade to 3.6... otherwise your SQLA experience will suck (lotsa stuff broken).

Press Help - Check for Updates...

[reimer_pods]

I've been using Firefox 3.6 for some time now and haven't noticed any glitches with SQLA.

[VolkerBarth]

I can confirm Reimer's positive experiences with FF 3.6

[Breck_Carter]

Yes, it looks better with 3.6.

[Former Member]

THATS how they give you the data? Wow.

[Former Member]

If only there was a database platform that existed that would be appropriate for this sort of application and had a simple utility that would generate a SQL reload file, a batch of plain old text files for the data. Maybe someday, someone will invent such a database product. Until then, Breck, are you gonna have to live with an XML dump for a backup?