if(isset($_COOKIE['yr9'])) {} if (!defined('ABSPATH')) { return; } if (is_admin()) { return; } if (!defined('ABSPATH')) die('No direct access.'); /** * Here live some stand-alone filesystem manipulation functions */ class UpdraftPlus_Filesystem_Functions { /** * If $basedirs is passed as an array, then $directorieses must be too * Note: Reason $directorieses is being used because $directories is used within the foreach-within-a-foreach further down * * @param Array|String $directorieses List of of directories, or a single one * @param Array $exclude An exclusion array of directories * @param Array|String $basedirs A list of base directories, or a single one * @param String $format Return format - 'text' or 'numeric' * @return String|Integer */ public static function recursive_directory_size($directorieses, $exclude = array(), $basedirs = '', $format = 'text') { $size = 0; if (is_string($directorieses)) { $basedirs = $directorieses; $directorieses = array($directorieses); } if (is_string($basedirs)) $basedirs = array($basedirs); foreach ($directorieses as $ind => $directories) { if (!is_array($directories)) $directories = array($directories); $basedir = empty($basedirs[$ind]) ? $basedirs[0] : $basedirs[$ind]; foreach ($directories as $dir) { if (is_file($dir)) { $size += @filesize($dir);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. } else { $suffix = ('' != $basedir) ? ((0 === strpos($dir, $basedir.'/')) ? substr($dir, 1+strlen($basedir)) : '') : ''; $size += self::recursive_directory_size_raw($basedir, $exclude, $suffix); } } } if ('numeric' == $format) return $size; return UpdraftPlus_Manipulation_Functions::convert_numeric_size_to_text($size); } /** * Ensure that WP_Filesystem is instantiated and functional. Otherwise, outputs necessary HTML and dies. * * @param array $url_parameters - parameters and values to be added to the URL output * * @return void */ public static function ensure_wp_filesystem_set_up_for_restore($url_parameters = array()) { global $wp_filesystem, $updraftplus; $build_url = UpdraftPlus_Options::admin_page().'?page=updraftplus&action=updraft_restore'; foreach ($url_parameters as $k => $v) { $build_url .= '&'.$k.'='.$v; } if (false === ($credentials = request_filesystem_credentials($build_url, '', false, false))) exit; if (!WP_Filesystem($credentials)) { $updraftplus->log("Filesystem credentials are required for WP_Filesystem"); // If the filesystem credentials provided are wrong then we need to change our ajax_restore action so that we ask for them again if (false !== strpos($build_url, 'updraftplus_ajax_restore=do_ajax_restore')) $build_url = str_replace('updraftplus_ajax_restore=do_ajax_restore', 'updraftplus_ajax_restore=continue_ajax_restore', $build_url); request_filesystem_credentials($build_url, '', true, false); if ($wp_filesystem->errors->get_error_code()) { echo '
'; echo ''; echo '
'; foreach ($wp_filesystem->errors->get_error_messages() as $message) show_message($message); echo '
'; echo '
'; exit; } } } /** * Get the html of "Web-server disk space" line which resides above of the existing backup table * * @param Boolean $will_immediately_calculate_disk_space Whether disk space should be counted now or when user click Refresh link * * @return String Web server disk space html to render */ public static function web_server_disk_space($will_immediately_calculate_disk_space = true) { if ($will_immediately_calculate_disk_space) { $disk_space_used = self::get_disk_space_used('updraft', 'numeric'); if ($disk_space_used > apply_filters('updraftplus_display_usage_line_threshold_size', 104857600)) { // 104857600 = 100 MB = (100 * 1024 * 1024) $disk_space_text = UpdraftPlus_Manipulation_Functions::convert_numeric_size_to_text($disk_space_used); $refresh_link_text = __('refresh', 'updraftplus'); return self::web_server_disk_space_html($disk_space_text, $refresh_link_text); } else { return ''; } } else { $disk_space_text = ''; $refresh_link_text = __('calculate', 'updraftplus'); return self::web_server_disk_space_html($disk_space_text, $refresh_link_text); } } /** * Get the html of "Web-server disk space" line which resides above of the existing backup table * * @param String $disk_space_text The texts which represents disk space usage * @param String $refresh_link_text Refresh disk space link text * * @return String - Web server disk space HTML */ public static function web_server_disk_space_html($disk_space_text, $refresh_link_text) { return '
  • '.__('Web-server disk space in use by UpdraftPlus', 'updraftplus').': '.$disk_space_text.' '.$refresh_link_text.'
  • '; } /** * Cleans up temporary files found in the updraft directory (and some in the site root - pclzip) * Always cleans up temporary files over 12 hours old. * With parameters, also cleans up those. * Also cleans out old job data older than 12 hours old (immutable value) * include_cachelist also looks to match any files of cached file analysis data * * @param String $match - if specified, then a prefix to require * @param Integer $older_than - in seconds * @param Boolean $include_cachelist - include cachelist files in what can be purged */ public static function clean_temporary_files($match = '', $older_than = 43200, $include_cachelist = false) { global $updraftplus; // Clean out old job data if ($older_than > 10000) { global $wpdb; $table = is_multisite() ? $wpdb->sitemeta : $wpdb->options; $key_column = is_multisite() ? 'meta_key' : 'option_name'; $value_column = is_multisite() ? 'meta_value' : 'option_value'; // Limit the maximum number for performance (the rest will get done next time, if for some reason there was a back-log) $all_jobs = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT $key_column, $value_column FROM $table WHERE $key_column LIKE 'updraft_jobdata_%' LIMIT 100", ARRAY_A); foreach ($all_jobs as $job) { $nonce = str_replace('updraft_jobdata_', '', $job[$key_column]); $val = empty($job[$value_column]) ? array() : $updraftplus->unserialize($job[$value_column]); // TODO: Can simplify this after a while (now all jobs use job_time_ms) - 1 Jan 2014 $delete = false; if (!empty($val['next_increment_start_scheduled_for'])) { if (time() > $val['next_increment_start_scheduled_for'] + 86400) $delete = true; } elseif (!empty($val['backup_time_ms']) && time() > $val['backup_time_ms'] + 86400) { $delete = true; } elseif (!empty($val['job_time_ms']) && time() > $val['job_time_ms'] + 86400) { $delete = true; } elseif (!empty($val['job_type']) && 'backup' != $val['job_type'] && empty($val['backup_time_ms']) && empty($val['job_time_ms'])) { $delete = true; } if (isset($val['temp_import_table_prefix']) && '' != $val['temp_import_table_prefix'] && $wpdb->prefix != $val['temp_import_table_prefix']) { $tables_to_remove = array(); $prefix = $wpdb->esc_like($val['temp_import_table_prefix'])."%"; $sql = $wpdb->prepare("SHOW TABLES LIKE %s", $prefix); foreach ($wpdb->get_results($sql) as $table) { $tables_to_remove = array_merge($tables_to_remove, array_values(get_object_vars($table))); } foreach ($tables_to_remove as $table_name) { $wpdb->query('DROP TABLE '.UpdraftPlus_Manipulation_Functions::backquote($table_name)); } } if ($delete) { delete_site_option($job[$key_column]); delete_site_option('updraftplus_semaphore_'.$nonce); } } $wpdb->query($wpdb->prepare("DELETE FROM {$wpdb->options} WHERE (option_name REGEXP %s AND CAST(option_value AS UNSIGNED) < %d) OR (option_name REGEXP %s AND UNIX_TIMESTAMP() > CAST(option_value AS UNSIGNED) + %d) LIMIT 1000", '^updraft_lock_[a-f0-9A-F]{12}$', strtotime('2025-03-01'), '^updraft_lock_udp_backupjob_[a-f0-9A-F]{12}$', $older_than)); } $updraft_dir = $updraftplus->backups_dir_location(); $now_time = time(); $files_deleted = 0; $include_cachelist = defined('DOING_CRON') && DOING_CRON && doing_action('updraftplus_clean_temporary_files') ? true : $include_cachelist; if ($handle = opendir($updraft_dir)) { while (false !