MokonyxBackup Placeholders

Make your backup paths and filenames dynamic and portable. Placeholders like [HOST], [DATETIME], [PROFILE_NAME] and [DEFAULT_DIR] are resolved at backup time in your backup directory, archive name format, and remote destination paths — so one profile works across servers without hard-coded paths.

Overview

Placeholders are tokens enclosed in square brackets that are resolved at backup time. Use them in the Backup Directory and Archive Name Format fields of a backup profile, and in the destination path fields — the Local destination path, the S3 Path Prefix, and the Google Drive Subfolder Path — to create dynamic, portable paths and filenames.

Available Placeholders

Where Placeholders Resolve

Placeholders are resolved in the profile's Backup Directory and Archive Name Format fields, and in the path fields of remote destinations:

• Local destination path — run through the same resolver as the profile's backup directory. Tokens such as [HOME] and [HOST] in a local destination path are expanded to their real values at backup time. Previously these were treated literally, which created folders with the literal bracketed names (for example a directory called [HOME]) inside the web root — that no longer happens.
• S3 Path Prefix — the object-key prefix (e.g. [HOST]/backups) is resolved before use, so a value like [HOST]/backups becomes a real folder in the bucket rather than a literal [HOST] key. Because this is an object-key prefix and not a filesystem path, the [DEFAULT_DIR] / relative-path handling does not apply to it.
• Google Drive Subfolder Path — the subfolder path (e.g. [HOST]/[YEAR]) is resolved, and each / segment is found or created under the configured Drive folder (or your Drive root); the deepest folder holds the uploaded file.

Each placeholder-enabled field shows a clickable Insert: legend of placeholder pills — click a pill to insert that token at the cursor.

Note: remote destination paths (Local, S3, Google Drive) resolve environment tokens — [HOST], [SITE_NAME], [HOME], [DEFAULT_DIR], and the date/time tokens. The per-backup tokens ([PROFILE_ID], [PROFILE_NAME], [TYPE], [RANDOM]) are intended for the profile's Archive Name Format and are not meaningful in a destination path.

Examples

Archive Name Format

Default: [HOST]_[DATETIME]_profile[PROFILE_ID]

Result: www.example.com_20260607_143025_profile1.zip

Custom: [SITE_NAME]_[TYPE]_[DATE]_[RANDOM]

Result: My-Joomla-Site_full_20260607_a3f2b1.zip

Backup Directory

Default: [DEFAULT_DIR] (resolves to the folder set in the component's Default backup directory option — out of the box, a backups folder one level above the web root)

Outside web root: /home/user/backups/[HOST]/[YEAR]/[MONTH]

Result: /home/user/backups/www.example.com/2026/06/

Organised by profile: /var/backups/joomla/[PROFILE_NAME]

Result: /var/backups/joomla/Daily-Full/

Local Destination Path

Sibling of the web root, per host: [HOME]/backups/[HOST]

Result: /home/user/backups/www.example.com/

S3 Path Prefix

Per host: [HOST]/backups

Result (bucket key prefix): www.example.com/backups

Google Drive Subfolder Path

Per host and year: [HOST]/[YEAR]

Result (folders created under the configured Drive folder): www.example.com/2026

Notes

• Placeholders are resolved at backup time — the directory is created automatically if it doesn't exist
• The [DEFAULT_DIR] placeholder reads the component's Default backup directory option, making profiles portable across different server paths
• On CLI/cron there is no HTTP host, so set the site's live_site (with scheme) in Global Configuration to get the correct [HOST] in archive names
• Directory paths containing unresolved placeholders skip permission checks in the dashboard (they can't be validated until backup time)
• Sanitisation removes special characters, keeping only alphanumerics, dots, hyphens, and underscores