how to backup a single project database and restore it?

[remkonoteboom]

Without resorting to using pg_dump or mysqldump, the best way to export the data is through a plugin, however it is not clear why you would use this instead of a database dump as this essentially does the same thing.  The advantage of a plugin is, of course, that you can load it into other projects.  We usually have create a number of different plugins for different purposes, although you can combine them into one if you wish:

1) Database structure plugin (or stypes plugin)
2) Configuration plugin
3) Data plugin

The contents of a plugin from the database are determined by the manifest file ($BASE_PLUGIN_DIR/manifest.xml) and it looks like the following:

This will export (and import) the structure of the asset and shot tables.

Code:

<manifest code="vfx_types">
  <search_type code="vfx/asset"/>
  <search_type code="vfx/shot"/>
</manifest>

This will export (and import) the contents of the asset and shot tables

Code:

<manifest code="vfx_data">
  <sobject search_type="vfx/asset"/>
  <sobject search_type="vfx/shot"/>
</manifest>

You could also export (and import) part of the table using expressions:

Code:

<manifest code="vfx_data">
  <sobject search_type="vfx/asset" expression="@SOBJECT(vfx/asset['category','character'])"/>
  <sobject search_type="sthpw/task" expression="@SOBJECT(sthpw/task['project_code','my_project'])">
</manifest>

The first line will export all assets with a category of character.  The second line will export all tasks with a project code of "my_project".