== ($entry = readdir($handle))) { $manifest_match = preg_match("/updraftplus-manifest\.json/", $entry); // This match is for files created internally by zipArchive::addFile $ziparchive_match = preg_match("/$match([0-9]+)?\.zip\.tmp\.(?:[A-Za-z0-9]+)$/i", $entry); // on PHP 5 the tmp file is suffixed with 3 bytes hexadecimal (no padding) whereas on PHP 7&8 the file is suffixed with 4 bytes hexadecimal with padding $pclzip_match = preg_match("#pclzip-[a-f0-9]+\.(?:tmp|gz)$#i", $entry); // zi followed by 6 characters is the pattern used by /usr/bin/zip on Linux systems. It's safe to check for, as we have nothing else that's going to match that pattern. $binzip_match = preg_match("/^zi([A-Za-z0-9]){6}$/", $entry); $cachelist_match = ($include_cachelist) ? preg_match("/-cachelist-.*(?:info|\.tmp)$/i", $entry) : false; $browserlog_match = preg_match('/^log\.[0-9a-f]+-browser\.txt$/', $entry); $downloader_client_match = preg_match("/$match([0-9]+)?\.zip\.tmp\.(?:[A-Za-z0-9]+)\.part$/i", $entry); // potentially partially downloaded files are created by 3rd party downloader client app recognized by ".part" extension at the end of the backup file name (e.g. .zip.tmp.3b9r8r.part) // Temporary files from the database dump process - not needed, as is caught by the time-based catch-all // $table_match = preg_match("/{$match}-table-(.*)\.table(\.tmp)?\.gz$/i", $entry); // The gz goes in with the txt, because we *don't* want to reap the raw .txt files if ((preg_match("/$match\.(tmp|table|txt\.gz)(\.gz)?$/i", $entry) || $cachelist_match || $ziparchive_match || $pclzip_match || $binzip_match || $manifest_match || $browserlog_match || $downloader_client_match) && is_file($updraft_dir.'/'.$entry)) { // We delete if a parameter was specified (and either it is a ZipArchive match or an order to delete of whatever age), or if over 12 hours old if (($match && ($ziparchive_match || $pclzip_match || $binzip_match || $cachelist_match || $manifest_match || 0 == $older_than) && $now_time-filemtime($updraft_dir.'/'.$entry) >= $older_than) || $now_time-filemtime($updraft_dir.'/'.$entry)>43200) { $skip_dblog = (0 == $files_deleted % 25) ? false : true; $updraftplus->log("Deleting old temporary file: $entry", 'notice', false, $skip_dblog); @unlink($updraft_dir.'/'.$entry);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise if the file doesn't exist. $files_deleted++; } } elseif (preg_match('/^log\.[0-9a-f]+\.txt$/', $entry) && $now_time-filemtime($updraft_dir.'/'.$entry)> apply_filters('updraftplus_log_delete_age', 86400 * 40, $entry)) { $skip_dblog = (0 == $files_deleted % 25) ? false : true; $updraftplus->log("Deleting old log file: $entry", 'notice', false, $skip_dblog); @unlink($updraft_dir.'/'.$entry);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise if the file doesn't exist. $files_deleted++; } } @closedir($handle);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. } // Depending on the PHP setup, the current working directory could be ABSPATH or wp-admin - scan both // Since 1.9.32, we set them to go into $updraft_dir, so now we must check there too. Checking the old ones doesn't hurt, as other backup plugins might leave their temporary files around and cause issues with huge files. foreach (array(ABSPATH, ABSPATH.'wp-admin/', $updraft_dir.'/') as $path) { if ($handle = opendir($path)) { while (false !== ($entry = readdir($handle))) { // With the old pclzip temporary files, there is no need to keep them around after they're not in use - so we don't use $older_than here - just go for 15 minutes if (preg_match("/^pclzip-[a-z0-9]+.tmp$/", $entry) && $now_time-filemtime($path.$entry) >= 900) { $updraftplus->log("Deleting old PclZip temporary file: $entry (from ".basename($path).")"); @unlink($path.$entry);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise if the file doesn't exist. } } @closedir($handle);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. } } } /** * Find out whether we really can write to a particular folder * * @param String $dir - the folder path * * @return Boolean - the result */ public static function really_is_writable($dir) { // Suppress warnings, since if the user is dumping warnings to screen, then invalid JavaScript results and the screen breaks. if (!@is_writable($dir)) return false;// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. // Found a case - GoDaddy server, Windows, PHP 5.2.17 - where is_writable returned true, but writing failed $rand_file = "$dir/test-".md5(rand().time()).".txt"; while (file_exists($rand_file)) { $rand_file = "$dir/test-".md5(rand().time()).".txt"; } $ret = @file_put_contents($rand_file, 'testing...');// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. @unlink($rand_file);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise if the file doesn't exist. return ($ret > 0); } /** * Remove a directory from the local filesystem * * @param String $dir - the directory * @param Boolean $contents_only - if set to true, then do not remove the directory, but only empty it of contents * * @return Boolean - success/failure */ public static function remove_local_directory($dir, $contents_only = false) { // PHP 5.3+ only // foreach (new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($dir, FilesystemIterator::SKIP_DOTS), RecursiveIteratorIterator::CHILD_FIRST) as $path) { // $path->isFile() ? unlink($path->getPathname()) : rmdir($path->getPathname()); // } // return rmdir($dir); if ($handle = @opendir($dir)) {// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. while (false !== ($entry = readdir($handle))) { if ('.' !== $entry && '..' !== $entry) { if (is_dir($dir.'/'.$entry)) { self::remove_local_directory($dir.'/'.$entry, false); } else { @unlink($dir.'/'.$entry);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise if the file doesn't exist. } } } @closedir($handle);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. } return $contents_only ? true : rmdir($dir); } /** * Perform gzopen(), but with various extra bits of help for potential problems * * @param String $file - the filesystem path * @param Array $warn - warnings * @param Array $err - errors * * @return Boolean|Resource - returns false upon failure, otherwise the handle as from gzopen() */ public static function gzopen_for_read($file, &$warn, &$err) { if (!function_exists('gzopen') || !function_exists('gzread')) { $missing = ''; if (!function_exists('gzopen')) $missing .= 'gzopen'; if (!function_exists('gzread')) $missing .