Gmail Docs Backup Documentation

Version 1.0

The document backup package consists of a command line application, and a Windows application that enables users to backup their Gmail account documents.

This document defines how to properly run and configure both the command line and Windows application utilities.


Platform Requirements

  • Windows Based PC (XP, Vista, Server) with .NET 3.5 Installed (Available through Windows Update or directly from MS)
  • Google Apps Premier or Education Edition

  • System Requirements (for .net 3.5)
    • Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows XP
    • Processor: 400 MHz Pentium processor or equivalent (Minimum); 1GHz Pentium processor or equivalent (Recommended)
    • RAM: 96 MB (Minimum); 256 MB (Recommended)
    • Hard Disk: Up to 500 MB of available space may be required
    • CD or DVD Drive: Not required
    • Display: 800 x 600, 256 colors (Minimum); 1024 x 768 high color, 32-bit (Recommended)

Tested On

  • Windows XP Pro with .NET 3.5 Installed
  • Google Apps Premier

Installation

The Gmail Docs Backup utility is delivered a Windows MSI Installer which includes product documentation. The provided installer package will add Start Menu items, and an entries under Add/Remove Programs.


Backup Modes

Gmail Docs Backup offers two different storage options for document backups.

File System Backup

This is a traditional file based backup option. To enable select "File System Backup" under the "Backup Options" step.

Amazon S3 Backup

Amazon S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any developer access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. Amazon S3 is a product offering under Amazon's Web Services platform (AWS).

To enable select "Amazon S3 Backup" under the "Backup Options" step. Encryption options on Gmail Docs Backup are available to encrypt sensitive information.

Output

Document backups are stored in the export directory specified at runtime. Output for the backup utility consists of a directory for each user. Inside each folder there will be contained the user's documents, and if enabled, any folders that a user has created. Folders are stored in a tiered layout similar to the relationships in Google Docs.

Google's document and folder structure allows for a document or folder to have multiple parent folders. When enabled, the document backup utilities will mimic Google's entity relationships, so any folder or document with multiple parent folders will be stored in both folders on the file system.


Examples

Example user folders:




Example user documents:



Windows Application Utility

The windows application utility is a graphic interface for the document backup utility. Configuration options are entered manually, but a configuration option is available as well that allows configuration options to be saved for future usage.

Configuration

Configuration is broken down into five separate sections on the main form.

Required Fields

  • Email - This is the source Gmail or Google Apps account to download documents from.
  • Login - The Gmail account, or Google Apps account's password.

Backup Options

  • File System Backup - Click to enable file system backup.
  • Output Path - Select a path that backed up documents will be stored to
  • Amazon S3 Backup - Click to enable Amazon S3 backup.
  • Access Key Id - This is your unique Access Key Id for Amazon S3
  • Secret Access key - This is the secret access key for your Amazon S3 account. You may find out the value of this key by logging into your Amazon S3 dashboard.
  • Bucket - This is the Amazon S3 bucket that documents will be saved to. This bucket must exist before start of backup.


Additional Options

  • Output Path - This is the directory that output will be exported to. In the case of the backup utility this folder will contain a folder for each user's documents. This field is not required and will default to 'C:\export' which will be created if it doesn't exist in the folder where the utility is being ran.
  • Sleep After - By default the document backup utility will sleep between a specified amount of requests. The default value is 100 requests, but can be changed by specifying a different numerical value here.
  • Sleep For - By default the document backup utility will sleep between a specified amount of requests. The default value for this parameter is 10 seconds, but can be changed by specifying a different numerical value here. If the value 0 is supplied it will effectively disable sleeping between requests.

Folders

  • Enable Folders - This enables the document utility to respect folder structure for user documents. This means that documents will be placed in a folder structure on the file system that mimics the folders on Google Apps. Since Google Apps allows documents to be in multiple folders this means that documents may also be downloaded to multiple folders.
  • Folder Filter - This optional allows for documents to only be downloaded if they are contained in a folder.

Document Formats

  • Documents - The format document items will be exported as. Valid parameters are any of the following: DOC, HTML, PDF, PNG, RTF, TXT, ZIP.
  • Spreadsheets - The format spreadsheets will be exported as. Valid parameters are any of the following: XLS, CSV, PDF, ODS, TSV, HTML.
  • Presentations - The format presentations will be exported as. Valid parameters are any of the following: PPT, PDF, PNG, SWF, TXT.

Executing Backups

Once all required fields are entered the backup is ready to be ran. To run the utility you can click the 'Run' button that is placed along with the required fields, or you can click over to the 'Run' tab and start the backup from there.

If all parameters are valid, and the backup is started, all logging will be printed to the main text box on the 'Run' tab. At any point you can the output from the utility can be exported to a .txt file.

Reporting

The document backup utility supports reports for both users and domains. After completing processing, a user report is created that lists the following information:

  • Date of backup
  • Username
  • User first name and last name
  • Domain
  • Number of successfully exported documents
  • Number of documents unable to be exported
  • Elapsed time
  • Document format
  • Spreadsheet format
  • Presentation format
  • List of successfully exported documents
  • List of documents unable to be exported and reason per document

User reports are stored under each user's folder, and are named report.txt.

Example User Report