JoshSweeney

An Introduction to WapSnap

I have been actively Tweeting about WapSnap and speaking to various individuals about what it does. Today I determined that it was time for a proper introduction.

WapSnap meet world, world meet WapSnap.

Many of the intricacies about  WapSnap‘s product positioning are still in limbo. For now all that I can say is that it is a web based snaphsot and comparison utility that will compare both files, and databases to detect changes. Most peoples first response has been,  “doesn’t Git and SVN do that already?” My answer is, yes but only for the files.

The file comparison will be similar to a WinMerge and other comparison utilities like those built into Git. Where I would really like to differentiate is in the database comparison and manipulation area.   WapSnap will be able to compare databases all the way down to the field level in order to detect changes in applications. This leads to why I started building WapSnap.

Although others and myself attempt to use best practices when developing applications, sometimes developers end up working on the production box instead of doing an update from their favorite repository. This increases the risk of error and possibility of breaking production applications. The first response to this is to restore backups and risk losing data entered since the last backup. The alternative to backups is to track down the issue and try to fix it as quickly as possible. If you try to fix it the question will become, what all was changed? This is where WapSnap comes in. If you snapshot both the files and database before the changes are implemented then you narrow the search area to check for errors.

This becomes even more helpful for those using open source applications like Joomla and SugarCRM. Through many discussions I have found that users of open source applications commonly work on production instances because it is easier, cheaper, faster, and the applications take plugins or modules that most think work out of the box and won’t break their system. Yet another example of WapSnap‘s handiness is when someone installs a module, it breaks their app, then they uninstall and the app is still broken. WapSnap will easily let you detect the crumbs left behind in the file system and database so that they can be removed in less time that of what is needed to do a large restoration from backup.

Another huge benefit is that you learn more about the application. Take SugarCRM for instance, does anyone really know everything that happens behind the the scene we you use the Module Builder to build and deploy a custom module? Most people on the SugarCRM forums don’t and neither do I, most just speculate and build on past knowledge to guess what it is doing. The same goes for deploying 3rd party modules in any application.

Last but not least, where in the world does WapSnap comes from. I needed a name for a project that I was working on that took snapshots of web applications so I decided on W-Web, AP-Application, SNAP – Snapshot. Nothing special but it is staying until I come up with something better or decide to stick with it.

If you know of other tools that are helpful that have similar functionality please comment and let me know.

Tags: dev tools, open source, snapshot, WapSnap