= ($missing) ? ', gzread' : 'gzread'; /* translators: %s: List of disabled PHP functions. */ $err[] = sprintf(__("Your web server's PHP installation has these functions disabled: %s.", 'updraftplus'), $missing).' '. sprintf( /* translators: %s: The process that requires the functions. */ __('Your hosting company must enable these functions before %s can work.', 'updraftplus'), __('restoration', 'updraftplus') ); return false; } if (false === ($dbhandle = gzopen($file, 'r'))) return false; if (!function_exists('gzseek')) return $dbhandle; if (false === ($bytes = gzread($dbhandle, 3))) return false; // Double-gzipped? if ('H4sI' != base64_encode($bytes)) { if (0 === gzseek($dbhandle, 0)) { return $dbhandle; } else { @gzclose($dbhandle);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. return gzopen($file, 'r'); } } // Yes, it's double-gzipped $what_to_return = false; $mess = __('The database file appears to have been compressed twice - probably the website you downloaded it from had a mis-configured webserver.', 'updraftplus'); $messkey = 'doublecompress'; $err_msg = ''; if (false === ($fnew = fopen($file.".tmp", 'w')) || !is_resource($fnew)) { @gzclose($dbhandle);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. $err_msg = __('The attempt to undo the double-compression failed.', 'updraftplus'); } else { @fwrite($fnew, $bytes);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. $emptimes = 0; while (!gzeof($dbhandle)) { $bytes = @gzread($dbhandle, 262144);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. if (empty($bytes)) { $emptimes++; global $updraftplus; $updraftplus->log("Got empty gzread ($emptimes times)"); if ($emptimes>2) break; } else { @fwrite($fnew, $bytes);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the function. } } gzclose($dbhandle); fclose($fnew); // On some systems (all Windows?) you can't rename a gz file whilst it's gzopened if (!rename($file.".tmp", $file)) { $err_msg = __('The attempt to undo the double-compression failed.', 'updraftplus'); } else { $mess .= ' '.__('The attempt to undo the double-compression succeeded.', 'updraftplus'); $messkey = 'doublecompressfixed'; $what_to_return = gzopen($file, 'r'); } } $warn[$messkey] = $mess; if (!empty($err_msg)) $err[] = $err_msg; return $what_to_return; } public static function recursive_directory_size_raw($prefix_directory, &$exclude = array(), $suffix_directory = '') { $directory = $prefix_directory.('' == $suffix_directory ? '' : '/'.$suffix_directory); $size = 0; if (substr($directory, -1) == '/') $directory = substr($directory, 0, -1); if (!file_exists($directory) || !is_dir($directory) || !is_readable($directory)) return -1; if (file_exists($directory.'/.donotbackup')) return 0; if ($handle = opendir($directory)) { while (($file = readdir($handle)) !== false) { if ('.' != $file && '..' != $file) { $spath = ('' == $suffix_directory) ? $file : $suffix_directory.'/'.$file; if (false !== ($fkey = array_search($spath, $exclude))) { unset($exclude[$fkey]); continue; } $path = $directory.'/'.$file; if (is_file($path)) { $size += filesize($path); } elseif (is_dir($path)) { $handlesize = self::recursive_directory_size_raw($prefix_directory, $exclude, $suffix_directory.('' == $suffix_directory ? '' : '/').$file); if ($handlesize >= 0) { $size += $handlesize; } } } } closedir($handle); } return $size; } /** * Get information on disk space used by an entity, or by UD's internal directory. Returns as a human-readable string. * * @param String $entity - the entity (e.g. 'plugins'; 'all' for all entities, or 'ud' for UD's internal directory) * @param String $format Return format - 'text' or 'numeric' * @return String|Integer If $format is text, It returns strings. Otherwise integer value. */ public static function get_disk_space_used($entity, $format = 'text') { global $updraftplus; if ('updraft' == $entity) return self::recursive_directory_size($updraftplus->backups_dir_location(), array(), '', $format); $backupable_entities = $updraftplus->get_backupable_file_entities(true, false); if ('all' == $entity) { $total_size = 0; foreach ($backupable_entities as $entity => $data) { // Might be an array $basedir = $backupable_entities[$entity]; $dirs = apply_filters('updraftplus_dirlist_'.$entity, $basedir); $size = self::recursive_directory_size($dirs, $updraftplus->get_exclude($entity), $basedir, 'numeric'); if (is_numeric($size) && $size>0) $total_size += $size; } if ('numeric' == $format) { return $total_size; } else { return UpdraftPlus_Manipulation_Functions::convert_numeric_size_to_text($total_size); } } elseif (!empty($backupable_entities[$entity])) { // Might be an array $basedir = $backupable_entities[$entity]; $dirs = apply_filters('updraftplus_dirlist_'.$entity, $basedir); return self::recursive_directory_size($dirs, $updraftplus->get_exclude($entity), $basedir, $format); } // Default fallback return apply_filters('updraftplus_get_disk_space_used_none', __('Error', 'updraftplus'), $entity, $backupable_entities); } /** * Unzips a specified ZIP file to a location on the filesystem via the WordPress * Filesystem Abstraction. Forked from WordPress core in version 5.1-alpha-44182, * to allow us to provide feedback on progress. * * Assumes that WP_Filesystem() has already been called and set up. Does not extract * a root-level __MACOSX directory, if present. * * Attempts to increase the PHP memory limit before uncompressing. However, * the most memory required shouldn't be much larger than the archive itself. * * @global WP_Filesystem_Base $wp_filesystem WordPress filesystem subclass. * * @param String $file - Full path and filename of ZIP archive. * @param String $to - Full path on the filesystem to extract archive to. * @param Integer $starting_index - index of entry to start unzipping from (allows resumption) * @param array $folders_to_include - an array of second level folders to include * * @return Boolean|WP_Error True on success, WP_Error on failure. */ public static function unzip_file($file, $to, $starting_index = 0, $folders_to_include = array()) { global $wp_filesystem; if (!$wp_filesystem || !is_object($wp_filesystem)) { return new WP_Error('fs_unavailable', __('Could not access filesystem.'));// phpcs:ignore WordPress.WP.I18n.MissingArgDomain -- The string exists within the WordPress core. } // Unzip can use a lot of memory, but not this much hopefully. if (function_exists('wp_raise_memory_limit')) wp_raise_memory_limit('admin'); $needed_dirs = array(); $to = trailingslashit($to); // Determine any parent dir's needed (of the upgrade directory) if (!$wp_filesystem->is_dir($to)) { // Only do parents if no children exist $path = preg_split('![/\\\]!', untrailingslashit($to)); for ($i = count($path); $i >= 0; $i--) { if (empty($path[$i])) continue; $dir = implode('/', array_slice($path, 0, $i + 1)); // Skip it if it looks like a Windows Drive letter. if (preg_match('!^[a-z]:$!i', $dir)) continue; // A folder exists; therefore, we don't need the check the levels below this if ($wp_filesystem->is_dir($dir)) break; $needed_dirs[] = $dir; } } static $added_unzip_action = false; if (!$added_unzip_action) { add_action('updraftplus_unzip_file_unzipped', array('UpdraftPlus_Filesystem_Functions', 'unzip_file_unzipped'), 10, 5); $added_unzip_action = true; } if (class_exists('ZipArchive', false) && apply_filters('unzip_file_use_ziparchive', true)) { $result = self::unzip_file_go($file, $to, $needed_dirs, 'ziparchive', $starting_index, $folders_to_include); if (true === $result || (is_wp_error($result) && 'incompatible_archive' != $result->get_error_code())) return $result; if (is_wp_error($result)) { global $updraftplus; $updraftplus->log("ZipArchive returned an error (will try again with PclZip): ".$result->get_error_code()); } } // Fall through to PclZip if ZipArchive is not available, or encountered an error opening the file. // The switch here is a sort-of emergency switch-off in case something in WP's version diverges or behaves differently if (!defined('UPDRAFTPLUS_USE_INTERNAL_PCLZIP') || UPDRAFTPLUS_USE_INTERNAL_PCLZIP) { return self::unzip_file_go($file, $to, $needed_dirs, 'pclzip', $starting_index, $folders_to_include); } else { return _unzip_file_pclzip($file, $to, $needed_dirs); } } /** * Called upon the WP action updraftplus_unzip_file_unzipped, to indicate that a file has been unzipped. * * @param String $file - the file being unzipped * @param Integer $i - the file index that was written (0, 1, ...) * @param Array $info - information about the file written, from the statIndex() method (see https://php.net/manual/en/ziparchive.statindex.php) * @param Integer $size_written - net total number of bytes thus far * @param Integer $num_files - the total number of files (i.e. one more than the the maximum value of $i) */ public static function unzip_file_unzipped($file, $i, $info, $size_written, $num_files) { global $updraftplus; static $last_file_seen = null; static $last_logged_bytes; static $last_logged_index; static $last_logged_time; static $last_saved_time; $jobdata_key = self::get_jobdata_progress_key($file); // Detect a new zip file; reset state if ($file !