Easy Find and Replace lets you search, preview, and replace text across Joomla database tables with safety rails that raw SQL does not provide.

What you can do

• Find plain text, whole words, or regex patterns across core and third-party tables
• Run Preview Replace (Dry Run) with paginated before/after snippets
• Execute Replace with automatic cell snapshots for 1-click rollback
• Protect primary keys, passwords, tokens, sessions, and MFA tables
• Update JSON and serialized PHP values without breaking byte lengths

Built for modern Joomla

• Joomla 4.4+, 5, and 6
• PHP 8.1 or later
• Namespaced MVC component with Bootstrap 5 admin UI
• No jQuery

Before you install

• Joomla: 4.4 or later, 5.x, or 6.x
• PHP: 8.1 or newer
• Access: Super User (or equivalent) to install and run replacements
• Backup: take a full database backup before any live replace on production

Not required

• jQuery
• Command-line access

Step 1: Download

After purchase, download EasyFindReplace_UNZIP.zip from your email or the Downloads section.

Step 2: Unzip on your computer

1. Extract EasyFindReplace_UNZIP.zip.
2. Inside you should see:
   • pkg_easyfindreplace_*.zip (install this one)
   • ReadMe.txt

Step 3: Install in Joomla

1. System > Install > Extensions
2. Upload pkg_easyfindreplace_*.zip
3. System > Maintenance > Clear Cache

Open the component

1. Components > Easy Find & Replace

1. Open Components > Easy Find & Replace > Find & Replace.
2. Enter the search term (and optional replacement).
3. Choose a scope preset: Articles, Menus & Modules, All searchable tables, or Custom.
4. Click Find Matches or Preview Replace (Dry Run).
5. Review the progress summary and paginated preview table.
6. Only then click Execute Replace (a matching dry run is required by default).

Use Stop during a long scan to cancel. Interrupted jobs appear as Cancelled in History.

Always protected

• Primary key columns
• Password, token, secret, API key, and related columns
• Session, user_keys, user_mfa, webauthn_credentials, and similar tables
• Easy Find and Replace’s own history tables

Structured data

JSON objects/arrays and serialized PHP strings are decoded, updated, and re-encoded with correct lengths. Object hydration is disabled during unserialize.

Snapshots

Live replaces store original cell values first. If a snapshot cannot be saved, the replace for that row is aborted (fail closed).

1. Open Components > Easy Find & Replace > History & Rollback.
2. Open a completed replace job.
3. Review snapshot items, then click Rollback.
4. Conflicts are reported when a cell changed again after the original replace.

Search and dry-run jobs are kept for audit. They do not create restore snapshots.

Open Components > Easy Find & Replace > Configuration (in-component screen, not global Options alone).

General

• Batch size, maximum preview rows, JSON/serialized handling, batch timeout

Safety & Protection

• Core protected columns, custom column blacklist, allow regex, require dry run first

Snapshots & Retention

• Enable snapshots and retention days for old snapshot items

Permissions

• Search, Replace, and Rollback privileges plus standard component ACL

• Preview only shows part of the matches

  • Raise Maximum Previews in Configuration, then re-run the dry run. Use pagination in the preview footer.

• Execute Replace is blocked

  • Complete a matching Preview (Dry Run) first, or disable Require dry run first in Configuration.

• A table is missing from the list

  • It may lack a single primary key, have no text columns, or be on the safety exclusion list.

• Jobs stuck as Running

  • Refresh History. Abandoned jobs older than a few minutes auto-close as Cancelled. Prefer Stop instead of closing the tab mid-scan.

• All-tables scan is slow

  • Use a narrower scope preset, lower batch size if the host is tight on memory, or raise timeout per batch if PHP cuts out early.

Need help? Open a ticket at support.joomlax.com.

Please include:

• Joomla and PHP versions
• Whether you used Find, Dry Run, or Replace
• Table scope and a sample search term (no secrets)
• Any error message from the progress card or History status