Upgrading WordPress Blog: 4 Steps Guide to Pain Free Experience

WordPress blog system is one of the most widely used and also one of the most customizable platforms. But as with any script it requires frequent upgrades to stay secure and make your bloggin experience not only rewarding but also worry free. It especially applies to security updates as sometimes fixes come out after exploit is already in "the wild" as is the case with latest WordPress 2.2.1 updates.

So how do you upgrade you blog platform without loosing all the custom settings and perhaps most importantly without loosing your visitors. A failed upgrade can cost you a few hours of downtime to fully restore you settings and if you rely on your blog as source of income - this can get expensive. So doing your homework will do you good to prevent the troubles.

Step One: Make absolutely sure you read and know all the steps as they are outlined in official WordPress upgrade guide. I highly recommend using the Detailed Upgrade instruction as all the basic steps clearly outlined there.

And although I have found that not all these steps are required when you are doing upgrade to a minor version such as from 2.2 to 2.2.1 - going from one major version to another I wouldn't attempt to skip any. Do it for the piece of mind if nothing else.

Step Two: Make sure your theme is compatible with new version. Visit the author's page if necessary and use feedback form if available and there is not active support discussion on your theme. If no website provided there is one more place you might want to look in - style.css file in your theme. Every author leaves details in that file and what you find there might far exceed what is available on wordpress.org themes site. Many times additional information about author can help you locate him and ask for support if you really have to have that theme.

Every major revision of WordPress generally introduces new functionality and many of the old themes will simply not function properly or will fail to take advantage of new functionality, as was the case with WordPress 2.2, which came out with widgets integrated in the core.

If you find that your theme is going to be a problem spot it might be well worth looking into replacing it. Options are limitless and it gives you an opportunity to refresh the site's look and take full advantage of new functionality that became available. After all the look and general feel of your site is what creates first impression. Deliver the impression of outdated blog and no matter how good your content is - you will loose many potential readers.

Step Three: Revisit author's page for every plugin you have installed. In my personal experience good programmers release frequent updates to match the new functionality of the core system. If new version is available - download it and have it ready for install. I usually do it right after core system update and before activating that specific plugin. It also gives me a chance to revisit detailed description for the plugin and perhaps find a new and more creative way of implementing it on my blog.

But if you run into situation that plugin is incompatible but supported - leave it deactivated and check the author's support page from time to time or subscribe to his rss feed to get notification when new version is available.

Any unsupported plugins should be dropped like a rock! Not only do they introduce incompatibility issues but also possible security holes that simply are not documented. Avoid these like a plague or you will be taking chance of been hacked by some opportunistic kid.

Step Four: Once you have reviewed all the little details and outlined all the steps you will need to take to upgrade you WordPress blog to new version you have one small thing to take care off. I have found one undocumented issue that I would like to share.

If you are using wp-caching mechanism via wp-config.php file, make sure to disable it and delete all files from cache directory. Once finished - you can begin upgrade. Make sure to follow the official guide and your personal outlined steps.

A key to painless WordPress upgrade is preparation and planning. When you know exactly what you are facing and what steps you need to take, process becomes a simple matter of following these steps. And not only do you create for yourself a more secure and "hip" bloggin platform, in tune with latest developments, but you also get a chance to re-evaluate usage of plugins and perhaps refresh the look your blog.