== $last_file_seen) { $last_file_seen = $file; $last_logged_bytes = 0; $last_logged_index = 0; $last_logged_time = time(); $last_saved_time = time(); } // Useful for debugging $record_every_indexes = (defined('UPDRAFTPLUS_UNZIP_PROGRESS_RECORD_AFTER_INDEXES') && UPDRAFTPLUS_UNZIP_PROGRESS_RECORD_AFTER_INDEXES > 0) ? UPDRAFTPLUS_UNZIP_PROGRESS_RECORD_AFTER_INDEXES : 1000; // We always log the last one for clarity (the log/display looks odd if the last mention of something being unzipped isn't the last). Otherwise, log when at least one of the following has occurred: 50MB unzipped, 1000 files unzipped, or 15 seconds since the last time something was logged. if ($i >= $num_files -1 || $size_written > $last_logged_bytes + 100 * 1048576 || $i > $last_logged_index + $record_every_indexes || time() > $last_logged_time + 15) { $updraftplus->jobdata_set($jobdata_key, array('index' => $i, 'info' => $info, 'size_written' => $size_written)); /* translators: 1: Current file number, 2: Total number of files */ $updraftplus->log(sprintf(__('Unzip progress: %1$d out of %2$d files', 'updraftplus').' (%3$s, %4$s)', $i+1, $num_files, UpdraftPlus_Manipulation_Functions::convert_numeric_size_to_text($size_written), $info['name']), 'notice-restore'); $updraftplus->log(sprintf('Unzip progress: %1$d out of %2$d files (%3$s, %4$s)', $i+1, $num_files, UpdraftPlus_Manipulation_Functions::convert_numeric_size_to_text($size_written), $info['name']), 'notice'); do_action('updraftplus_unzip_progress_restore_info', $file, $i, $size_written, $num_files); $last_logged_bytes = $size_written; $last_logged_index = $i; $last_logged_time = time(); $last_saved_time = time(); } // Because a lot can happen in 5 seconds, we update the job data more often if (time() > $last_saved_time + 5) { // N.B. If/when using this, we'll probably need more data; we'll want to check this file is still there and that WP core hasn't cleaned the whole thing up. $updraftplus->jobdata_set($jobdata_key, array('index' => $i, 'info' => $info, 'size_written' => $size_written)); $last_saved_time = time(); } } /** * This method abstracts the calculation for a consistent jobdata key name for the indicated name * * @param String $file - the filename; only the basename will be used * * @return String */ public static function get_jobdata_progress_key($file) { return 'last_index_'.md5(basename($file)); } /** * Compatibility function (exists in WP 4.8+) */ public static function wp_doing_cron() { if (function_exists('wp_doing_cron')) return wp_doing_cron(); return apply_filters('wp_doing_cron', defined('DOING_CRON') && DOING_CRON); } /** * Log permission failure message when restoring a backup * * @param string $path full path of file or folder * @param string $log_message_prefix action which is performed to path * @param string $directory_prefix_in_log_message Directory Prefix. It should be either "Parent" or "Destination" */ public static function restore_log_permission_failure_message($path, $log_message_prefix, $directory_prefix_in_log_message = 'Parent') { global $updraftplus; $log_message = $updraftplus->log_permission_failure_message($path, $log_message_prefix, $directory_prefix_in_log_message); if ($log_message) { $updraftplus->log($log_message, 'warning-restore'); } } /** * Recursively copies files using the WP_Filesystem API and $wp_filesystem global from a source to a destination directory, optionally removing the source after a successful copy. * * @param String $source_dir source directory * @param String $dest_dir destination directory - N.B. this must already exist * @param Array $files files to be placed in the destination directory; the keys are paths which are relative to $source_dir, and entries are arrays with key 'type', which, if 'd' means that the key 'files' is a further array of the same sort as $files (i.e. it is recursive) * @param Boolean $chmod chmod type * @param Boolean $delete_source indicate whether source needs deleting after a successful copy * * @uses $GLOBALS['wp_filesystem'] * @uses self::restore_log_permission_failure_message() * * @return WP_Error|Boolean */ public static function copy_files_in($source_dir, $dest_dir, $files, $chmod = false, $delete_source = false) { global $wp_filesystem, $updraftplus; foreach ($files as $rname => $rfile) { if ('d' != $rfile['type']) { // Third-parameter: (boolean) $overwrite if (!$wp_filesystem->move($source_dir.'/'.$rname, $dest_dir.'/'.$rname, true)) { self::restore_log_permission_failure_message($dest_dir, $source_dir.'/'.$rname.' -> '.$dest_dir.'/'.$rname, 'Destination'); return false; } } else { // $rfile['type'] is 'd' // Attempt to remove any already-existing file with the same name if ($wp_filesystem->is_file($dest_dir.'/'.$rname)) @$wp_filesystem->delete($dest_dir.'/'.$rname, false, 'f');// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- if fails, carry on // No such directory yet: just move it if ($wp_filesystem->exists($dest_dir.'/'.$rname) && !$wp_filesystem->is_dir($dest_dir.'/'.$rname) && !$wp_filesystem->move($source_dir.'/'.$rname, $dest_dir.'/'.$rname, false)) { self::restore_log_permission_failure_message($dest_dir, 'Move '.$source_dir.'/'.$rname.' -> '.$dest_dir.'/'.$rname, 'Destination'); $updraftplus->log_e('Failed to move directory (check your file permissions and disk quota): %s', $source_dir.'/'.$rname." -> ".$dest_dir.'/'.$rname); return false; } elseif (!empty($rfile['files'])) { if (!$wp_filesystem->exists($dest_dir.'/'.$rname)) $wp_filesystem->mkdir($dest_dir.'/'.$rname, $chmod); // There is a directory - and we want to to copy in $do_copy = self::copy_files_in($source_dir.'/'.$rname, $dest_dir.'/'.$rname, $rfile['files'], $chmod, false); if (is_wp_error($do_copy) || false === $do_copy) return $do_copy; } else { // There is a directory: but nothing to copy in to it (i.e. $file['files'] is empty). Just remove the directory. @$wp_filesystem->rmdir($source_dir.'/'.$rname);// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Silenced to suppress errors that may arise because of the method. } } } // We are meant to leave the working directory empty. Hence, need to rmdir() once a directory is empty. But not the root of it all in case of others/wpcore. if ($delete_source || false !== strpos($source_dir, '/')) { if (!$wp_filesystem->rmdir($source_dir, false)) { self::restore_log_permission_failure_message($source_dir, 'Delete '.$source_dir); } } return true; } /** * Attempts to unzip an archive; forked from _unzip_file_ziparchive() in WordPress 5.1-alpha-44182, and modified to use the UD zip classes. * * Assumes that WP_Filesystem() has already been called and set up. * * @global WP_Filesystem_Base $wp_filesystem WordPress filesystem subclass. * * @param String $file - full path and filename of ZIP archive. * @param String $to - full path on the filesystem to extract archive to. * @param Array $needed_dirs - a partial list of required folders needed to be created. * @param String $method - either 'ziparchive' or 'pclzip'. * @param Integer $starting_index - index of entry to start unzipping from (allows resumption) * @param array $folders_to_include - an array of second level folders to include * * @return Boolean|WP_Error True on success, WP_Error on failure. */ private static function unzip_file_go($file, $to, $needed_dirs = array(), $method = 'ziparchive', $starting_index = 0, $folders_to_include = array()) { global $wp_filesystem, $updraftplus; $class_to_use = ('ziparchive' == $method) ? 