The other day I was asked “Hey, Dave, you upgraded to WordPress 3.o yet?”
Kinda, I have most of my sites on WP 3.0. The newer ones were easy. Three of those were already on 3.0 Beta or 3.0 RC.
The small sites running 2.9.2 were a snap as well. I don’t know if I mentioned it earlier or not, but if you are running any kind of cache plugin you will want to de-active it before you upgrade. Since WPMU is now integrated into 3.0 there can be an issue with a cache plugin.
I found another this week while upgrading the Tucson Real Estate blog. It has quite a few plugins running and some special code in place to speed up page load times. Because of this I hesitated to run the upgrade till I had more than a few minutes to dedicate to it.
I can’t stress enough that you:
- Backup your Database
- Backup your wp-content directory
- Have a copy of 2.9.2 available to FTP back if needed
- Be prepared to restore your database from OUTSIDE WP itself
- Optional but recommended for this update (DE-Activate all Plugins)
I had all this in place when I pushed the button for auto upgrade. All except the De-active all plugings.
Yep, you guessed it. FATAL ERROR. BIG TIME.
I restored the DB and uploaded the 2.9.2 files back in place.
This time I de-activated all plugins except for a few that I needed to keep the theme functioning. And a couple I thought totally safe.
The upgrade was successful. Now I started activating plugins in groups. My second group brought back the Fatal Error. I deleted those plugins with FTP but to no avail. You guessed it. Restore all again.
This time it was one at a time re-activation.
NexGen Gallery Fatal Error
The NexGen Gallery plugin was the one. There wasn’t anything wrong with NexGen Gallery. There was an update to the plugin. But I hadn’t take the time to see if the upgrade was needed before the upgrade or after. It turned out to be before.
Once I deleted the nexgen gallery by FTP and refreshed I was able to get back to the admin panel. Using FTP I put the nexgen gallery plugin back into the plugin directory. Before activation I updated the plugin then activated. All was fine.
So I’ve found two ways to take a site into FATAL ERROR territory. (Not a fun place to go) But there was no panic. I knew I had all the files I needed and the knowledge to fix any issues that would arise. It is nice not to see FATAL ERROR and have your heart in your throat.
What about the Lab? No, it is still on 2.9.2. I have a lot of plugins active here at the Lab. I’m going to run a fresh backup of the database and files then de-activate all the plugins before hitting that auto upgrade button. I might get to it yet this weekend. When I do I’ll let you know.
Is it Safe to Upgrade to 3.0?
Yes, I think it is. This major upgrade was released on June 17th. We are at July 10 and there have been no bug fix releases. This is testimony to what a great job the WP community has done in getting 3.0 ready for release. Don’t cut corners and you should do fine. But I can’t stress enough de-activating plugins for this release. Especially if you have a lot of plugins running on your site. And when you turn them back on, do it one or two at a time.
It wasn’t 15 seconds later and the install was done including the new Twenty Ten default theme. Clean, fast and everything came up.
Leaping is best done with adequate provision for the landing not the jump
I’ve upgraded 4 blogs at this point. Last night, late, I pulled the plug and updated a couple of the kids. (The little kids, sorry to say, which are easier to sacrifice to progress) The kids were breathing easy and on their own last night.
If you have already installed 2.8 or 2.8.1 you will want to upgrade to 2.8.2. There is a vulnerability that can be exploited from the admin display. This is a bug fix you don’t want to ignore.
If you haven’t upgraded to 2.8 yet. Then there is probably no urgency. But if you are already there, take a second and do the auto upgrade.
I leave many of my blogs open to the admin panel on a tab or two in the browser through out the day. So closing this vulnerability is a wise thing to do.
If you want to read more about it on the Admin panel under “WordPress Development Blog” you will see the reasoning behind this new version.
I installed a new blog today and immediately upgraded to 2.8.1. Always easier to do on a new clean install. I didn’t really notice any difference till I went to the theme and plugin editor.
I have just begun checking out this latest version. But have already found enough going on I have to say WAIT a little while on this one before you activate.
Bottom Line, I like saying bottom line, Get Wordpress 2.7 installed on your blog. It will enrich your blogging experience. It is like trading in your sedan for a new sports car. The upgrade last night on my little lab rat went so well I not only upgraded the Lab but my Tucson blog as well. Now today I’m finding my way around anew since navigation iscompletely changed from any previous version. There are a lot more drop-down menus that ever before.
In the beginning, No not the one in Genesis, the beginning of the Lab. The Lab was the rat. It was where I tried everything out first, including new release versions of WordPress and all new plugins. It was the Lab. It was/is my hobby blog. If I lost it, no big deal, I still had the business blogs which were the important ones to keep all the content.
ReBlogWorld 2010
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.Yeah Right !
