But it's true. I have not given up and I do have a working program which I use for my own purposes. Unfortunately for you it's written in Python on Mint Linux and I have had problems getting it to compile as a stand-alone program on Windows or the Mac.
Mostly due to the dependencies of the modules I used to create the program in the first place. Yes Python is cross-platform and yes it is possible to create stand-alone programs with Python for each platform but for a non-trivial program it's quite difficult to get all environments to match each other and perform the same. Quite apart from the issues of getting the layout to look right on each platform.
Because of those problems I migrated the entire program to PureBasic and I have it working there as well.
PureBasic has the advantage of compiling to stand-alone on the Mac, Windows and Linux from essentially the same code. There are some minor issues with the different operating systems but they can be resolved with compiler options in the code itself as long as you don't use any of the OS specific functions for any platform.
I didn't release that version though because of the Brute Force hacking of WordPress sites which is still going on. Instead I wrote a tool to foil the hacker(s) who are behind this attack. You can find this tool, why it works and how to use it, free to use, at the http://wpmaintenancerobot.com website.
When I had completed that program I had a program to write for work to assist in a particular function which required 100% accuracy of data transfer. I wrote that one in Windows using Portable-Python so I could work on it at home as well as at work using the same platform, Python version, modules etc.
At home I currently run a MacBook Pro with Parallels so I can also run Windows 7 and Mint Linux all at the same time all doing different things. These days one screen is just not enough but that's what I have to work with at home at the moment. I have three screens at work which I like. Multiple desktops is excellent but not quite the same. Imagine multiple desktops on multiple screens...it would take a fair amount of discipline to keep that lot under control but I'd love to try.
Any way that project has now completed successfully and may never be used again as the contract we needed the tool for has been cancelled.
Now I need to incorporate the changes into the WordPress Maintenance Robot before you can have that one. I am hopeful that I can get this completed before the end of January 2015.
I'm thinking about how I market this program. I think every WordPress site owner should use this, it really does make those updates easier and faster. Yes I am aware that WordPress now does some of the updates on autopilot but not all and it doesn't update the plugins or themes for you.
Yes I do know that there are a number of other tools which will handle the updates for you and all of them either require you to add a plugin to the sites you want managed and/or are managed from an online dashboard somewhere that you don't control.
The WordPress Maintenance Robot is different in that it is a desktop tool. It lives on your computer and is a secure as your PC or Mac. You do not have to install a plugin to any WordPress site to make this work so you can do updates for other people if they give you the login details or even set you up with your own uniques login details.
The site access details are encrypted to a local database on your computer and are only used for site access as required. Backups are stored securely on the site they were made on and are only accessible from the link built into the PDF report.
You can get a PDF report for the backup activity and the update activity which you can email to a client if you are doing this as a service. I would suggest downloading their backups to your computer or other safe storage as a precaution as clients don't always do what you ask them to do.
Other backup tools mostly leave the zip file in a known location and with a known naming pattern. If I know the location and pattern I can get your backups with a bit of brute force testing. Once I have that your site is pwned and all your base are mine.
So, what is this functionality worth? Frankly it's probably worth a lot more than you are willing to pay until your site is taken down or compromised. I really would like everyone to be able to use this to protect themselves so my current thinking is that a single site will get full functionality for free.
More than one site will cost a monthly fee of $9.99 per site for up to 5 sites and then $6.99 per site for up to 10 sites and $3.99 per site for more than 10 sites. This is not fixed yet but it indicates where I'm thinking with this at the moment.
I'm also thinking about having a fully automated version so that all you would have to do is plug in your details and wait for the regular emails to tell you all is well, updates have been made and where to get the latest backup files.
I would welcome some feedback from you on this. In any case, all plans are subject to change with little or no notice.