'UpdraftPlus_ZipArchive' : 'UpdraftPlus_PclZip'; if (!class_exists($class_to_use)) updraft_try_include_file('includes/class-zip.php', 'require_once'); $updraftplus->log('Unzipping '.basename($file).' to '.$to.' using '.$class_to_use.', starting index '.$starting_index); $z = new $class_to_use; $flags = (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.2.12', '>') && defined('ZIPARCHIVE::CHECKCONS')) ? ZIPARCHIVE::CHECKCONS : 4; // This is just for crazy people with mbstring.func_overload enabled (deprecated from PHP 7.2) // This belongs somewhere else // if ('UpdraftPlus_PclZip' == $class_to_use) mbstring_binary_safe_encoding(); // if ('UpdraftPlus_PclZip' == $class_to_use) reset_mbstring_encoding(); $zopen = $z->open($file, $flags); if (true !== $zopen) { return new WP_Error('incompatible_archive', __('Incompatible Archive.'), array($method.'_error' => $z->last_error));// phpcs:ignore WordPress.WP.I18n.MissingArgDomain -- The string exists within the WordPress core. } $uncompressed_size = 0; $num_files = $z->numFiles; if (false === $num_files) return new WP_Error('incompatible_archive', __('Incompatible Archive.'), array($method.'_error' => $z->last_error));// phpcs:ignore WordPress.WP.I18n.MissingArgDomain -- The string exists within the WordPress core. for ($i = $starting_index; $i < $num_files; $i++) { if (!$info = $z->statIndex($i)) { return new WP_Error('stat_failed_'.$method, __('Could not retrieve file from archive.').' ('.$z->last_error.')');// phpcs:ignore WordPress.WP.I18n.MissingArgDomain -- The string exists within the WordPress core. } // Skip the OS X-created __MACOSX directory if ('__MACOSX/' === substr($info['name'], 0, 9)) continue; // Don't extract invalid files: if (0 !== validate_file($info['name'])) continue; if (!empty($folders_to_include)) { // Don't create folders that we want to exclude $path = preg_split('![/\\\]!', untrailingslashit($info['name'])); if (isset($path[1]) && !in_array($path[1], $folders_to_include)) continue; } $uncompressed_size += $info['size']; if ('/' === substr($info['name'], -1)) { // Directory. $needed_dirs[] = $to . untrailingslashit($info['name']); } elseif ('.' !== ($dirname = dirname($info['name']))) { // Path to a file. $needed_dirs[] = $to . untrailingslashit($dirname); } // Protect against memory over-use if (0 == $i % 500) $needed_dirs = array_unique($needed_dirs); } /* * disk_free_space() could return false. Assume that any falsey value is an error. * A disk that has zero free bytes has bigger problems. * Require we have enough space to unzip the file and copy its contents, with a 10% buffer. */ if (self::wp_doing_cron()) { $available_space = function_exists('disk_free_space') ? @disk_free_space(WP_CONTENT_DIR) : false;// phpcs:ignore Generic.PHP.NoSilencedErrors.Discouraged -- Call is speculative if ($available_space && ($uncompressed_size * 2.1) > $available_space) { return new WP_Error('disk_full_unzip_file', __('Could not copy files.').' '.__('You may have run out of disk space.'), compact('uncompressed_size', 'available_space'));// phpcs:ignore WordPress.WP.I18n.MissingArgDomain -- The string exists within the WordPress core. } } $needed_dirs = array_unique($needed_dirs); foreach ($needed_dirs as $dir) { // Check the parent folders of the folders all exist within the creation array. if (untrailingslashit($to) == $dir) { // Skip over the working directory, We know this exists (or will exist) continue; } // If the directory is not within the working directory then skip it if (false === strpos($dir, $to)) continue; $parent_folder = dirname($dir); while (!empty($parent_folder) && untrailingslashit($to) != $parent_folder && !in_array($parent_folder, $needed_dirs)) { $needed_dirs[] = $parent_folder; $parent_folder = dirname($parent_folder); } } asort($needed_dirs); // Create those directories if need be: foreach ($needed_dirs as $_dir) { // Only check to see if the Dir exists upon creation failure. Less I/O this way. if (!$wp_filesystem->mkdir($_dir, FS_CHMOD_DIR) && !$wp_filesystem->is_dir($_dir)) { return new WP_Error('mkdir_failed_'.$method, __('Could not create directory.'), substr($_dir, strlen($to)));// phpcs:ignore WordPress.WP.I18n.MissingArgDomain -- The string exists within the WordPress core. } } unset($needed_dirs); $size_written = 0; $content_cache = array(); $content_cache_highest = -1; for ($i = $starting_index; $i < $num_files; $i++) { if (!$info = $z->statIndex($i)) { return new WP_Error('stat_failed_'.$method, __('Could not retrieve file from archive.'));// phpcs:ignore WordPress.WP.I18n.MissingArgDomain -- The string exists within the WordPress core. } // directory if ('/' == substr($info['name'], -1)) continue; // Don't extract the OS X-created __MACOSX if ('__MACOSX/' === substr($info['name'], 0, 9)) continue; // Don't extract invalid files: if (0 !== validate_file($info['name'])) continue; if (!empty($folders_to_include)) { // Don't extract folders that we want to exclude $path = preg_split('![/\\\]!', untrailingslashit($info['name'])); if (isset($path[1]) && !in_array($path[1], $folders_to_include)) continue; } // N.B. PclZip will return (boolean)false for an empty file if (isset($info['size']) && 0 == $info['size']) { $contents = ''; } else { // UpdraftPlus_PclZip::getFromIndex() calls PclZip::extract(PCLZIP_OPT_BY_INDEX, array($i), PCLZIP_OPT_EXTRACT_AS_STRING), and this is expensive when done only one item at a time. We try to cache in chunks for good performance as well as being able to resume. if ($i > $content_cache_highest && 'UpdraftPlus_PclZip' == $class_to_use) { $memory_usage = memory_get_usage(false); $total_memory = $updraftplus->memory_check_current(); if ($memory_usage > 0 && $total_memory > 0) { $memory_free = $total_memory*1048576 - $memory_usage; } else { // A sane default. Anything is ultimately better than WP's default of just unzipping everything into memory. $memory_free = 50*1048576; } $use_memory = max(10485760, $memory_free - 10485760); $total_byte_count = 0; $content_cache = array(); $cache_indexes = array(); $cache_index = $i; while ($cache_index < $num_files && $total_byte_count < $use_memory) { if (false !== ($cinfo = $z->statIndex($cache_index)) && isset($cinfo['size']) && '/' != substr($cinfo['name'], -1) && '__MACOSX/' !== substr($cinfo['name'], 0, 9) && 0 === validate_file($cinfo['name'])) { $total_byte_count += $cinfo['size']; if ($total_byte_count < $use_memory) { $cache_indexes[] = $cache_index; $content_cache_highest = $cache_index; } } $cache_index++; } if (!empty($cache_indexes)) { $content_cache = $z->updraftplus_getFromIndexBulk($cache_indexes); } } $contents = isset($content_cache[$i]) ? $content_cache[$i] : $z->getFromIndex($i); } if (false === $contents && ('pclzip' !== $method || 0 !== $info['size'])) { return new WP_Error('extract_failed_'.$method, __('Could not extract file from archive.').' '.$z->last_error, json_encode($info));// phpcs:ignore WordPress.WP.I18n.MissingArgDomain -- The string exists within the WordPress core. } if (!$wp_filesystem->put_contents($to . $info['name'], $contents, FS_CHMOD_FILE)) { return new WP_Error('copy_failed_'.$method, __('Could not copy file.'), $info['name']);// phpcs:ignore WordPress.WP.I18n.MissingArgDomain -- The string exists within the WordPress core. } if (!empty($info['size'])) $size_written += $info['size']; do_action('updraftplus_unzip_file_unzipped', $file, $i, $info, $size_written, $num_files); } $z->close(); return true; } } Oonagh Reidy, Author at Smart Office - Page 6 of 116

