When it's time to bring a site back, MokonyxBackup gives you three routes: restore right from the admin panel, from the CLI, or with the self-contained MokonyxRestore restore.php wizard that runs on any bare PHP server — no Joomla required. Here's how each works and how to choose how the restore script travels with your archive.
Restore Methods
MokonyxBackup supports three ways to restore a backup:
- Admin Panel — Select a backup record and click Restore in the toolbar
- CLI —
php cli/joomla.php mokonyxbackup:restore <record-id> - MokonyxRestore — Standalone restore script for bare-server deployment (no Joomla required)
Admin Panel Restore
The built-in restore engine runs a six-step process:
- Extract archive to a temporary staging directory
- Preserve configuration.php so database credentials and paths survive the restore
- Restore files from the archive to the Joomla root
- Import database from the SQL dump (if present)
- Restore configuration.php with the preserved version
- Clean up the staging directory
Supports ZIP, tar.gz, and 7z archive formats. Encrypted archives are supported with a password prompt.
Choosing How the Restore Script Is Delivered
The restore script is configured per destination: each destination has its own restore-script mode setting — a dropdown with three modes (it replaced the old on/off toggle). A destination that previously had the restore script enabled is read as Outside as a sidecar.
| Mode | What you get |
|---|---|
| None | The archive only — no restore script is delivered. Use this when you will restore from the Joomla admin panel or CLI. |
| Inside the archive | A copy of the archive with the MokonyxRestore restore.php wrapped inside it. There is no separate file to keep track of — the restore script travels within the archive. (Whether Inside wrapping is fast enough on your host is what the Execution Tuning wizard checks and reports.) |
| Outside as a sidecar | A standalone restore.php placed beside the archive as a separate file. Upload both the archive and the sidecar restore.php to the target server and open restore.php in a browser. |
Inside keeps everything in one file for the tidiest transfer; Outside gives you a plain restore.php sidecar that you can drop next to the archive on any PHP host. Both deliver the same MokonyxRestore wizard described below.
Inside mode is now much faster and far less likely to time out: the archive is stored inside the wrapper without being re-compressed, so wrapping is I/O-bound rather than a second compression pass over the whole backup.
MokonyxRestore Standalone Script
When the restore script is delivered Outside as a sidecar, you upload the archive and restore.php together, for example:
restore.php (standalone installer, the sidecar)
site-backup.zip (the actual backup)Upload both files to any PHP server and open restore.php in a browser. The wizard guides you through:
Step 1: Preflight Checks
- PHP version (8.3+ required)
- Required extensions: ZipArchive, PDO MySQL, mbstring, JSON
- Backup file exists and is readable
- Directory is writable
- Free disk space (500 MB minimum)
- PHP memory limit
Step 2: Extract
Extracts the site backup archive. Pre-reads any existing configuration.php to pre-fill database credentials. Supports encrypted archives.
Step 3: Test Database
Enter database credentials and test the connection. A successful Test Connection is required before the import can run — the Import Database button stays disabled until the connection test passes.
Step 4: Import Database
Imports database.sql with foreign key checks disabled. Reports statements executed and any errors.
Step 5: Configuration
Updates or creates configuration.php with your database credentials, paths, a fresh secret key, site name, and live site URL.
Step 6: Admin Management
Lists super administrator accounts and optionally lets you reset a password using bcrypt hashing.
Step 7: Cleanup
Removes restore.php, site-backup.zip, and database.sql artifacts from the server with a self-delete mechanism. The completion links to open the Joomla admin and view the restored site open in a new browser tab.
Security
- MokonyxRestore includes CSRF token protection on all forms
- Encrypted archive support (AES-256)
- Self-contained in a single PHP file — no dependencies
- Always delete restore.php after use