Backup your Coda Sites including FTP

Many web developers I know are now using the fantastic code editor software from Panic, Coda.

Personally, I find the site management and native SVN integration key to my rapid development process, whilst maintaining a user-friendly experience with the clean Cocoa interface and Clips library.

Whilst preparing for a machine refresh, I realised there must be a simple way of automatically creating a backup of all the Site details stored in Coda without having to recreate them on the other side. It turns out, it’s not too complicated.

All the Coda Sites and preferences are stored in a single place on your Mac (replace ~/ with /Users/(your username)/ for the full path):

~/Library/Preferences/com.panic.Coda.plist

I’ve now created an alias of the file and placed it in my Dropbox so all changes are automatically cloned online.

Leanda also asked how FTP details were saved. A quick Google found that all your Keychain passwords are stored in another local file:

~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Again, alias the file and drop it in your Dropbox.

The next time you need to recreate all your Coda sites (and recover all those Keychain passwords), simply copy these files back to your machine in the same locations with a few tweaks to recover the passwords:

1. Open the Keychain Access application in the Applications/Utilities
2. Select Edit > Keychain List
3. Click the + button to add another keychain
4. Select your original keychain file from your backup and hit OK

Voila, you’re done.

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility if this process does not work for you and all backups are lost. It’s just a suggestion and pointer to the necessary files to help improve your backup solution.