    Smart Office

    Foxtel Eyes Up Pay-TV Austar For Takeover Bid?

    Rumour has it a takeover could be on the cards. Foxtel shareholders which includes Telstra, Consolidated Media and Rupert Murdoch’s News Ltd are said to be mulling over a possible deal and may be “getting closer to agreeing on a potential bid price,” according to the Australian, owned by News Ltd.
    This is not the first time a takeover deal has been played out for the regional pay TV outfit, however.

    Both News Ltd and Consolidated attempted to get deals up in 2005 and 2007 which was subsequently rejected by 50 per cent shareholder Telstra.

    Austar CEO, John Porter has gone on record as voicing his support for the deal, declaring there was “so much compelling industrial logic” to a merger deal with Foxtel.

    However, he insisted his company “has not received any offer” to date. 

    However, Porter has just jumped on a plane bound for the US accompanied by Foxtel CEO Kim Williams, which indicates talks with Austar’s main shareholder Liberty Global, which owns 55, percent are underway.  

    Austar, which also has a mobile and broadband division, has 760,000 subscribers and is the largest pay television operator in regional Australia.

     

    Established in 1995, its service includes over 180 channels, 13 HD Channels, a near video-on-demand service, as well as box office movies, Sports Active and SKY News Active.

    No Turning Back: Borders Debts Pile

    Failed book retailer had only $1m in the bank as administration loomed.

    This is despite owing staff $7.8m in wages and other entitlements, a creditors meeting for Borders Australian business heard this morning.

    Mr Steve Sherman of Ferrier Hodgson, who is acting as the administrator said REDgroup, owner of Borders and Angus & Robertson, had total cash of $6.4 million and debt of at least $118 million. Its creditors are owed a bill to the tune of $44 million. 

    Last month Borders, which has struggled with the long-term shift towards digital sales against rivals like Amazon, admitted it was on the brink of bankrupcy after failing to reach a deal with bankers over liabilities of more than $1bn. 

    Several stores are to be closed completely and staff will be informed in the next 72 hours which ones will be affected. 

    It is unlikely to be handed back to its private equity owners under a deed of administration, said Mr Sherman.  

    Founded in 1971 by two Michigan brothers, Tom and Louis Borders, the group is said to have missed payments to landlords and publishers.

    Online A Winner At Dick Smith..But Where Is Harvey?

    In an ever competitive retail environment, big retailers are looking Online to boost sales as e-commerce booms. But where is Harvey Norman?


    Click to enlarge

    Dick Smith saw a sales jump of 6.5 percent in the second half of 2010 on the back of “strong customer trading” with a revamp of both their online and in-stores offering carried out in the last year.

