WordPress 2.5 Automatic Upgrade

WordPress Automatic Upgrade allows a user to automatically upgrade the wordpress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade instructions.

For those who are still looking forward to upgrading to WordPress 2.5 I like to share my experience upgrading from WordPress 2.3.3 to 2.5 on two blogs.

I decided to download and install the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin. Pretty easy to do and outlines for you how the upgrade process will work, along with a one click upgrade. I decided I didn’t like the one click solution and was pretty skeptical of using it. So I used the step by step option. Plus, I just like to know what the heck’s going on at each step of the upgrade.

If you look at the upgrade the steps are:

1. Backs up the files and makes available a link to download it.

Since I did this upgrade one step at a time after running the backup task, I downloaded the zip file containing the backup. When I opened the zip file using 7-Zip, the following folders with their files were:

1. public_html
2. wp-admin
3. wp-includes

I ran that in the root folder of where my blog is installed on my hosting account. That worked fine.

However, when I ran it on a subfolder where I have one subdomain I ended up with an empty zip file with no title. Maybe that was just my experience with a subdomain but I fired up FileZilla and backed up the following folders to my hard drive:

1. The root of the subdomain
2. wp-admin
3. wp-content
4. wp-includes

With that out of the way and feeling comfortable I moved on to step two by clicking on the link provided by the WordPress Automatic Upgrade which was…

2. Backs up the database and makes available a link to download it.

Again, this is part of my nightly routine by using the WordPress Database Backup plugin. I wasn’t too worried about this since I know it works and I’ve actually used it to restore. Which by the way wasn’t too bad but will require someone technical to do if you’re not too technically inclined.

3. Downloads the latest files from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzips it.

Clicking on step three worked perfectly. Like it says, it was downloaded and unzipped.

4. Puts the site in maintenance mode.

Clicking on the next step puts your blog in maintenance mode where a user who would see a short message on a blank web page that your site is having maintenance performed on it at the moment.

5. De-activates all active plugins and remembers it.

De-activating the plugins worked just fine as well. However, before I took this step I took a screenshot of all my plugins to make sure I did not miss a plugin at the end.

6. Upgrades wordpress files.

This step worked just fine. Nothing too complicated just click on the upgrade link and away you go.

7. Gives you a link that will open in a new window to upgrade installation.

Since the WordPress Automatic Upgrade runs in WordPress as a plugin this step keeps you in the old version while opening up a window to the new WordPress 2.5 version. After you’re done with this step you go back to the old window and finish up by doing…

8. Re-activates the plugins.

For some reason this didn’t work for me. None of my plugins were reactivated with both blogs. There is a final link for clean up and you’re done. Each step runs pretty quick so you’re literally done withing 5-10 miinutes. However, since I took the time to check each step it probably took 15-20 minutes.

I closed out the old WordPress and started working in the new WordPress 2.5. First thing I did was look at each plugin and activate the ones I knew I still needed and wanted. I left some of them de-activated because I wanted to do some further investigation on whether I still needed that particular plugin.

The plugin screen is nice because it lists each plugin along with a link to a newer version of the plugin if it exists. You can either investigate that link or there is a link that automatically upgrades your plugin. Very nice. I chose the automatic upgrade on all the plugins that needed upgrading. Everyone worked well except for one right now – Top Commentators plugin. There is a bit more work with that one.

So all in all the upgrade was a pretty darn good experience for me.

I have a couple domains that I haven’t setup before so I’m debating setting up a 2.3 WordPress and running through the upgrade process and recording it so I can provide a video on it. We’ll see.