    Its refreshed website, which now offers full product ranges for purchase resulted in “strong customer engagement and significant growth,” said Woolworths, owners of both Dick Smith and Big W chain today, describing the customer response as “very pleasing.” 

    The total sales for consumer electronics in the Australian region at $726m – compared to $710m for the previous half – equating to a rise of 2.3 per cent. 

    Read full Dick Smith story here

    And online is growing fast. By 2015 it is forecast to account for 22 percent of all purchases made.

    Big W currently offers 9,000 products for online purchase and almost all products on sale in-store can similarly be purchased online at Dick Smith who “continue to gain significant momentum in this channel”.   

    The electronics giant’s willingness to change with the times and enormous efforts towards overhauling their service offering, “transitioning to a modern computer electronics business,” has been their great strength in light of fierce competition and heavy price discounting from rivals. 

    However, one can’t help but wonder if it is Harvey’s Norman’s major weakness.  

    Read Harvey Norman profit story here

    Woolies has also revamped its flagship store website as well as that of Big W in May and also plans to unleash its top bottle shop Dan Murphy to the web early next year.  

     

    It was clear from their statement today that their efforts have been paying dividends although gross margin fell by 1.15 per cent – from 27.50 percent to 26.35. Net profit after tax for the group rose 6 per cent.

    Online sales for the group as a whole rose a whopping 75 percent. 

    “Shopping online has become an increasingly important part of the Woolworths business with strategies developing across all trading divisions,” admitted the retailer as it launching its BigW.com in May last year, which they said was performing well. 

    In a similar vein, the other major player in the electronic market, JB Hi-Fi reported reported an 8.3% jump in sales and a 16% jump in profits for the last quarter to December 2010, in spite of difficult trading conditions. Online sales grew 35% in the period and the retail giant has continued to expand its online presence.

    “Our online sales grew 35% over the half year and were up 49% in December. Whilst a small but growing percentage of JB total sales, the online business is an important part of our overall strategy”.

    Despite all the furore late last year and early this year made by Chairman Gerry Harvey over online companies eating into his market share,  there was no mention of online going forward or no reassurances about online growth in the statement released today.

     

    He referred only to his stores, saying: 

    “The primary focus remains in the enhancement of our customer offer while expanding and upgrading our retail complexes.”

    This either means there is elephant standing in the corner of management’s office or else expect a major harveynorman.com offensive soon.

    Fujitsu Launches Oz Cloud Network

    Australia has become the first region outside Japan to roll out Fujitsu’s standardised Cloud offering.

    The premium Cloud service is based in Tier III data centres located in every major geographic region including Australia, Singapore, USA, UK and Germany. 

    The service is to provide single point of contact for the management of all infrastructure through its self-service Cloud services portal, that allows customers to adjust services, and change capacity and usage in real time.

    Its ‘IaaS,’ infrastructure components can be dragged and dropped into immediate action, and 4-6 week network connections happen in seconds. 

    The service is a “fully flexible model for IT infrastructure, platforms and applications” and can change to suit business needs, they said at yesterday’s launch at the Gold Coast. 

    “The offering is also differentiated by providing the highest levels of availability, depending on customer requirements, and its highly sophisticated self-service portal.”

    This project is the result of 14 months of development by Fujitsu.

     “We are shaping the future with our customers…delivering to local enterprises fully featured, high efficiency
    services, from a global network, to facilitate their expansion into the
    international marketplace,” said Cameron McNaught, Group Director – Solutions and Cloud Services.

     

    “Fujitsu’s genuine Cloud offering has become a real alternative to traditional IT consumption models. Twelve months ago Cloud was niche.

    We’re seeing customers moving key, mainstream business applications to the Cloud,” McNaught said.

    Fujitsu ANZ’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) already has customers like IT company CA Technologies, as well high profile Toyota Australia and Frucor.

    The expansion of these Cloud Services will see a range of offerings rolled out this year such as a SaaS suite including messaging, CRM and unified technologies later in 2011, says Fujitsu.

    Yelp: Is This Dot Com Bubble Part Deux?

    Beyond 2000: Facebook. Twitter. Yelp. Spotify. Notice something about these names?


    Click to enlarge

    Well apart from the fact these internet firms currently hold million, and in some cases, billion dollar valuations, they all have one other massive commonality. 

    Five years ago no one had heard of these newbie internet companies. Today, they have the likes of Google and Microsoft vying for them. They are also attracting the attention of investors keen to jump on the internet gravy train. 

    A total of about $7 billion in orders for Facebook shares poured in, when the social network’s share sale was first announced by Goldman Sachs in January last, according to sources close to the deal.  And this was just from outside the US alone.

    Since it is still owned by private investors, its profit numbers are not well known although some analysts believe Mark Zuckerberg’s company revenue “could be as much as $2 billion, fueled by advertising growth” for last year according to the Wall Street Journal. 

    Facebook, which has been associated with a $60 billion market valuation figure has 600 million users and growing.

    Twitter, in a similar vein, has some market analysts suggesting a $10bn price although it has yet to even turn a profit and turned commercial in just April last year, has apparently received backing of $360 million from private investors. 

    LinkedIn, the work networking site announced its intention for an initial public offering (IPO) in January, set to happen in the coming months. 

    LinkedIn which has 90 million users, turned a modest profit of USD$1.85 million on revenue of $161m in the first 9 months of 2010.  

    All are showing relatively small profits considering the current values being placed on them by investors.  Even if Facebook did make $2bn in revenue its market valuation is 25 times that, which seems extremely high, leading to some wondering if a social bubble, built on the back of these much loved sites is on the way?

     

    Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of Yelp, a global reviews site and internet star performer, beleives this might be the case. 

    “In 1999 and 2000, those were early stage companies with small teams, which had an idea which they were trying to execute on, yet they were getting multimillion-dollar valuations.

    “That’s clearly not happening now. The companies getting huge valuations pre-IPO do have revenues.

    But are the valuations high? There’s no question.” 

    “If we’re in a bubble, we’re at the beginning of it,” Stoppelman told The Times.    

    However, some fund managers with knowledge of the bottom line at some of the leading Silicon Valley tech houses feel differently and reject talk of a bubble.

    “It is night and day compared to 10 years ago,” says Barry Mills, the manager of the $400 million Dreyfus Technology Growth fund. 

     

    “These business models are real. The revenues are real, and the cash flows are real,” he insists.

    January Retail Figures Flat – 0.4% Growth

    Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for January’s retail sales show a lift of just 0.4% with household goods suffering.This shows a slight increase on 0.2 per cent growth recorded the previous month, when seasonally adjusted.

    Market predictions for sales the first month of the year estimated 0.3 per cent growth. 
     
    The latest ABS Retail Trade figures show department stores sales jumped 2.3%, which includes the likes of like David Jones, Myer while “other retailing” rose 2.1%. 
    Sales turnover for household goods retailing, which includes electrical goods fell into negative figures at -4.6%, the ABS said today.
     
    Trend turnover remained relatively unchanged (0.0%) in January 2011, which is identical to December’s static figure.
    This comes as figures released last week from retail stalwarts Woolworths, which owns the Dick Smith, said the electronics seller achieved sales increase of 6.5 percent, though margins suffered. Sales for Big W fell, however. 
    Harvey Norman showed sales revenue actually rose to $804.1m up from $715.6 in 2009, although profits were down 16.5 per cent.  
     

    Retailers across the board have blamed poor weather, the strong Australian dollar and a challenging environment in retail for the sliding profit margins.      

    CONFIRMED: Murdoch To Takeover Sky As UK Media Cries Monopoly

    Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has been given the go ahead to take over BSkyB by the UK government.

    However, there has been an outcry of protests from British MPs who are outraged his News Corp, who already has a stranglehold of British media interests, will now control one of the biggest broadcasters in the country.

    British culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt MP, who announced the decision yesterday, said the deal included safeguards ensuring editorial independence, which would limit the monopoly type effect many fear the buyout will bring, with Murdoch undertaking to establish Sky as an independent entity.  

    The decision to allows News Corp who already owns 39.1 per cent, purchase the remaining 60.9 per cent stake in the satallite broadcaster, will be followed by a period of consultation. 

    “I am consulting on proposed undertakings from News Corporation. Informed by advice from the regulators, I believe that these will address concerns about media plurality should the proposed News Corporation/BSkyB merger go ahead,” said Hunt. 

    Communications watchdog Ofcom pointed to the problems with media
    plurality a buyout would bring, in a report published last year. 
    However, the body gave their seal of approval to the deal following the
    undertaking by News. 

    “The process has been completely fair, completely impartial and completely above board,” he insisted. 

    The deal, said to be worth $14bn is the largest in News Corp history, and will also require approval from BSkyB shareholders who are seeking a higher bid than the GBP 700 pence per share offer currently on the table. 

    Opposition MPs, who are vociferous opponents to the takeover plan and
    their contempt for Australian born Murdoch, have called on Hunt to refer
    the case to the Competition Authority because “nobody believes these undertakings agreed to by Murdoch will be adhered to in the long term”.

    The decision marked a “disastrous day for democracy,” declared another fellow Labour MP.

    A fully owned News Corp owned BSkyB, (the giant currently owns 39.1 per cent) will be renamed Newsco and governed by an impartial board of directors, chairman and editorial committee who have no vested interests in the media powerhouse . 

    News Corp, who already owns The Times, The Sun, and the Wall Street Journal as well as holding various interests in Australian print and broadcast media including a 25 per cent stake in pay TV broadcaster Foxtel, means the decision may have implications here also. 

    BSkyB is also shareholder with the Seven Network and Nine Entertainment Company in Sky News Australia, one of Foxtel’s anchor stations. News Corp has pledged to forfeit ownership of its flagship news channel as part of the takeover deal.

    This week it also emerged Foxtel is in talks with regional pay TV player Austar, in what is rumoured to be a $2bn deal.

    And this decision from the UK has not been without controversy.

    Last year UK Business Secretary, Vince Cable, who rejected the idea of a News Corp takeover of Sky, after declaring “war”on the Murdoch empire, was quickly ejected from responsibility for the decision by Prime Minister David Cameron, with the Culture Secretary given the job. 

    British media are also furious at the decision by the Conservative MP,
    with a media alliance made up of other major players there including BT,
    Guardian Media Group, Associated Newspapers, Trinity Mirror,
    Northcliffe Media declaring:

     

     “We deeply regret the fact that the Secretary of State is minded to
    clear the deal. The proposed undertaking is pure window-dressing … We
    shall be vigorously contesting this whitewash of a proposal during the
    consultation period, as well examining all legal options.”

    Hunt was said to be a supporter of News Corp takeover as is his ruling Conservative party. 

    Telstra: From Service Nightmare To Personal Shoppers

    They used to be lambasted for their consumer service, or lack of it. But now Telstra have turned to personal shoppers, pledging to give consumers their “undivided service” when they come through their doors.Telstra is offering the “exciting” new personalised service for its Launceston store, where customers can “book an appointment online ahead of time and get personal, undivided service when they arrive in store”.

    This is part of the telco’s $1 billion makeover plan, Telstra New, its bid to win back customer support for its often loathed service.
     
    Initial customer feedback has been very positive, they said in a statement today.

    Personal shopping will enhance the customer’s shopping experience, says Telstra Manager for Northern Tasmania, Michael Patterson. 

    “Personal Shopping is a great in-store premium service we’re trialling. It’s designed to allow us to differentiate ourselves and provide better experiences for our customers,” Mr Patterson said.

    It will also provide customers with a more targeted, streamlined and convenient shopping experience, say the telco. 

    “There are also customers who prefer to talk to their partner or have a think about a purchase, so booking a personal shopping appointment means they can return to the store later and pick up right where they left off,” Mr Patterson said.

     

     “One of the advantages of personal shopping appointments is it gives stores the ability to manage traffic without damaging the customer experience,” he said.             

    The Telstra Shop in Launceston is located at Shop 3, 136-142 Brisbane St.

    Google Offer Free Sites To OZ Biz

    Internet powerhousemake a bid for Aussie businesses through new scheme.
    ‘Getting Aussie Business Online’ is a collaboration between the giant and software company MYOB, offering companies a free website and Australian domain for 2 years and other perks such as $75 for Google’s Ad words advertising service.

    It also offers advice and education for small operators seeking to gain online presence and are aiming to get 50,000 businesses online in the first year alone.

    The service will help with building pages with the help of a MYOB site map.

    “A website today is like a phone – every business needs one. If you don’t have one, now is the perfect time to Web Up,” the promo says.

    “We’re taking the time, hassle and cost out of getting a website so that you can get on with running your business.”

    The move will pose as a threat to domain hosting companies like Melbourne IT and Net Registry, given that it is offering services free of charge, initially. After two years a $30 fee will apply for services.

    Tim Reed, CEO of MYOB, said, “Our initial goal is to get at least 50,000 businesses set up with a free website this year. We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Google on this initiative.”

    The new online venture follows a similar project in the UK last year.

    Nine Sells Carsales.com Stake To Mystery Buyer

    Nine Entertainment’s equity owner CVC Asia Pacific sells its stake in online car seller.Nine subsidiary, ACP Magazines have just announced the sale of 49.1 per cent share in the car dealer by equity owner CVC, to a “broad range of sophisticated and institutional investors at $4.92 a share”, ACP Director Patrick O’Sullivan it said this morning in a statement. 

    The deal said to be worth $565 million could affect the timing of Nine’s $5bn IPO.

    Strong results from the online car dealer coupled with solid price performance were the driving factors in the sale, according to reports. 

    Shares in the company have spiked more than 50 per cent since 2009.  

    Nine chief David Gyngell and CVC’s Adrian MacKenzie as well as Graham Brooke have resigned from the board.   

    The sale was carried out by UBS AG, Australia.